Biden says he’ll make it ‘very difficult’ for Russia to attack Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden said that he is prepared to “make it very, very difficult” for Russia to launch an attack against Ukraine, while the concerns in the West are growing over Russian intensions following a military deployment near the border with Ukraine.

Biden’s warning comes on the day Washington and Moscow confirmed the two presidents are expected to hold a video call in the coming days.

“What I am doing is putting together what I believe to be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he’s going to do,” Biden told reporters.

The president said his administration was in “constant contact” with Ukraine and European allies about the situation, following weeks of reports Russian troops, tanks, and heavy weaponry were deployed near the Ukrainian border.

A report in The Washington Post on December 3, citing a U.S. official and an unclassified intelligence document, said Russia could be planning a multifront offensive involving up to 175,000 troops as soon as early next year.

Earlier on December 3, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told lawmakers that the country’s intelligence had assessed that the “likelihood of large-scale escalation by Russia exists.”

“The most likely time to reach readiness for escalation will be the end of January,” Reznikov said.

While Ukraine has estimated that around 95,000 Russian troops are currently near its borders, the U.S. intelligence assessment put the current number at 70,000 but predicted a potentially higher buildup.

“The plans involve extensive movement of 100 battalion tactical groups with an estimated 175,000 personnel, along with armor, artillery and equipment,” an administration official told The Washington Post.

Moscow blames Ukraine and its Western backers for fanning recent tensions, pointing to what it says is a similar Ukrainian military buildup and a failure by Kyiv to meet its commitments under the Minsk agreements aimed at putting an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Putin reiterated Russia had “red lines” about any prospective NATO membership for Ukraine, and raised concerns about Western weapon supplies to Kyiv and military drills in the Black Sea.

Washington has rejected Russia’s ultimatums about weapon supplies and Ukraine one day joining NATO, but the issue is likely to dominate discussions between Biden and Putin.

“I don’t accept anyone’s red line,” the U.S. president said.

At a NATO ministerial in Latvia on December 1, Secretary of State Antony Blinken threatened “a range of high-impact economic measures that we’ve refrained from using in the past.” He did not specify what sanctions were being weighed, but one potential could be to cut off Russia from the SWIFT system of international payments, a move that would be devastating to the Russian financial system.