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President Biden Delivers Remarks on Ukraine Crisis. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired February 22, 2022 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:02]

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Last night, senior administration officials were not labeling what had happened an invasion.

That might have reflected the inability to figure out exactly what had gone on, and also to assess the unity of allies. We got some answers to that this morning, when Germany announced a halt in the certification process for that Nord Stream 2 pipeline. That is a tough thing to do for Germany. And that is a first step.

It's not going to be the last step though. Administration officials say they're going to withhold some sanctions to deter Putin from potentially seizing Kyiv and the rest of the country. But we don't know which ones are going to be held back and which ones are going to be rolled out today.

On the table are things like unplugging Russia from the global financial system, specific sanctions on oligarchs. The U.K. imposed some of those this morning, and also potentially sanctions against Vladimir Putin himself. Big menu. Don't know which items the president's going to select, but he's going to let us know in a few minutes.

It's a big moment for him, because this is -- after all of the buildup, all of the speculation about what was going to happen in Ukraine, it now seems to be happening. And the question now is, what does the United States and its allies do and is it going to be effective?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right, John, we got the two-minute warning from the White House right at the start of your answer. So that means we are pretty close to hearing from the president.

I am reluctant to start the next question. I may have to interrupt you, Erin. But have we heard a response from the Ukrainians to the decision from

Putin to order troops in, not just the decree of independence of these regions, but to send troops across the border?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I will go quickly here, because, as you said, awaiting the president.

But President Zelensky here did come out today and make a statement. And it's interesting. Again, we went from the U.S. and Ukraine being separate to lockstep on the intelligence, now separate again. Zelensky said there will be no war with Russia. He continued to say it will not be an all-out war, and there will not be a broad-based, broad escalation, which is obviously very different from the United States, which, in terms of the rhetoric, still saying they see the possibility of an all-out escalation and conflict.

So, again, a little bit of blue water between the two. But you will see obviously how this goes over the next hours. And, certainly, what the president has to say right now is going to be very crucial on the sanctions.

The Ukrainians want big, serious sanctions. The U.S. government wants to start at a level where they can escalate significantly, depending on what Putin does. And a lot of what we have seen so far today has been a lot of window dressing. What the U.K. did, those oligarchs they sanctioned have been sanctioned by the United States for the past four years.

They're pretty much on every list. So that's not very much from the U.K. They say they're going to escalate it. But, again, it really depends what Biden brings to the table when he speaks in any second now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Clarissa, I share Victor's trepidation and asking you a question, because we're watching the podium closely. But tell us what is happening in Kyiv at this hour.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'd say there's a marked shift, Alisyn, in the mood and the tone here that we're hearing and feeling.

Everybody recognized yesterday's speech from President Putin as a kind of pivotal moment. And, whereas, before, people said, there's no way he's going to invade, after listening to that speech, where he basically negated the idea of Ukraine even being a sovereign state, I think people feel very differently.

And we have seen protests in solidarity with the government in some parts of the country, in Mariupol down in the southeast. That's a city that, if Putin did decide to push forward forces into the Donbass, and if they did decide to try to go for the original borders that they see as being part of those breakaway republics, could, quite frankly, be swallowed up entirely.

And so there's a lot of anxiety right now, a lot of questions as to what happens next. President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Erin said, trying to keep people calm and confident in saying that he doesn't believe there will be an all-out war. He didn't, very tellingly, use the invasion word.

But he did say that he thinks that, essentially, Russia has created a legal basis or the fig leaf of a legal basis to further aggression. And that could be, indeed, what we might see here as we anticipate, and, indeed, as NATO says we are already seeing Russian troops going into that Donbass area.

That front line has already been very tense for the last few days and the last few months. And the worry now is that things will escalate further.

BLACKWELL: Nic Robertson, we just heard from Erin discussing the sanctions announced from the U.K. We heard from the European Union today sanctions as well.

