President Joe Biden couldn’t escape questions about Russia during a trip to a Washington, DC gift shop on Tuesday, where he picked up a present for his VP, Kamala Harris.
The Commander-in-Chief made the visit just as the world holds its breath over the deepening Ukrainian crisis, one which still threatens to spiral out of control.
From the setting of the gift shop, Mr Biden warned of the consequences that Russia would face if the state does indeed invade Ukraine as many analysts and experts are predicting.
Just last month, a US intelligence report suggested that the Kremlin, under the ever-watchful eye of President Vladimir Putin, could attempt to orchestrate a series of false flag attacks in Ukraine as a pretence for a future invasion of the sovereign state.
In response, Mr Biden reiterated that America’s reaction would be swift and emphatic if they did launch such an operation.
“There would be enormous consequences if he were to go in and invade, as he could,” Mr Biden warned. “If we were to move in with all those forces, it would be the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world.”
“It would be severe consequences including significant economic consequences,” he added.
“I’d feel obliged to beef up our presence, NATO’s presence, on the eastern front,” Biden said, with Russia having amassed more than 100,000 of its own troops on the borders surrounding Ukraine.
That remark came hot on the heels of Pentagon spokesman John Kirby telling CNN he would “not rule out the possibility that we could be putting additional forces on heightened alert in the coming days and weeks”.
The Ukrainian crisis has been an unwanted distraction for the Biden administration, which is already reeling after a series of domestic setbacks.
Tuesday’s photo opportunity at the Honey Made store in DC comes as the president’s approval rating drops to just 39 per cent in a new poll.
Nevertheless, he did at least manage to pick up a mug for Ms Harris during his trip, as well as a sweatshirt for his grandson, The Mail reports. As far as his rhetoric on the Ukrainian issue goes, the US will continue to nervously await Russia’s next – potentially decisive – move.
