White House press secretary Jen Psaki was candid about the limitations of President Joe Biden’s ability to intervene in the Russia-Ukraine war as the civilian death toll mounts.
“This is barbaric. It’s horrific to watch,” Psaki told reporters Monday. “You have 1.5 million, if not more, refugees crossing the border. You have mothers and children dead on the side of the road. This is heart-wrenching to watch.”
Recommended Stories
UKRAINIAN REFUGEE CRISIS COULD BECOME BIDEN’S NEXT POLITICAL PROBLEM
Biden has also been personally affected by images and video shared, sometimes in real time, from the conflict zone, according to Psaki.
“It’s really moved people in this country, and the president is absolutely a citizen of the United States, the leader of the free world, but also somebody who has enormous empathy for the plight of other human beings,” she said.
But Psaki stood by Biden’s decision not to deploy U.S. troops directly to Ukraine as Russian forces work to encircle Kyiv, the capital, and other strategic cities after seizing Kherson in the country’s south.
“That is what you have to weigh as president of the United States,” she said. “What he is doing is continuing to take every step to provide them security assistance and $1 billion of security assistance that has been expedited.”
Psaki similarly touted Biden’s leadership in rallying the world around harsher economic sanctions against Russia, President Vladimir Putin, and his inner circle of oligarchs, though the president has preferred to let Europe announce their measures first.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“This is going to be, continue to be, a very, very difficult period of time,” she said. “The Ukrainians are fighting bravely. We’re standing by them and supporting them. But Russia is, you know, they are going to continue to fight. They are going to continue to pursue what President Putin’s ambition is.”
