US President Joe Biden on Monday warned Americans living in Ukraine that they should leave the country.
Biden made the remark during a joint news conference at the White House with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, during which he also told reporters that the Nord Stream 2 project, set to bring natural gas from Russia to Germany via a Baltic Sea pipeline, “will be no longer” if Russia invades its neighbor.
Construction on the pipeline has been completed but not yet certified.
“If Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again — then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said. “We will bring an end to it.”
The US has been coordinating closely with Germany and its other European partners in recent weeks on a “swift and severe” package of sanctions the US and Europe would impose on Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, a senior administration official said earlier in the day. “We have made our position very clear . . . we will continue to work very closely with Germany to ensure the pipeline does not move forward,” the official said.
Shortly after, Biden urged US citizens in Ukraine to quit the country as soon as possible.
“I think it would be wise to leave the country,” the president told reporters. “I’m not talking about our diplomatic corps; I’m talking about Americans who are there,” he added.
“I’d hate to see them get caught in a crossfire if, in fact, they did invade. And there’s no need for that.”
At this point, it is estimated by both US and European officials that up to 140,000 Russian troops are now massed along Ukraine’s borders, equivalent to about 70 percent of the total force that would be needed to stage a full-force invasion of Ukraine.
