Recently, rumors of escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the potential invasion of Ukraine have been floating around the international stage. Russia is facing a turning point in its history with the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union happening this year. The pressure may be on for President Putin to try reclaiming the land the USSR held in the glory days, but the pressure is equally on President Biden to step up in his role as leader of the free world. His hesitancy could impose unnecessary violence on the Ukrainian people.
Ukraine, a former Soviet Union territory, definitely has other ideas. The international alliance NATO would like the ability to expand east and grant Ukraine’s request to join the organization but Putin has stipulated that if that were to happen he would no longer consider moving his troops away from the Ukrainian border. This is because the troops may be barred from joining NATO based on informal conversations with USSR leaders in 1990 that NATO would not continue eastern expansion. Putin made his position clear saying, “…any further eastward expansion of NATO is unacceptable,” and placed Russian troops on the border between their countries.
As a major member of NATO and the current global hegemon, the U.S. has a lot of say in how the situation is handled. President Biden has chosen a relatively peaceful choice of threatening economic sanctions if Russia were to invade. While this choice protects American troops, it leaves Ukraine at the mercy of Russia militarily.
Biden even went as far as to say that if the invasion was what he considered only a “minor incursion” there may be no consequences at all. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky thinks this is a somewhat cowardly move on the part of the U.S. tweeting in response to Biden’s comments, “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones.”
Zelensky also questioned why sanctions were only considered as a retaliatory option and not as a way to preemptively stop Russia’s insistence on invasion. In reality, imposing sanctions early could save many civilian and military lives on both sides, avoiding a battle at the border and preserving Ukraine’s ability to join NATO as an independent country. Sanctions are an effective way to restrict Russian military goals by directly targeting their economy without threatening human life, so why is the Biden administration hesitating?
One possible explanation is the impact of excluding Russia from the global economy. The world is already experiencing supply chain problems due to COVID-19 and adding the restriction of Russia’s economy into the mix could make it even worse. So we end up looking again at the age-old scale weighing our options between money and lives, and the Biden administration seems very inclined to choose money. The safe choice is to impose sanctions on Russia ahead of time until they pull their troops off the border and allow Ukraine its sovereignty to make its own international decisions.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia seems inevitable unless Ukraine’s more powerful allies step in to defend them, and the U.S. is dragging its feet. For the sake of the Ukrainian people, we have to hope Biden comes to his senses and puts an early end to this conflict. Biden does not have a great track record when it comes to international relations. His handling of American troops pulling out of Afghanistan in September has been widely criticized by the international community, and our allies’ eyes are on him as he faces off with Putin. A show of economic strength by the US is necessary to provide safety for the Ukrainian people and stability for international politics.
