Vice President Biden gives stern warning to Russia
During a visit to Ukraine, Vice President Joe Biden warned Russia that it must follow through on a diplomatic deal and that it must actually try to de-escalate the tensions it has with Ukraine.
“It’s time for Russia to stop talking and start acting,” Biden said at a press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Biden said that Russia must pull its troops from the Ukrainian border and order pro-Russian groups to return government buildings that they seized in the eastern part of Ukraine.
“We need to see these… steps and we need to see them without delay. We will not allow this to be an open-ended process,” continued Biden.
The Washington Examiner reports, “A diplomatic deal between the two countries, the U.S. and European Union has failed to decrease tensions with Russian separatists saying they are not bound by the accord and Moscow accusing Kyiv of not honoring the deal. The Obama administration, though, has placed the blame for the crisis squarely on the Kremlin and warned of further sanctions if Russia does not take steps to defuse the situation.”
Vice President Biden also said that the U.S. is committed to helping Ukraine out financially. The White House recently announced that an additional $50 million would be sent to Kyiv to help implement political and economic reforms.
Biden also said that Ukraine “must remain one country.”
“No nation has the right to simply grab land from another nation, no nation has that right,” said Biden, vowing that the United States would “never recognize Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea and neither will the world.”
So far Russia has done little to deescalate the situation in Ukraine, as it has not moved its troops away from the border of the country and has not encouraged the pro-Russian militants from laying down their arms.
Conversely, the Obama administration has proven to be quite ineffective in its efforts to counter Russia’s foreign policy belligerence. Putin has shrugged off all threats thrown at him by the White House and the State Department, and targeted sanctions have done little to impact the conflict.
Threats that the U.S. will push more sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials complicit in Russia’s illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea will most likely fail to reverse the current course of actions playing out in the region.