On Ukraine, Biden Flusters European Allies by Stating the Obvious
The New York Times
The president laid bare divisions over Russian meddling in Ukraine, even if they have long been there for all to see.
BRUSSELS — President Biden caused controversy in his news conference Wednesday night by stating the obvious: that the many European allies of the United States are not all in agreement at this point about what to do should Russia choose any number of aggressive options toward Ukraine.
“It’s very important that we keep everyone in NATO on the same page,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s what I’m spending a lot of time doing. There are differences. There are differences in NATO as to what countries are willing to do, depending on what happened, the degree to which they’re able to go.”
But the European view has always been divided about what to do and in what circumstances to do it. As one senior European official said, the punishment must fit the crime. He noted that even after Russia annexed Crimea, it took nearly a year for the European Union to respond with serious sanctions against Moscow, and then mostly driven by the shooting down of a civilian airliner, MH17, by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine in July 2014.
