How the Biden administration is responding to the Russian incursion in Ukraine

Read the Full Transcript

• Judy Woodruff:

  And for a closer look at the Biden administration's response to Russia's invasion, we're joined now by Ned Price. He is the State Department spokesman.

  Ned Price, welcome to the "NewsHour."

  I don't know if you have been able to hear the discussion we have been having, but, frankly, overall, very pessimistic projections on what is going to come from what is happening in Ukraine.

  Is that the overall outlook of the Biden administration right now about what's going on?

• Ned Price, State Department Spokesman:

  Well, Judy, we have been deeply concerned about this for not weeks, but months now

  We first started warning about this possibility in November, when we talked about the unusual military movements inside Russia, first 10,000 troops, 50,000 troops, more than 150,000 troops in recent days. As our intelligence has built up, so too has our concern.

  We have talked about the increasingly imminent signs of the invasion that started in many ways in recent days, including with the barrage of missiles and attacks last night, and, concerningly, the information we have that we have made public, that this is not only Russian aggression against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. This is not only Russian aggression against the Ukrainian government, but this is intended Russian aggression against the Ukrainian people.

  In other words, this is a concerted effort on the part of Vladimir Putin to harm the Ukrainian people, to throttle them and to crush them, as our national security adviser said the other day. That is why we have been ringing the alarm bell in every way we can. I think you have seen the United States act with unity, act with purpose, act with seriousness, with our allies and partners around the world, over the — over recent days to impose substantial significant costs on Putin in response to this.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, and I want to ask about that, because you have been ringing the bell. You have been united, to a large degree.

  But these sanctions, as you know, that the administration and others announced in recent days didn't stop Vladimir Putin. He is marching forward as if they didn't exist.

• Ned Price:

  Well, it sure seems that Vladimir Putin has been determined to do this for some time. But we were also determined to use every tool, every opportunity we had to incentivize him, to deter him from not doing so.

  Look, if we were to have taken a different approach, if we were to have kept this information to ourself, if we were, as some have suggested, to have implemented the sanctions beforehand, it would have suggested to Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation that, one, we weren't actually serious about diplomacy.

  And, two, if we were to have enacted these measures before this week, not only would it not have deterred him. It may well have incentivized Vladimir Putin to move earlier. If we imposed the cost that we have been warning against for some time, Vladimir Putin would have had no reason, no reason to give himself pause, no reason to think twice or three times, as he might have done in recent days, in recent weeks.

  Our goal now is to prevent what we are seeing from becoming this all-out war, what would be a costly, devastating war for Ukraine, for the Ukrainian people, but also for Russia and the Russian people. Russians will be coming home in body bags. Russians may not see that on state-run television. They may not see their fellow citizens marching in the streets.

  But all of this will happen. This will be a devastating, costly war for Russia and for Ukraine.

• Judy Woodruff:

  What makes the administration, you, the president, others, confident that this set of sanctions that are announced today, on top of what you have already done, in concert with what the rest of NATO and Europe is doing, is going to have an effect on Vladimir Putin, when nothing has deterred him until now?

• Ned Price:

  Well, we know it will have an effect on Vladimir Putin.

  These sanctions are unprecedented in terms of their scope and scale, far beyond what the United States did in 2014, but also significant in terms of the fact that we are acting with many of our closest allies and partners, in terms of the measures we announced today. We now have sanctions on Russia's 10 largest banks, 80 percent of Russia's banking sector assets.

  We now have export controls that limit Russia's ability to import some 50 percent of the materials for the strategic sectors that they will need to operate with any strength on the world stage. We have sanctioned oligarchs and others around Vladimir Putin. And our allies and partners have done the same.

  We have already seen the toll that these measures have taken on the Russian financial system. You need only look at the Russian stock market, at the ruble, at investor sentiment around Russia to know that these measures have been costly and they will be costly. The cost of these measures will gain, will gain momentum in the coming days, in the coming weeks.

  And these measures will only escalate if Putin escalates. We're prepared to go further.

• Judy Woodruff:

  At the same time, you have leaders like the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, saying the president should be — should be putting forward much tougher sanctions than he is right now, pointing out what you and I have just been talking about, that it hasn't worked.

  We also heard the president himself say today, Ned Price, when he spoke to the press, that the Europeans are not behind, for example, the idea of imposing restrictions on Russia through the so-called SWIFT system. This is the global banking system that would clearly have some effect on the Russian leadership.

  To what extent is the — is European opposition holding back President Biden?

• Ned Price:

  Well, a couple points, Judy.

  I think, today, the fact that we worked in tandem with the 27 members of the European Union, with Australia, with Japan, with Canada, with the United Kingdom, with other countries around the world, to impose these measures shows that, A, we're not divided. And, certainly, we are united on this.

  The United States alone is some 25 percent of GDP acting in the way we did today on more than half of the world's GDP. The fact that we are acting collectively will take a large chunk out of Russia's economy and Russia's financial system.

  I know there have been some who've called for other measures. The measures we instituted today will have a more significant and sustained impact than some of those calls that we have heard. That includes SWIFT. That includes sanctions on any single individual. We have gone after Russia's banking sector. We have gone after Russia's strategic sectors.

  We have gone after Russia's oligarchs and its elites. All of these things have had an immediate cost. And those costs will grow to the Russian Federation in the days to come.

• Judy Woodruff:

  How long do you think this conflict is going to go on? What is the best information the administration has about how long the Russians are prepared to stick with this and how long the Ukrainians will fight back?

• Ned Price:

  Well, we know a couple things.

  We know the Russian intent is to carry forward with this campaign until their objectives are achieved. Our intent is to bring this conflict to a close, to induce Vladimir Putin and those around him to stop the violence, to withdraw the forces, to not go forward with this planned brutality against the Ukrainian people, and to come back to the diplomatic table, but to do so in good faith.

  We, of course, have seen the Russian Federation at the table. I have sat with Secretary Blinken when he's been across from Foreign Minister Lavrov. The Russians to date have not done so in good faith.

  The Russians, if they're serious in the face of our very serious measures, need to come back to the diplomatic table, need to prove their seriousness of purpose.

• Judy Woodruff:

  You still have some hopes on diplomacy, given the fact that all the diplomacy leading up to this didn't work?

• Ned Price:

  We are diplomats. We always have hope with diplomacy.

  We know that the only way we're going to save lives, that we're going to bring this conflict to an end as quickly as humanly possible is through diplomacy. So, of course, we're going to stick at it.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Ned Price, who is the spokesman for the State Department, thank you very much.

• Ned Price:

  Thanks Judy.