Biden to announce new U.S. sanctions on Russia while in Europe for NATO, EU meetings – National

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to announce new sanctions in opposition to Russia on Thursday whereas in Brussels for conferences with NATO and European allies, in keeping with a high nationwide safety aide.

Biden, who will participate in a particular assembly of NATO and handle the European Council summit, can be anticipated to underscore efforts to implement the avalanche of current sanctions already introduced by the U.S. and allies.

“He’ll be a part of our companions in imposing additional sanctions on Russia and tightening the present sanctions to crack down on evasion and to make sure sturdy enforcement,” mentioned White Home nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan, who declined to additional preview new sanctions the president will announce.

Biden is touring to Brussels and Poland — which has obtained greater than 2 million Ukrainian refugees who’ve fled for the reason that Feb. 24 invasion — seeking to press for continued unity amongst Western allies as Russia presses on with its brutal invasion of Ukraine.

In Poland, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who has requested additional U.S. help and a stepped up army presence on NATO’s jap flank because the battle grinds on. The U.S. has already greater than doubled its common troop presence of greater than 4,000 U.S. troops. Presently, there are about 10,000 U.S. troops in Poland.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania have additionally referred to as for a larger NATO or U.S. army presence in current weeks.

Sullivan prompt that could possibly be coming quickly as Biden plans to have talks “on long run changes to NATO drive posture on the jap flank.”

“We really feel that it’s the proper place for him to go to have the ability to see troops, to have the ability to see humanitarian specialists and to have the ability to meet with a frontline and really susceptible ally,” Sullivan mentioned of Biden’s go to to Poland.

Talks on troop changes are already underway.

Final week, at NATO’s Brussels headquarters, U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterparts weighed what defenses to arrange on the group’s jap flank, from Estonia within the north by means of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all the way down to Bulgaria and Romania on the Black Sea.

The goal is to discourage President Vladimir Putin from ordering an invasion of any of the 30 allies; not simply in the course of this battle however for the subsequent 5-10 years. Earlier than launching it, Putin had demanded that NATO cease increasing and withdraw its forces from the east. The alternative is occurring.

In simply the previous two months, the U.S. presence in Europe has jumped from about 80,000 troops to about 100,000, which is sort of as many as had been there in 1997 when the USA and its NATO allies started an growth of the alliance that Putin says threatens Russia and should be reversed. By comparability, in 1991, the yr the Soviet Union dissolved, the USA had 305,000 troops in Europe, together with 224,000 in Germany alone, in keeping with Pentagon data. The quantity then dropped steadily, reaching 101,000 in 2005 and about 64,000 as lately as 2020.

Biden and NATO have mentioned repeatedly that whereas the U.S. and NATO will present weapons and different defensive help to non-NATO member Ukraine, they’re decided to keep away from any escalation on behalf of Kyiv that dangers a broader battle with Russia.

Polish leaders have referred to as for a Western peacekeeping mission to intervene in Ukraine, a step that the U.S. and different allies fear may result in a broadening of the battle.

Sullivan added that Biden will even “announce joint motion on enhancing European power safety and lowering Europe’s dependence on Russian fuel.”

Related Press writers Robert Burns and Colleen Lengthy in Washington, and Lorne Cook dinner in Brussels contributed.