President Joe Biden lambasted Russian President Vladimir Putin for his war in Ukraine in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, calling out Russia for trying to “erase” and “extinguish” Ukraine in the war in remarks tailored to respond to Putin’s threats to unleash nuclear annihilation if provoked.
“That should make your blood run cold,” Biden said in a speech re-written in the final hour to respond to Putin’s overnight declaration that Russia would institute a “partial mobilization” of its military reserves, an announcement that came with apparent threats to use nuclear weapons.
“No one threatened Russia and no one other than Russia sought conflict,” Biden said, condemning Putin’s actions as undermining the founding ideals of the United Nations. “If nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequences, then we put at risk everything this very institution stands for.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Biden’s remarks come just hours after Putin delivered a speech threatening to use Russia’s enormous nuclear arsenal to keep its newly acquired territory in Ukraine. Putin suggested—without evidence—that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has discussed using nuclear weapons against Russia.
According to a White House official, Biden’s address to the United Nations was edited almost to the final minute in order to respond directly to Putin’s threats, which included appearing to threaten nuclear retaliation if Ukraine continued to pursue retaking territories illegally annexed by the Russian Federation.
“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The five permanent members of the Security Council just reaffirmed that commitment in January, but today we're seeing disturbing trends,” Biden said, directly calling out Putin’s “irresponsible nuclear threats” to use its nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
Biden didn’t go as far as some national security officials had privately wished he would, who had hoped he would at least call for Russia’s permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council to be reviewed. That seat, which Russia holds along with four of the world’s great powers, allows the Kremlin to veto every resolution that does not align with its interests—including one in February that condemned its invasion of Ukraine. Still, Biden tiptoed nearly to the edge of that line, one official emphasized.
“I would note that the president began his remarks by citing Russia’s status as a Security Council permanent member and highlighting actions that undermine that status,” one National Security Council official said.
While world leaders renewed their condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine on Wednesday, most of them adopted measured tones about the conflict. The strategy appeared to be an attempt to discuss the war in a way that doesn’t provide fodder for Putin to misinterpret Western rhetoric as a justification for further escalation—many focused on contextualizing the war as Russia’s own doing, rather than a conflict caused by western provocation.
And despite Putin’s alarming threats, the United States and its western allies have not taken the bait. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, reiterated Wednesday that NATO is not a party to the conflict while speaking at a Reuters event. White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby echoed that sentiment in an interview on Fox News.
"No, we are not. Not at all," John Kirby said when asked if the United States and Russia are at war. "Russia is at war inside Ukraine."
The Biden administration is likewise not changing its nuclear posture in response to Putin’s nuclear threat just yet, Kirby said.
"We're monitoring as best we can—their strategic posture. So if we have to, we can alter ours,” Kirby said on Good Morning America. “We've seen no indication that that's required right now."
For months, the Biden administration has sought to walk the line between supporting Ukraine’s independence while not provoking an increasingly belligerent Russia, Bill Taylor, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, told The Daily Beast.
“Biden has walked a careful line. But he has not allowed himself to be self-deterred,” Taylor said. “He’s committed to a Ukrainian win and he's so far been able to walk this fine line between providing the weapons that are needed to win, and not provoking any irrational response.”
But the Kremlin’s stated plans to hold sham referenda in Ukrainian territories later this week—which Moscow is expected to use as a false set of evidence to claim Ukrainian territories as part of Russia and annex them—could introduce a new and dangerous phase of the war.
Biden criticized Putin's plans to hold a “sham referendum to try to annex parts of Ukraine” later this week in Ukraine, but there is probably “little” the Biden administration can do to prevent the referenda from taking place, Hall said.
Putin has already intensified his war plans with the announcement of the “partial mobilization” of Russian reserves—a move that follows a series of crushing defeats in Ukraine that have left Moscow scrambling for its next steps in the war. Russia’s Duma also passed a law this week that will impose harsher penalties for desertion or evading conscription.
Although Ukrainian forces have secured several wins in recent days in their counteroffensive in southern and northeastern Ukraine, the war doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. Negotiations are not happening, Stoltenberg confirmed Wednesday at the Reuters event.
But Putin’s resolve might be shaken. His determination to run a “partial mobilization” shows the war is not going according to his plans and that he made a miscalculation on invading Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.
"He wanted less NATO on his borders. He is getting more NATO on his borders,” Stoltenberg said.
Putin, desperate to get out from under western sanctions, has tried another approach in recent days as well, pressuring Europeans to ease up on sanctions on Moscow by withholding gas flows to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, just as winter approaches.
But NATO and western nations don’t seem interested in bending to his will.
“Europeans are paying a price for the war… We are prepared for a hard winter. Winter is coming, is going to be hard for all of us,” Stoltenberg said, citing spiking energy prices. “The alternative [Russian victory] means we would pay a much higher price… The answer is not to step down and to stop—you're supporting Ukraine.”
Both the Zelensky and Biden administrations appear prepared for the long haul, too. Ukrainian officials gathered early this week to discuss wintertime fighting preparations, including winter shoes and means of heating, according to a briefing from the president’s office. And the latest $600 million drawdown of military aid from the Biden administration includes winter gear for Ukrainians.
NATO warned Wednesday that the world, too, should prepare for a long-term war against Russia.
“It’s hard to see a solution in the short term, as long as Russia doesn't accept that Ukraine is a sovereign, independent nation,” Stoltenberg said. “I’m afraid that the only way to end this war is to prove that President Putin will not win on the battlefield.”
