The United States will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the country's parliament and the central bank's gold reserves, the White House announced Thursday.
At the same time, Washington will increase its humanitarian assistance by welcoming 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and providing an additional $1 billion in food, medicine, water and other supplies.
A U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations are discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast. In addition to the NATO summit, Brussels is also hosting separate summits of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and if the European Union. Biden is attending all three meetings and will hold a news conference afterward.
Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the U.S. wants to hear"that the resolve and unity that we've seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes." Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be looking for clarity on how the United States and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiraling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.
All the while, national security officials from Washington to Warsaw are increasingly worried that Putin might deploy chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry. Sullivan said the allies would consult on how to respond to"potential contingencies" of that sort.Stoltenberg declined Thursday to discuss whether such a strike is a red line that would draw the alliance into war with Russia.
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