President Joe Biden echoed his defense secretary’s warnings in a public address this week, emphasizing that without Congress approving $64 billion in aid to Ukraine, American troops could end up fighting Russia in Europe.
“This cannot wait. Congress needs to pass supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess. It’s as simple as that,” Biden began.
He accused skeptical Republicans in Congress of being “willing to give Putin the greatest gift he could hope for and abandon our global leadership not just to Ukraine, but beyond that.”
Biden asserted that Putin has committed atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, with Russian forces engaging in war crimes: “It’s as simple as that. It’s stunning. Who is prepared to walk away from holding Putin accountable for this behavior? Who among us is really prepared to do that?”
He warned that if Putin succeeds in taking Ukraine, “he’s going to keep going.”
“If he keeps going and then he attacks a NATO Ally — well, we’ve committed as a NATO member that we’d defend every inch of NATO territory — then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops,” he said.