Is there anything that has surprised the Kremlin, potentially, on these lists of sanctions ahead of what we're waiting for from President Biden?

[14:05:05]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: If you take every piece of evidence that President Putin is putting forward and has been ramping up his propaganda today, he has not been put off at all by anything that he has heard.

The former president, former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, said, welcome to the new world reality, essentially, that this is going to mean -- the Nord Stream 2 pipeline not going ahead, that is going to mean higher gas prices for Europeans.

So what have we heard from President Putin today? Well, he has pulled his diplomats out of Ukraine. That's a concern. He has got the government authorization rubber stamp to put his forces inside Ukraine. He has said that the territories that Russia now respects as independent are not just those areas that are held by the separatists themselves, but are actually much larger areas, some parts of which are held by Ukrainian authorities.

He has ramped up his propaganda, without basis saying that Ukraine is preparing a nuclear weapon threat against Russia that he says is a strategic threat to Moscow. The rhetoric that President Putin is using does not indicates that he is cowed by any of the sanctions that he hears, and does appear to indicate that he is preparing the Russian public, his military as well as, the world at large potentially, that he has -- that he has potentially the intention to actually go into Ukraine, as has been long feared.

This is the type of rhetoric that he has been laying out. And that's just today. It has been building on previous days.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

Yes, Michael Bociurkiw, President Putin says the Minsk Agreement, which was obviously helping to -- what little it could, to keep the volatile tensions down, no longer exists, he announced. What does that mean now?

MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, FORMER OSCE SPOKESMAN: Well, President Putin never adhered to the Minsk Agreement.

There was very little adherence to the cease-fire provisions of it, removal of heavy weaponry. I know that. I was part of the OSCE. We observed that the Russians were not moving their heavy weaponry away from the front line. They were they're actually hiding it.

And then also, the other thing, they were actually blocking, rather than giving unfettered access, to the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine.

Also, Alisyn, if I can pick up on what Erin and Clarissa said, I'm actually just watching in front of me right now Lviv television, and they have a live poll going on asking viewers, do you think Putin will bomb Lviv, Ukraine? A quarter, a quarter of respondents replied yes.

So that gives you an indication of even the fear here in Western Ukraine. We're about as close as you get as a big city to the Ukrainian-Polish border.

Also, the other thing I'm hearing is, a lot of my Ukrainian friends in Kyiv and other places to the east are actually thinking about coming this way. The city of Lviv in the oblast is not very well prepared to take in more migrants. When the Russians invaded Ukraine in 2014, two million-plus people migrated to various parts.

So there's already that kind of congestion, if you will, so a lot of anxiety. One more quick thing also about another attack on the infrastructure, ATM networks, things like that. You're seeing a little bit more activity around the banks here and other essential services too.

BLACKWELL: All right, we're more than eight minutes past that two- minute warning we received from the White House.

So let's keep this going with Generals Zwack.

General, to you, what does a peacekeeping mission from the Russian perspective going into the Donbass look like?

BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Thank you, Victor, for the question.

We could back to 2008 and look at South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia as an example, and even in the events around Crimea in 2014 with the -- in the -- in that. It gives them -- if you will, in their legalistic, how they try to justify it, it gives them what they see as top cover.

The peacekeepers will come in. The patches now will be -- it'll be white, blue and red patches, and Russians, that officially makes it an invasion because they get in, they say it's peacekeeping only on the -- on -- from their perspective in the two separatist regions.

So, you have got that. You have -- and, as we talk about that, their military and what comes in? Is it low armed (AUDIO GAP) armor and all of that?

Last thing, with all of that, if it's peacekeeping, what is 120,000 to 150,000 troops all around, including Belarus -- they haven't moved an inch -- doing? It's coercion. There's sort of a threat of a sword of Damocles over the whole area, if whatever they're trying to do in Donbass doesn't work.

[14:10:00]

CAMEROTA: John Harwood, back to you about President Biden's response here.

