and of course in recent weeks, before the invasion began, i laid out before the united nations the security council exactly what we expected putin to do and how he would do it. creating bogus pretext for war, and then using those false flags an other operations as justification for invading ukraine. and for months we made clear that this is what we expected. but at the same time, it is our obligation, my obligation, the obligation of allies and partners to pursue diplomacy if there is any opportunity to do so. because, as we said all along, it is far preferable than what we re seeing. and again, as we said all along, there are two paths that russia could take. one is diplomacy and dialogue, the other is aggression against ukraine and we said we would be prepared either way.
playbook is to break the back of resistance in ukraine and to do that by using overwhelming force in civilian areas and residential areas. cnn s national security correspondent alex marquardt joins us live from the kyiv region. alex, the images now coming out of just the last 20, last 12 or 24 hours, it just getting worse on ground in terms of the kinds after tacks we re seeing and repeatedly in residential areas. yeah, anderson, it is getting hard to keep up. and it s becoming extraordinarily clear that any claim by the russians that they are avoiding civilian areas or not targeting civilian infrastructure or residences is just not true. and the death toll is climbing significantly by the day. you know what reit remind he ms. of what the russians did in
and cost to defend it. they have demonstrated they are more tan ready to stand up and stand together. and the united states is standing with europe. pursuing complimentary actions and with our allies and partners. to giva few examples, we ve deployed 7,000 troops to europe and repositioned our forces already on the continent to strengthen the nato eastern flank. we continue to tighten our severe economic sanctions on russia. last knight we extended temporary protective status to tens of thousands of ukrainians living in the united states and the president has requested an additional $10 billion from congress to deliver more humanitarian, security and economic assistance in ukraine and the surrounding region over the coming days and weeks. yesterday, president putin said his so-called special military operation is proceeding exactly as planned.
what the president promised when he announced the first sanctions was that as the aggressions increased from russia, so would the punishment and committed to that punishment focused on the russian economy . why not now take that step? absolutely. we are imposing the most historically strong crushing economic sanctions on the russian committee in coordination.
and delivery of military assance to a country under attack. they adopted the swiftest package in history against russia and the e.u. granted immediate refuge to those who call ukrainian home. the first time it has invoked this protection mechanism. and they are taking extraordinary steps. germany is doubling the defense spending. poland has opened its arms to more than half a million ukrainian refugees. switzerland set aside the neutrality to adopt the sanctions on russian. the list goes on. these and other efforts by our european allies do not undermine the transatlantic security alliance, they deepen our collective might. as recently as a few weeks ago, some questioned whether this base order came under threat whether our partners will be willing to shoulder their fair share of the burden, the risk