“This is a pattern that we have seen in President Putin throughout this conflict, which is the fabrication of non-existent threats in order to justify further aggression,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on ABC television when asked about the Moscow announcement.
“Neither has Russia been threatened by NATO, nor has it been by Ukraine,” Psaki told ABC’s “This Week.”
“This is all a pattern that comes from President Putin and we will counter it. We have the ability to defend ourselves, but we also need to reveal what we see here from President Putin,” Psaki said.
The spokeswoman noted that the United States is open to providing more aid to Ukraine, and has not yet ruled out imposing sanctions on the Russian energy sector.
“We have not ruled out those options, but we also want to do so, and we are sure to minimize the impact on global markets and do it in a unified way,” she said.
For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that President Vladimir Putin’s move to put Russian forces on high alert is a “dangerous and irresponsible matter” adding to the Russian leader’s aggressive pattern with regard to Ukraine.
He told CNN, “This is dangerous rhetoric. This is irresponsible behaviour. And of course when you link this rhetoric with what they are doing on the ground in Ukraine, launching a war on an independent, sovereign state and a full-blown invasion of it, it makes the situation even more dangerous. “.
Russian feast
The White House’s response comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced, on Sunday, the status of the “deterrence force” in the Russian army, an expression that could include a nuclear component on alert, amid the intensification of fighting in Ukraine, which is engulfed by his army, and the level of tension with the West rises to unprecedented levels. .
“I have ordered the Defense Ministry and the Chief of Staff to put the deterrent forces of the Russian army on special combat readiness,” Putin said during a meeting with his military commanders, reported by AFP. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu replied: “Understandable.”
Putin accused the West of taking “unfriendly” steps towards his country on the fourth day of the Ukraine war.
Putin justified his decision by condemning the “aggressive statements of NATO” towards Russia, and criticized the “illegal” economic sanctions, in his view, imposed by the West on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.