President Joe Biden had no answer to a question on the “endgame” for the Ukraine War during an interview published Tuesday, despite having recently escalated U.S. involvement in the war.
Biden did not respond to what he thought the “endgame” in Ukraine would be, and only what he thought peace looked like. He responded, according to a transcript of the interview:
Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine. That’s what peace looks like. And it doesn’t mean NATO, they are part of NATO. It means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in the future. But it is not, if you notice, I was the one when — and you guys did report it at TIME — the one that I was saying that I am not prepared to support the NATOization of Ukraine.
Biden’s non-answer on the endgame in Ukraine comes as he has escalated U.S. involvement in the war.
He recently approved Ukraine using U.S.-supplied weapons to hit Russian forces inside Russia that engaged in attacks on Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv. When the reporter asked him if there was a danger that NATO is on a slippery slope to war with Russia, Biden responded that war would happen “if we don’t do something about Ukraine,” but did not say what that “something” was.
Biden also bragged about publicizing U.S. intelligence on Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine shortly before Russian forces did so in February 2022, even though the action did not stop Russian forces from invading, and despite the Biden administration doing little for months as Russian forces gathered at the Ukrainian border.
So far, the U.S. has spent approximately $200 billion on the Ukraine War since 2022.
Biden acknowledged in the interview “significant corruption” in Ukraine, but warned that if Ukraine went down, Poland — a NATO ally — would go as well, despite Putin so far voicing no intent to invade NATO members.
Biden said, “I spent a month in Ukraine when I was a Senator and Vice President. There was significant corruption. There was a circumstance that was really difficult. And so, the point is, though, that if we ever let Ukraine go down, mark my words: you’ll see Poland go, and you’ll see all those nations along the actual border of Russia, from the Balkans and Belarus, all those, they’re going to make their own accommodations.”
