The White House defended discrepancies between its assessment of the Kremlin threat to Ukraine and the Ukrainian government’s own beliefs about the prospect of Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering troops to cross the countries’ shared border.
“We’re pursuing a two-track approach, which includes deterrence and diplomacy,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. “We are ready either way for whatever decision President Putin might make.”
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Being prepared includes working with NATO allies and Eastern European partners, according to Psaki. With Ukraine particularly, the United States is providing humanitarian and security assistance, she said.
“That is what we’re focused on. So we don’t actually see it as a conflict,” she added.
Declining to offer a new assessment, Psaki repeated that diplomacy is Biden’s preferred option. And she stood by the White House’s decision last week to claim that Russia is considering producing a graphic video of a staged attack on Russian people or assets as a pretext for invading Ukraine.
“We are closely watching the buildup of troops on the border,” she said. “A number of your news organizations, of course, have reporters near there who are seeing the truth.”
The White House distanced itself last week from its own assessment that a Russian incursion was “imminent.” But national security adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated during a weekend interview that one could occur “any day now.”
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Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, responded that he and his colleagues believe a diplomatic solution is the most likely outcome.
“An honest assessment of the situation suggests that the chance of finding a diplomatic solution for de-escalation is still substantially higher than the threat of further escalation,” he said in an interview.