We have learned that he had intelligence months ago and has been preparing for this on some level, knowing that Vladimir Putin might be interested in an invasion, might be taking steps towards an invasion. And is Capitol Hill responding the same way? Is there unity for what the U.S. response should be here?

HARWOOD: For Washington? Yes, unity.

You have had supportive words, for example, from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. It is true that Republicans and Democrats have been arguing about potential sanctions, some of which Republicans wanted to impose on Vladimir Putin before he made a move to re-invade Ukraine.

The Biden administration did not want to do that because their view, which is the correct one, according to Fiona Hill, the Russia expert I talked to a couple of days ago, that you hold them back, because, if you oppose them, you lose the deterrent effect. So that was a back- and-forth. They reached a stalemate.

They ended up doing a resolution of condemnation of what Russia was doing. It's not particularly meaningful. But for the standards of Washington, this has been a relatively unified response, especially at the senior levels of the Republican Party. And President Biden certainly is going to welcome that.

This is a very, very difficult problem for President Biden. One of the things that we have seen from recent presidents, guys, is, they engage in military action. Both Presidents Bush in the Gulf had military action that, in the case of Afghanistan, resulted in a rapid victory initially. Then, of course, it got extended.

In the case of the first President Bush, rapid victory there. Approval ratings went way up. This is a different situation. There's not going to be an American victory on the battlefield there. This is going to be a long slog, in which the results are going to sting the pocketbooks of the American people, because a prolonged conflict or face-off, a confrontation with sanctions against Russia is going to raise energy prices in Europe and in the United States. It's -- this is why the presidency is very difficult, because there's

not a big immediate upside for President Biden here, some opportunity to show leadership, but it's not going to be quick, clean and decisive.

BLACKWELL: All right, everyone, stay with us.

The start time for these remarks has bounced around throughout the day. First, it was 2:00, then moved to 1:00, now back to 2:00. And it looks like we have a few more minutes.

So, everyone, stay with us. We will stand by and wait for President Biden's first remarks on camera since the order of troops into the Donbass region from President Putin.

Our live breaking news coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:11]

BLACKWELL: All right, we're waiting for remarks from President Biden about the order from President Putin to send troops into the Donbass region of Ukraine.

Our full panel is back with us.

I want to start with Clarissa.

Clarissa, there was some dissatisfaction from the president's own party domestically to the severity of the sanctions announced yesterday, Congressman Garamendi of Foreign Affairs Committee said that it's time to stop pussyfooting around and hit Putin over the head with a two-by-four.

Senator Van Hollen says that the U.S. needs to do more. What was the response or has been the response thus far to the sanctions already announced from -- by President Biden?

WARD: Well, I think they were seen as being largely symbolic and an important immediate reaction.

But the expectation here is that absolutely more needs to happen and more needs to happen quickly. And that's why Ukraine's leadership will be watching, as we all are, although I'm sure they already know, what President Biden is going to say today.

But their argument all along has been, listen, if you're so sure that this is happening, why are you waiting to levy those sanctions? Why don't you do it now? Why don't you preempt that aggression and avert a potential catastrophe? If you're so convinced that it is indeed going to be an all-out invasion, stop it from happening by levying those sanctions.

But I think that, no matter what sanctions are announced today, and even if they do bite, and they bite hard, the reality is, is that President Putin has already baked this into the costs in his mind, and has already made the calculation and understands exactly what the results of those sanctions will be.

And, still, he appears to be committed to this trajectory. And one thing I would say, though, is, while all things are pointing in a very gloomy direction, we still don't really have clarity on what President Putin's plan is yet. And that is exactly the ambiguity that he thrives on, that gray space, that sense of not knowing, that sense of everyone being on the back foot, constantly second-guessing, us all spending hours endlessly speculating about what his plan is.

It allows him power. And it also has allowed him over the course of the last few months to massively destabilize Ukraine, without actually even launching an all-out invasion. And I think that's been another frustration I have seen a little bit from Ukraine's leadership.

