Addressing recent comments by Russian officials threatening war with the US and NATO, President Joe Biden on Thursday called such rhetoric a sign of the “despair Russia feels at their abject failure.”
Biden made the remarks during a White House address in which he announced a request to Congress to provide Ukraine with $33 billion to support its war with Russia. After the president made his prepared statement, a reporter asked if Russian officials were “actually already presenting this conflict as a NATO-US-Russia conflict.”
The reporter also spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who recently stated that “NATO is essentially going to war with Russia through a proxy,” and whether such comments worried him.
“You’re not true,” Biden replied. “They trouble me because it shows the despair Russia feels at its abject failure to do what it originally set out to do.”
US President Joe Biden called the recent threatening rhetoric from Russia a sign of “desperation” because his efforts in Ukraine are failing. In this photo, Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 28 in Washington, DC. Getty
Biden continued, “And so I think it’s more of a reflection not of the truth but of its failure. So instead of saying that the Ukrainians, endowed with some ability to resist Russian forces, are doing this, they have been telling their people that the United States and all of NATO are busy, Russian troops and tanks etc.
“So it’s – number one, it’s an apology for their failure. But number two, it’s also when they’re really serious… No one should be making idle comments about the use of nuclear weapons or the possibility that they would use that. It’s irresponsible.”
Experts have said that in recent days Russia has increased its statements about NATO as a strategic tactic to spread disinformation and incite fear. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a speech that Russian forces would respond with “retaliatory strikes” against NATO members or other countries that pose a “strategic threat” to Russia in Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made a similar statement on April 13. During an interview with Russia’s state news agency TASS, Ryabkov said Russia will consider US and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian territory as “legitimate military targets.”
In his address on the funding request, Biden explained why he thinks supporting Ukraine is important.
“The cost of this fight is not small, but giving in to aggression will cost more if we allow it,” he said. “Either we support the Ukrainian people when they defend their country, or we stand by when the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine.”
Newsweek has reached out to the White House and the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.