President Joe Biden’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was actually robust last week. Unfortunately, Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been weak.

Biden is unwilling to sanction the crown jewel of the Russian economy: its energy industry. Biden also unnecessarily delayed imposing sanctions against Putin’s person. He only did so after receiving pressure from Congress and seeing the European Union move to sanction Putin. The president is also taking too hesitant a stance in pressuring the Europeans to get on board with isolating Russia from the SWIFT financial transaction system. But with Russian tanks inside Kyiv and Putin’s onslaught against the Ukrainian people escalating with new war crimes, Biden faces a defining choice: a choice of whether or not to support and arm a Ukrainian insurgency against Russian invaders.