Don't underestimate how much damage has already been done. Don't underestimate how many billions of dollars are being removed and pulled out of this country every single month as a result of Russia's many different tactics. This is hybrid warfare 101 that Putin -- President Putin practices.

And Ukraine has really suffered as a result. And one other thing I will just add, we have heard from Ukraine's foreign minister, who says again -- and this is a line that they have been echoing over and over again -- "We are interested in peace, we will work towards peace. But that doesn't mean we will allow Russia to freely roam across Ukraine's lands. We won't allow the 2014 tragedy to happen again," the 2014 tragedy, obviously referring to the beginning of this war, the first invasion, if you would like.

So, that is an interesting comment, in and of itself, because he is saying there is a limit to how long we will keep pushing on this diplomatic process. We favor peace, we favor diplomacy, but, at some point, Ukraine could be put in a position where they will feel forced to fight back, Victor.

CAMEROTA: That leads us to Moscow, where Nic Robertson is for us.

And so, Nic, if the sanctions, even the threatened sanctions, are not a deterrent for Putin, what would be at this point? And has the unity of NATO that we have seen since all these actions have emerged, has that been a surprise to the Kremlin?

ROBERTSON: I think the general view is, it has been a surprise. I mean, Putin hasn't outwardly said that.

He did offer away today, an off-ramp for everyone. He said everyone in the region could essentially sleep easier if -- and, of course, this just isn't going to happen, but this was what -- this is what President Putin said earlier today -- if Ukraine decides it doesn't want to join NATO. Then he says all of this is over, and we no longer need to worry.

That's not Ukraine's position. It's not NATO's position. And, actually, that belies much else that is actually said in terms of the propaganda that is building up here at the moment. There -- this seems to be a situation where President Putin, with increasing rapidity over the past sort of 24, 36 hours, has been preparing the country for going to going to war.

It's been an accelerated process. And it's revealed several sides of President Putin that I don't think people have been terribly aware of. He is viewed as this careful strategic player who goes legally step by step, inch by inch.

[14:20:07]

Yesterday, he appeared on television as a very angry man, absolutely bitter in his views about Ukraine, about its place in Russia, about the current leadership,. There was a real sense of anger that.

And when we saw him as well earlier in the day with his National Security Council, asking them all to step up to the plate, his defense chief, his intelligence chief, his foreign minister, his aide who's been involved in the negotiations with Ukraine, getting them all to sort of step up, in some cases, he dressed some of them down.

Some of them looked quite nervous. This creates an impression of a very supplicant situation, a president who's been in power for 20 years, who's been frustrated, particularly over -- for over more than a decade, with the role that NATO is playing in the region, one who seems, perhaps, not to engender in his staff an ability to speak up and speak their mind, truth to power.

That was the impression that he created yesterday. This is a leader perhaps that we're getting to see a side of who is isolated, who is not getting good information from his key officials, because they're afraid to give it, and one who's incredibly frustrated.

It's a very worrying picture to see an a leader with so much power at their fingertips, poised, as we are, at a momentous point in history.

BLACKWELL: All right, a control room, pull up the Big Board, please.

The Dow is down about 600 points. Right now.

Erin Burnett, to you. There could be a significant economic impact of what the -- from what the president is about to announce, not only for companies listed there, but for individuals who are concerned about the gas prices, concerned about inflation as well.

BURNETT: Yes, and just obviously watching that podium, as you are, getting ready for the president.

You're going to see it worldwide. It's a combination of the fear of what the impact would be on energy prices. Energy prices going up also adds to the already very serious inflation challenges that the United States is facing, so that drop in the market obviously significant.

They are expecting an increase in both gas prices, anything linked to oil, as a result of what is happening here and as a result of further sanctions. The U.S. government, at this point, we haven't heard about any kind of mass sanctions on Russian oil.

