White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not directly answer a question during Friday’s briefing about President Joe Biden’s potential use of military forces to conduct rescue missions for Americans trapped in Ukraine.
Biden has repeatedly stated that he would not send U.S. forces into Ukraine to fight off the Russian invasion, though he announced earlier on Friday that the United States will deploy additional troops to bolster defenses on NATO’s eastern flank.
NATO RESPONSE FORCE DEPLOYED FOR FIRST TIME IN RESPONSE TO RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
The administration came under harsh criticism for its handling of Americans and allies left behind at the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan.
Pressed on what the U.S. is “doing about Americans who are still left in Ukraine,” Psaki reminded the room that “we have been warning for months now about the dire circumstances developing in Ukraine and conveying very directly to American citizens they should leave.”
“We have also been in touch, from the State Department, with every American we can reach,” she continued. “We continue to have the capacity to, you know, help them in a range of ways even as we don’t have a diplomatic presence in Ukraine in this.”
Psaki added that U.S. officials are still conducting normal operations in neighboring countries but referred all additional inquiries on the subject to the State Department.
Earlier in the briefing, Psaki confirmed reports that the U.S. would join European allies in sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, a major escalation of the U.S.’s retaliatory measures against Russia. Putin will join a list that includes North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Syria’s Bashar Assad.
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You can watch Friday’s entire briefing below.
