The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-22)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A

Secretary of State Antony Blink-

en; CIA Director William J.

Burns; Director of National Intel-

ligence Avril Haines; Department

of Homeland Security Secretary

Alejandro Mayorkas; Gen. Mark

A. Milley, chairman of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff; and Treasury Sec-

retary Janet L. Yellen.

Biden also spoke by phone

Monday with Ukrainian Presi-

dent Volodymyr Zelensky, reaf-

firming the U.S. commitment to

Ukraine’s s overeignty and territo-

rial integrity. He also had a joint

call with French President Em-

manuel Macron and German

Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss

the situation.

Blinken had been tentatively

scheduled to meet with Russian

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

on Thursday, provided that Rus-

sia did not invade Ukraine. Ad-

ministration officials declined to

say Monday whether that meet-

ing was still on.

On Sunday, the administration

had also floated the prospect of a

summit between Biden and Pu-

tin, assuming, again, that Russia

did not move ahead with an

invasion and that the United

States thought such a summit

could advance diplomatic negoti-

ations. On Monday’s call with

reporters, the senior administra-

tion official did not completely

rule out that possibility but made

clear that the likelihood of the

two leaders meeting — as of

Monday evening, at least — was

close to zero.

The administration, the offi-

cial said, “certainly can’t commit

to a meeting that has, as a predi-

cate, that Russia won’t take mili-

tary action, when it looks immi-

nently like they will.”

In a tweet Monday, as Putin’s

latest actions became clear,

Blinken directed harsh words at

Russia.

“Kremlin recognition of the

so-called ‘Donetsk and Luhansk

People’s Republics’ as ‘independ-

ent’ requires a swift and firm

response, and we will take appro-

priate steps in coordination with

partners,” he w rote.

But as Presidents’ Day week-

end came to a close, the Biden

administration’s definition of a

“swift and firm response” re-

mained nearly as murky as what

exactly constituted an invasion.

pose severe sanctions if Russia

entered Ukraine.

“What the Americans had been

saying until today was ‘One troop,

one tank — serious sanctions,’

and we are recognizing in short

order that they have just done

this and we’re not sure we have

our allies on board completely,

and that’s a problem,” Bremmer

said. “We’re getting jammed here.

This is why Putin did this. It is

completely the right strategy for

Putin.”

Biden, meanwhile, who early

in the weekend had nixed a last-

minute trip to his home in Wilm-

ington, Del., spent part of the day

huddled with his national secu-

rity team — a group that included

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin;

“When you describe Russian

soldiers invading Ukraine right

now as ‘peacekeepers’, even when

you use quotation marks, you are

using language that Putin wants

you to use,” he wrote in a follow-

up tweet. “Call it what it is — an

invasion.”

Bremmer said that what

played out publicly Monday was

the United States backing down

from its previous threat to im-

Not everyone agreed. Donetsk

and Luhansk are not generally

recognized as independent coun-

tries, and some experts suggested

that sending troops to them

amounted to dispatching a mili-

tary force into Ukraine itself.

Michael McFaul, the U.S. am-

bassador to Russia under Presi-

dent Barack Obama, tweeted that

“Russia is invading Ukraine right

now.”

quo.

“Russia has occupied these re-

gions since 2014,” said the official,

a point he emphasized several

times throughout the call. “It has

been Russia’s position that there

are not Russian forces present in

this part of the Donbas. The

reality, as we pointed out on a

number of occasions over these

past years, has been quite differ-

ent. There have been Russian

forces present in these areas

throughout.”

After the call, a different ad-

ministration official defined a

Russian invasion that would

prompt a clear U.S. response as

crossing into Ukrainian territory

that Russia has “not occupied

since 2014.”

was serious enough to warrant a
full-blown response. Western
diplomats have been predicting
for days that Putin would, initial-
ly at least, take actions short of a
full-scale invasion and capture of
Kyiv, such as a cyberattack or a
limited incursion.
“If I were advising Putin, I
would tell him to do this because
we have a problem now,” Brem-
mer said. Putin has deliberately
“not gone all in” yet, Bremmer
said, because “the entire point is,
don’t make it easy on the West to
respond.”
Earlier in the day, Putin deliv-
ered a televised address saying he
had little choice but to recognize
the pro-Russian s eparatist re-
gions of Donetsk and Luhansk,
enclaves within Ukraine that
have been a source of bitter Rus-
sia-Ukraine tensions. Russia has
increasingly suggested, with little
evidence, that residents of those
regions are under threat from the
Ukrainian military.
In a call with reporters Mon-
day evening, a senior Biden ad-
ministration official warned that
Putin’s address “was a speech to
the Russian people to justify a
war.”
Biden officials depicted Putin’s
actions to this point, including
regular complaints that Ukraine
has acted belligerently, as an
elaborate form of theater de-
signed to portray Russia as a
victim of NATO aggression and
create a pretext for his longtime
desire to reabsorb Ukraine into
the Russian orbit.
“No one should mistake these
theatrics as legitimate statecraft,”
the official said, speaking on the
condition of anonymity to share
details of a rapidly unfolding
situation. “This is Potemkin poli-
tics, President Putin accelerating
the very conflict that he’s creat-
ed.”
Still, the administration offi-
cial repeatedly refused to say
whether Putin’s decision to send
“peacekeeping” troops into the
two Russian-backed separatist
areas constituted a red-line inva-
sion in the eyes of the Biden
administration. If anything, the
official tried to portray Monday’s
developments as far short of a
dramatic change in the status

BIDEN FROM A

Putin’s latest move leaves ‘invasion’ up for interpretation

ANATOLY MALTSEV/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

A woman in St. Petersburg watches a meeting led by Russian President Vladimir Putin o n Monday. Putin said he had little choice but to

recognize the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, areas within Ukraine that have been a source of bitter conflict.

“This is Potemkin politics, President Putin

accelerating the very conflict that he’s created.”

B iden administration official, in a call with reporters

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