With as many as 100,000 Russian troops at the Russia-Ukraine border, President Joe Biden assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the weekend that the “United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
Biden’s strategy is wrongheaded and dangerous. He should not wait to see whether Russia invades Ukraine before taking action. He should act now.
Russia’s threats to the Eastern European nation demand that Biden consider sanctioning every aspect of Russia’s military, energy, financial, and other sectors. That would mean sanctioning Nord Stream 2 instead of giving Russia a pass, which Biden has done (all while killing the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S.). Nord Stream 2’s goal is to blackmail Eastern Europe and Germany by making Berlin subject to Moscow’s policies in exchange for the oil.
Russia should also lose access to the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication network, or SWIFT, given Moscow’s oligarchy and Russia’s financial support for terrorist groups including Hezbollah. On that count, the U.S. should consider putting Russia on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. That would trigger penalties for those who engage in trade with Russia.
The U.S. should push to have NATO include Ukraine in the alliance. Unlike Turkey, Ukraine is interested in protecting the West and its values. NATO forces, including U.S. troops, should be at the Ukraine-Russia border to deter any Russian military action. Sending U.S. troops to train Ukrainian forces is simply not enough. The Biden administration should continue to give lethal assistance to Ukraine.
Words matter, but actions matter more. Were the aforementioned actions to be taken, it would send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. will not stand by and wait to take action only after the fact and when it is too late. Being preventive, not reactive, is the recipe for success in protecting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Jackson Richman is a journalist in Washington, D.C. Follow him @jacksonrichman.
