The Biden administration has plans to push Ukraine to grant some level of autonomy to a region currently held by Russian-backed separatists, according to the Associated Press.
Separatists took control of areas in Ukraine’s east, such as the Donbas, in a 2014 uprising supported by the Kremlin. Using proxy soldiers in unmarked green uniforms, Russia seized control of Crimea, a peninsula that juts into the Black Sea, from Ukraine at that time.
Ukraine could be asked to allow the Donbas to operate separate services such as schools and health care, Steven Pifer, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told the AP.
“But I don’t see Washington pushing the Ukrainians to take steps that would compromise their sovereignty or the ability of the national government when it came to making decisions,” Pifer added.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a denial when a reporter asked whether the administration is pressuring Ukraine to “cede land to Russia as a way to deter them from invading,” at a White House press briefing on Thursday afternoon.
“No, that is absolutely false,” Psaki said.
Russia has moved thousands of troops to the Ukrainian border in recent weeks, and roughly 70,000 troops are currently stationed there, according to an unclassified intelligence analysis reported by the Washington Post. The developments led President Biden to hold a two-hour phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss the situation.
Biden said on Wednesday that U.S. troops would not be deployed to protect Ukraine, which is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“That is not on the table,” Biden told reporters. “We have a moral obligation and a legal obligation to our NATO allies if they were to attack under Article 5, that’s a sacred obligation. That obligation does not extend to…Ukraine.”
Biden instead warned of “severe consequences, economic consequences like none he’s ever seen or ever have been seen” against Russia should it conduct an invasion.
Update 3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with a remark by White House press secretary Jen Psaki.