National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during Tuesday's press conference at the White House. Patrick Semansky (AP)
Two days after the president of the United States, Joe Biden, travels to Europe this Thursday to address in Brussels the responses that are being carried out in the face of the unjustified attack by Russia against Ukraine, the White House has announced that it will announce, together with its allies, new sanctions against the Kremlin.
Although he did not want to go into details or specify the new nature of the punishments, the National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, assured this Tuesday that it will be "an additional package" that will materialize in "a joint effort to end the evasion of sanctions” by any country that helps Russia “undermine, weaken or circumvent” those penalties.
In Brussels, Biden will participate on Thursday in an extraordinary NATO summit, which will include French President Emmanuel Macron;
the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi.
British
Prime
Minister Boris Johnson will be the only one of the allies who will not be present.
The Democratic president, who is attending as a guest, will also attend a meeting of the G-7.
On Friday and Saturday he will travel to Poland, where he will have a brief meeting with his counterpart, Andrzej Duda.
The usual White House press conference in which Sullivan appeared was held this Tuesday by the deputy press secretary, Chris Meagher, who replaced Jen Psaki, since she has tested positive for coronavirus in the test that was performed. this morning ahead of the trip to Europe.
Biden tested negative, both on Monday and this Tuesday.
The National Security Adviser let reporters know that the war in Ukraine will not end easily or quickly.
“Hard days lie ahead” for the Ukrainian population, Sullivan warned.
Today, in preparation for travel to Europe, I took a PCR test this morning.
That test came back positive, which means I will be adhering to CDC guidance and no longer be traveling on the President's trip to Europe.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) March 22, 2022
This Thursday marks a month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and the fear of the use of chemical and biological weapons by Russia has been present since the White House sounded all the alarms on March 9 by warning that Vladimir Putin could make use of them.
Biden repeated again on Monday night the existence of such a threat.
The Democrat considered that it was something "obvious" and that, if it occurred, the response from the West would be very harsh.
“He is cornered,” Biden said in reference to Putin.
It was Moscow that propagandistically spread information, described as "false" by the US government, about the existence of alleged US laboratories of this type of weaponry in Ukraine.
“He is also suggesting that Ukraine has chemical and biological weapons in the country.
That is a clear sign that he [Putin] is considering using both types of weapons,” Biden stressed.
The US president emphasized once again that the consequences would be "very serious on the part of the united front of NATO" if that were to happen, although he did not specify what actions the Atlantic Alliance would carry out.
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