Supporting Ukraine in potential Russian invasion could hurt U.S. economy, says Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday acknowledged the likelihood that U.S. and allied sanctions on Russia in retaliation for an invasion of Ukraine would have significant blowback on the American economy, including possible price hikes and disruption to the nation's energy supply.

"The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost," Biden said in remarks at the White House about the ongoing crisis. "I will not pretend this will be painless."

He said the administration was working proactively to try to pre-empt supply issues by working with energy producers and shippers on contingency plans, and said he would work with Congress on unspecified "additional measures to protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump."

Biden also said Tuesday that the U.S. has "not yet verified" Russia's claim that some of its forces have withdrawn from the Ukraine border. He said an invasion of Ukraine remains a distinct possibility.

Biden spoke hours after Russia announced that some units participating in military exercises near Ukraine's borders would begin returning to their bases.

WATCH | Russia says it haswithdrawn some forces from Ukraine border, but U.S. saysclaim is unverified:

Russias claims of troop withdrawal are unverified, U.S. says

3 years ago

Duration 2:02

Russia released video of some troops moving away from the border with Ukraine, but the U.S. says it hasnt been verified and the threat of an invasion remains high.

Russia'sDefence Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than "to places of permanent deployment."

But Biden continued to express skepticism about Russia's intentions. Biden warned again that if Russia invades Ukraine the U.S. "will rally the world to oppose its aggression."

From The Associated Press, last updated at 4:30p.m. ET

Ukraine Russia: What's behind the current tensions?

• Russia has built up more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine and carried out large-scale exercises.
  
• Although Moscow has denied ever planning to attack Ukraine, it has demanded legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that Kyiv will not be allowed to join the military bloc. Washington and Brussels have so far refused to make such pledges.
  
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saidMonday his country would continue to pursue its goal of NATO membership despite Russia's anger and skepticism from some Western countries. Ukraine is not a NATO member and the alliance is under no treaty obligation to defend it.
  
• In Ukraine, citizen-soldiers are being trained for guerrilla warfare amid worry over possible Russian invasion.
  
• In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula following the ouster of the country's Moscow-friendly president and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, Donbas, where more than 14,000 people have been killed in fighting.
  
• Canada, which recently closed its embassy in Kyiv, is sendinglethal military equipment worth $7.8M.

-From Reuters, The Associated Press and CBC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West as his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine.

Putin said he does not want war and would rely on negotiations as he presses his demand for the West to halt Ukraine's bid to join NATO. At the same time, he did not commit to a full pullback of troops, saying Russia's next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.

Putin's overtures soothed global markets that have been on edge amid the worst East-West tensions in decades. Washington and its European allies remained cautious, saying they want to see evidence of a Russian pullback. Biden said 150,000 Russian forces are now massed near Ukraine, an increase from an earlier U.S. estimate of 130,000 troops.

Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures issues that Moscow put on the table years ago.

He said Russia is open to discuss "some of those elements," but added that it would only do so in combination "with the main issues that are of primary importance for us."

Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesn't want it but that Ukraine's bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country.

-From The Associated Press and Reuters at 5 p.m. ET

A series of cyberattacks on Tuesday knocked the websites of the Ukrainian army, the defence ministry and major banks offline, Ukrainian authorities said, as tensions persisted over the threat of a possible Russian invasion.

Still, there was no indication the relatively low level, distributed-denial-of-service attacks might be a smokescreen for more serious and damaging cyber mischief.

At least 10 Ukrainian websites were unreachable due to the attacks, including the defence, foreign and culture ministries and Ukraine's two largest state banks. In such attacks, websites are barraged with a flood of junk data packets, rendering them unreachable.

The ministry statement suggested Russian involvement: "It is possible that the aggressor resorted to tactics of petty mischief, because his aggressive plans aren't working overall," the Ukrainian statement said.

Ukraine has been subject to a steady diet of Russian aggression in cyberspace since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

On Jan. 14, a cyberattack that damaged servers at Ukraine's State Emergency Service and at the Motor Transport Insurance Bureau with a malicious "wiper" cloaked as ransomware. The damage proved minimal some cybersecurity experts think that was by design, given the capabilities of Russian state-backed hackers. A message posted simultaneously on dozens of defaced Ukrainian government websites said: "Be afraid and expect the worst."

-From The Associated Press and Reuters at 5 p.m. ET