As expected, President Joe Biden unveiled on Thursday even more severe economic sanctions against Russia hours after Vladimir Putin unleashed his armies on Ukraine.
“Putin is the aggressor,” Biden said during a press conference in the White House’s East Room on Feb. 24. “Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences.”
Russian troops began their invasion of Ukraine early Thursday morning local time, hitting the sovereign nation from three different sides with a barrage of tanks, artillery and missiles. Though Putin called it a “special military operation” to protect the breakaway Donbass region over baseless claims of genocide there, the United States and its allies say it appears Putin’s looking to topple the democratic Ukrainian government and impose an autocracy more friendly to him.