(FiveNation.com)- The White House is sticking to its guns — that America will not be sending military troops to defend Ukraine in its war against Russia.
On Monday, the White House said that it disagreed with the assessment issued recently by Chris Coons, a Democratic senator, who recently said top U.S. officials should discuss possibly sending American military troops to defend Ukraine.
At her daily press briefing early this week, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said:
“Senator Coons is a close friend of the president’s and the administration, and we just respectfully disagree with his proposal. The president has no plans to send troops to fight a war with Russia. He doesn’t think that’s in our national security interests.”
On many occasions, Biden has ruled out the possibility of sending American troops to fight along with Ukraine on the ground. Instead, the U.S. — along with many of its allies in the West — have chosen to impose tough economic sanctions on the top oligarchs, major banks and businesses in Russia, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the eight weeks that the war has gone on, a majority of countries across the world have been united against Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Some have even accused Putin and Russians of committing war crimes for some acts they’ve carried out in Ukraine.
That being said, Coons recently commented that he believed it might be necessary eventually for U.S. troops to get in on the ground in Ukraine if Putin ends up going even further. He told an audience at the University of Michigan recently that the Russian president “will only stop when we stop him.”
He continued:
“We are in a very dangerous moment where it is important that on a bipartisan and measured way, we in Congress and the administration come to a common position about when we are willing to go the next step and to send not just arms but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine.
“If the answer is never, then we are inviting another level of escalation in brutality by Putin.”
Coons even went as far as saying he was worried that Ukraine might eventually “turn into Syria.” That nation has been war-torn for more than 10 years now, with conflicts constantly taking place on a seemingly never-ending basis.
While Biden has said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “genocide,” he has refrained from committing to sending U.S. troops in to help Ukraine. The president even told reporters last week that it’s “become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be Ukrainian.”
The U.S. recently decided to increase aid that it sends to Ukraine. It will send ammunition, weapons and additional security assistance over to Ukraine, all of which comes to around $800 million in total aid, the White House said recently.
And the strategy, according to Psaki is to continue to provide as much economic and security assistance to the country.
