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THE UNITED STATES has warned Moscow of damaging sanctions, including measures personally targeting Vladimir Putin, if it moves ahead with an invasion of Ukraine, as Russian combat troops massing around the pro-Western country launched new exercises.
Tensions appear to be increasing, with the White House saying the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine “remains imminent”.
Warning that such a move would prompt “enormous consequences” and even “change the world”, US President Joe Biden said he would consider adding direct sanctions on Putin to a raft of measures being drawn up.
“Yes. I would see that,” Biden said when asked by reporters in Washington about targeting the Russian president, whom opponents have long accused of holding gigantic, secret wealth.
A senior US official laid out economic sanctions “with massive consequences” that go far beyond previous measures implemented in 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimea region.
New measures would include restrictions on exports of high-tech US equipment in the artificial intelligence, quantum computing and aerospace sectors, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
“What we’re talking about are sophisticated technologies that we design and produce,” and cutting them off would hit Putin’s “strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy quite hard,” the official said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed the threat, saying sanctions would be “heavier than anything we’ve ever done”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would talk by telephone with Putin on Friday, seeking “clarification” on Moscow’s intentions.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday described the situation between Russia and Ukraine as “serious”, as he confirmed that Irish people are now advised to avoid non-essential travel to Ukraine.
Speaking in the Dáil, Martin said Ireland was “not politically neutral but militarily neutral” and that Russia’s massing of troops on the border with Ukraine was not justified.
Martin said that Ireland stands for “a rules-based international order”.
A day after Washington said it was putting 8,500 US troops on alert for possible deployment to bolster NATO forces in Europe, the Russian military announced it was conducting new drills involving 6,000 troops near Ukraine and within the Crimea region.
The drills included firing exercises with fighter jets, bombers, anti-aircraft systems and ships from the Black Sea and Caspian fleets, the defense ministry said.
According to Western officials, the Kremlin has already deployed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, with reinforcements arriving from all over Russia.
“We continue to watch the accumulation of significant combat power,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Washington also warned Russia ally Belarus that its authoritarian government would “face a swift and decisive response” if it helps Moscow invade Ukraine.
“If an invasion were to proceed from Belarus, if Russian troops were to permanently station on their territory, NATO could well have to reassess our own force posture in the countries that border Belarus,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
The United States and its EU allies accuse Russia of seeking to upend European stability by threatening an invasion of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic striving to join NATO and other Western institutions.
Moscow denies plans to invade the country, where in addition to seizing Crimea, it backs separatist forces in the east.
Russia instead blames the West for the tension and has put forward a list of demands, including a guarantee that Ukraine never join NATO and that NATO forces already in the former Soviet bloc pull back.
Energy threats
The senior US official said “contingency” plans were being drawn up to get Europe through the winter in case Russia moves to squeeze energy supplies.
The White House announced Tuesday Biden would meet with the emir of gas-rich Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on 31 January to discuss, among other issues, “ensuring the stability of global energy supplies”.
Washington and its European allies are scouring global markets for alternative energy sources, even as Europe already struggles with soaring mid-winter energy prices.
“If Russia decides to weaponize its supply of natural gas or crude oil, it wouldn’t be without consequences to the Russian economy,” the US official told reporters.
Although the European Union sources about 40 percent of its supply from Russia, Moscow also relies heavily on sales of energy, meaning “it’s an interdependency,” the official said.
Negotiating attempts
Negotiations this month have failed to ease tensions, though Washington and Moscow have agreed to keep talking.
In addition to the Macron-Putin talks, the French government said Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet, along with French and German counterparts, in Paris next week.
Washington has promised written answers to Moscow’s demands this week, while already making clear that it rejects giving Russia a veto on Ukraine joining NATO.
But the crisis has laid bare divisions in the West.
The new government in Germany has faced criticism from Kyiv over its refusal to send defensive weapons to Ukraine, as well as hesitating over one of the harshest economic sanctions under discussion — cutting Moscow from the global SWIFT payments system.
Ukraine’s military is heavily outgunned by Russia, and Biden repeated that he has “no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine”.
However, the United States has stepped up deliveries of weapons.
At a ceremony for the latest shipment arriving in Kyiv, US charge d’affaires Kristina Kvien said “our preference is diplomacy”.
But in case of attack by Russia, “the Kremlin will face fierce resistance, the losses to Russia will be heavy”.
A bit of competition is good once it’s honest and there’s no jolleys, stroking, brown envelopes or trips to the red light district
Don’t care who builds it, once the ultimate cost is what was agreed at the start and it represents best value for money and can actually do everything that we need in an MRV.
@Peter: absolutely correct. The bigger ptoblen is managing to crew these ships given the pathetic funding of the navy and the army
. dont care who builds it but no the UK, when your out, your out.
@Spud Geshletter: let’s hope they don’t have the same stupid attitude as you, we will be broke overnight.
@Tipper Irie: How do you like a freezing cold and dark winter? 75% of our gas comes from Scotland!
@Tipper Irie: please explain??
This is gona be an interesting one. The Brits will probably bend over backwards for these kind of contracts now to prove Brexit works. Might mean a better price, but there will be a lot of pressure on the government from EU partners to not go with the Brits for this. Especially a defence contract. I’m sure there are plenty of other shipyards around Europe that could also build the ship. I wonder will the EU intervene to make sure that EU defense spending stays as much as possible within the EU. Which will be tough seen as the Brits have such a massive arms industry.
@bazhealy: We should source the ships with the EU Single Market and as Northern Ireland is still in the EU Single Market we should source the ships in Harland and Wolf in Belfast.
@Roger Bond: You’d be lucky to get a barge out of H&W.
@Roger Bond: hm no…
@Billybutcher: hm maybe, although it has been used recently mainly for service I read on 25/11 that H&W has been appointed as the prefered bidder to deliver three crucial support ships to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Who will staff it?? The Naval service is on it’s knees.
@Richard Griffin: We can recruit naval personnel from other countries like the Philippines or China.
And its also past time Ireland grew up and provided its own proper air defences and stop running to the RAF everytime an incident accurs because we dont have the capability,without a comprehensive radar tracking system anyone can invade our airspace at will and we have to depend on the Brits for information whats happening in our own country,the excuse usually given is because we are neutral sounds demeaning and ridiculous because we can even defend our own neutrality.
Didn’t know the UK had any shipyards left.
@Ken Miles: they,’ve got s few ,who do you think built the new aircraft carriers?
@Ken Miles: You obvously are misinformed who do you think built the latest Ships for the Irish navy,yep the Brits did only problem now we can’t get the personel to crew them.
@Ken Miles: there is a famous ship yard only up the road in Belfast
@Kevin Carroll: Excellent point. At least we would keep the money on the island.
@Kevin Carroll: Yes there is. Tyneside shipyards closed to keep Belfast in work.
@Ken Miles: There is one just up the road in Belfast and it would be a kind gesture to get the ships built there like before.
As a member of the EU all contracts should be given to eu countries not a country outside eu
They’ve probably wat he’d the childrens hospital and locked their lips at the clown show.
Candy off a baby..
That’s easy then, Trieste in Italy it is, the only EU one of the top 10 largest shipbuilding companies, coming in @ #9.
We should be looking further afield for contracts like this..The best value for money can be found in China or South Korea..
have your say