And he said Biden “We have reason to believe that Russian forces are planning and intending to attack Ukraine next week, in the coming days,” he said, adding that the United States believed Russia would target the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
US warning: Russia will turn into a pariah state
A senior White House official warned Friday that the sanctions that the United States and its partners would impose on Moscow if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine would make Russia a “pariah” state.
Russia “will become a pariah state for the international community. It will be cut off from international financial markets and deprived of the most advanced technological inputs,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Dalip Singh told reporters.
The US official stressed that the sanctions that his country intends to impose on Russia if it invades its pro-Western neighbor were prepared in a “responsible” manner in order to “avoid targeting the Russian people and limit its collateral damage to the United States and the global economy.”
Singh explained that these sanctions “will expose Russia to the risk of large capital flight, increased pressure on its currency, a rise in inflation rates, high borrowing costs, an economic downturn, and the erosion of its productive capacity.”
The US official stressed that his country is “ready” if Russia tries to use energy resources as a “weapon” and as a means of pressure.
“We have taken measures (…) to coordinate with the largest energy consumers and producers to ensure that we have uninterrupted energy supplies and stable energy markets,” he said.
Washington has previously confirmed that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which links Russia to Germany by sea, will not start operating if Ukraine is invaded.
During the same press conference, Anne Neuberger, the White House adviser on hacking operations, said, “We see that the Russian state is responsible for the cyber attacks that targeted Ukrainian banks this week,” as tensions with Moscow reached a climax in the crisis over Ukraine.