If they were to do that, yes, that's going to have a direct impact on the U.S. The two countries that have felt it the most thus far, Clarissa mentioning here, in Ukraine, right now, for that government to borrow money for a one-year period, they have to pay about 22 percent interest.

CAMEROTA: Erin, the president is walking out now to the podium. So let me interrupt you.

And let's listen to President Biden, his latest thoughts on Ukraine.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, good afternoon.

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent states. And he bizarrely asserted that these regions are no longer part of Ukraine and they're sovereign territory. To put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine.

Last night, Putin authorized Russian forces to deploy into the region, these regions. Today he asserted these regions are -- actually extend deeper than the two areas he recognized, claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian government.

He is setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view. And if we listened to his speech last night -- and many of you did, I know -- he's setting up a rationale to go much further.

This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from his Duma.

So, let's begin -- so, I'm going to begin to impose sanctions in response far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014. And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further, as with sanctions.

Who in the lord's name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belong to his neighbors? This is a flagrant violation of international law, and it demands a firm response from the international community.

Over the last few months, we have coordinated closely with our NATO allies and partners in Europe and around the world to prepare that response. We have said all along and I have told Putin to his face some month -- a month -- more than a month ago that we would act together, and the moment Russia moved against Ukraine.

Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states.

So, today, I'm announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday.

[14:25:04]

These have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners, and we will continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.

We're implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions, VEB and their military bank. We're implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russian sovereign debt. That means we have cut off Russia's government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either.

Starting tomorrow and continuing in the days ahead, we will also impose sanctions on Russian elites and their family members. They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well.

And because of Russia's actions, we worked with Germany to ensure Nord Stream 2 will not, as I promised, will not move forward.

As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well. Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions. The United States will continue to provide defensive assistance to Ukraine in the meantime. And we will continue to reinforce and reassure our NATO allies.

Today, in response to Russia's admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of U.S. forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Let me be clear. These are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no intention of fighting Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States, together with our allies, will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made to NATO.

We still believe that Russia is poised to go much further in launching a massive military attack against Ukraine. Hope I'm wrong about that. Hope we're wrong about that. But Russia has only escalated its threat against the rest of Ukrainian territory, including major cities, and including the capital city of Kyiv.

There are still well over 150,000 Russian troops surrounding Ukraine. And, as I said, Russian forces remain positioned in Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north, including warplanes and offensive missile systems. Russia has moved troops closer to Ukraine's border with Russia.

Russia's naval vessels are maneuvering in the Black Sea to Ukraine south, including amphibious assault ships, missile cruisers, and submarines. Russia has moved supplies of blood and medical equipment into position on the border. You don't need blood unless you plan on starting a war.

Over the last few days, we have seen much of the playbook that Secretary Blinken laid out last week in the United Nations Security Council come to pass, a major increase in military provocations and false flag events along the line of contact in the Donbass, dramatically staged, conveniently on-camera meeting of Putin's Security Council to grandstand for the Russian public, and now political provocation and of recognizing sovereign Ukrainian territory as so-called independent republics, in clear violation, again, of international law.

President Putin has sought authorization from the Russian Parliament to use military force outside of Russian territory. And this set the stage for further pretext, to further provocations by Russia to try to justify further military action.

None of us, none of us should be fooled. None of us will be fooled. There is no justification. Further Russian assault into Ukraine remains a severe threat in the days ahead. And if Russia proceeds, it is Russia, and Russia alone, that bears the responsibility.

As we respond, my administration is using every tool at our disposal to protect American businesses and consumers from rising prices at the pump. As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs for us as well and here at home. We need to be honest about that.

But, as we will do -- but as we do this, I'm going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours. We're closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption.

We're executing a plan, in coordination with major oil-producing consumers and producers, toward a collective investment to secure stability in global energy supplies. This will be -- this will blunt gas prices. I want to limit the pain that the American people are feeling at the gas pump. This is critical to me.

In the last few days. I have been in constant contact with European leaders, including with Ukrainian President Zelensky.