think it is and i hope it stays that way. because as long as president putin does not send his forces across nato s borders then we don t have a nato russia conflict. ukraine, although it is an ally of the west and a partner country to nato, it is not a nato member. under the constitution there is something that article five which means that if one country is attacked, they are all attacked on all have to come to the defence. nato is doing two things. it is calling on putin along with everybody else to withdraw, which he is not going to. at the same time, they are bolstering defences along the eastern flanks, sending extra forces and hardware to the civil front line states, lithuania, latvia, estonia and poland and, to a lesser extent, romania. and bulgaria. because we simply don t know what is president putin s mind. this invasion was carefully planned. the build up of
putin came to the line a couple of times and saw the defense and called a time-out. i think that was significant. basically from january until february 24th gave the united states the ability to close our embassy skpp got our people s out of harms way and a lot of arms and weapons to the ukrainians. it required consultations with allies and partners. we searched troops to the eastern flank of nato. we have been doing that up until today and the president and commander in chief announced deployment of troops to the eastern flanks it. i think we positioned ourselves well to hold the line at nato. it will fundamental he protect american national security
crisis. he also conveyed and described the implications and consequences china to provide material support to russia. but again i m not going to provide any additional substance or. next week a big week for the president on wednesdays going to make and trip over too europe for a major meeting on thursday at nato headquarters in brussels the u.s. says it will continue to supply weapons and ukraine to take on the russians. the stilt rejecting officer nearby at nato countries like poland what you re offering up old cav it may exist in exchange giving u.s. military to deliver them into ukraine. critics say the states for the president tripped now not be any higher. president biden should go beyond brussels, he should go to countries like poland, romania, or lithuania to meet with nato eastern flanks allies. we need to be leading with the moral reality of what putin is doing is wrong, nato and the u.s.
troops around hungary, slovakia, bulgaria. i don t want to get ahead of the president, but what i will say is you re going to see on display tomorrow and over the coming days, all three core element of our strategy in response to russia s invasion of ukraine. first and foremost, obviously the pressure that we have been able to muster in full alignment with our partners and allies on russia in terms of economic sanctions that have really done a lot of damage to the russian economy. they re going to continue to do so. second, the assistance we are flowing together into ukraine to strengthen its hand on the battlefield and third, nato force posture. increasing the number of troops on nato s eastern flanks to reassure our partners and allies in the space of this russian aggression. all of this has been fully consul tated. you re going to see the president on the world stage
clear to president putin, and this is the last thing i will say, that if he moves on ukraine, the economic consequences for his economy will be devastating. devastating. number one. number two, we will find it a requirement that we will have to send more american and nato troops in the eastern flanks, the b9, all of those nato, countries who have a sacred obligation to defend them against any attack by russia. number three, the impact on all of that on russia and its attitude to the rest of the world s view on russia would change remarkably. he would pay a terrible price. so, we will continue to provide for, we have and continue to provide for, the defence capacities for the ukrainian people. amy mackinnon is a national security and intelligence correspondent with the foreign policy magazine in washington. she was previously based in moscow. she spoke about whether sanctions will have an effect this time.