Republican lawmakers have blamed US President Joe Biden for the Ukraine crisis, saying the Biden administration cleared the way for Russia’s actions in Ukraine with a series of foreign policy blunders.
“Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a renewed invasion of Ukraine is reprehensible. Sadly, President Biden consistently chose appeasement and his tough talk on Russia was never followed by strong action,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other House GOP leaders in a statement on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as independent and afterward ordered troops into the Donbas region.
Biden called Russia’s actions in Donetsk and Lugansk, collectively known as the Donbas, the “beginning of an “invasion.”
On Tuesday, Russian lawmakers approved a request by Putin to use military force outside of Russia.
US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Biden for his passive foreign policy.
“I don't believe Vladimir Putin would have a couple of hundred thousand troops on the border of Ukraine had we not precipitously withdrawn from Afghanistan last August,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky on Tuesday.
However, the situation on the other side of the aisle is totally different.
Over the past days, Democrats have missed no opportunity to praise Biden’s moves, reiterating that his administration has managed to unite NATO and other US allies in Europe very quickly.
“These unified steps make clear that the United States and our allies are not bluffing in our determination to inflict serious and painful consequences on Russia in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.
On Tuesday, Biden announced that the United States would impose financial penalties on Russia because of its deployment of troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, which Moscow has already recognized as independent republics.
He also directed additional US troops to Eastern Europe.
“As Russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
Washington has over the past months kept accusing Moscow of planning to attack Ukraine by stationing as many as 190,000 troops on and around Ukraine's borders.