President Biden said in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had “badly miscalculated” by invading Ukraine, and vowed to make Moscow pay a steep economic “price” even as he repeated his pledge to avoid a direct military confrontation.
The speech, originally seen as an opportunity for a struggling president to send a reassuring message on the economy to a domestic audience, was hastily repurposed to send a stark warning to a foreign leader.
As had been widely expected, Mr. Biden announced several new moves to further punish Mr. Putin, including a ban on Russian aircraft in U.S. airspace and the creation of a task force inside the Justice Department to aggressively identify, locate and seize the assets of Russian oligarchs and officials in Mr. Putin’s inner circle.
“We’re joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets,” Mr. Biden said. “We’re coming for your ill-begotten gains, and tonight I’m announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding additional squeeze on their economy.”
Mr. Putin, the president added, “has no idea what’s coming.”
Mr. Biden was repeatedly interrupted by applause from members of both parties as he addressed the crisis during the opening moments of his speech.
But the Republican cheering dissipated when he warned Americans to expect economic blowback in the form of higher energy prices resulting from the sanctions. To cushion that blow, he said the United States, in conjunction with 30 allies, would release 60 million barrels of oil from reserves, with half coming from domestic supplies.
“We’re going to be OK,” he said.
What Mr. Biden did not say was equally noteworthy.
He made no mention of the nation’s nuclear deterrence capabilities in response to Mr. Putin’s menacing references in recent days to putting Russia’s arsenal on a war footing. He also did not offer any clear way out of the crisis, or even a possible offramp for an increasingly bellicose and isolated Mr. Putin, short of pulling Russian troops out of Ukraine immediately.
While Mr. Biden committed to providing Ukraine with enough weaponry, supplies and humanitarian assistance to “fight for freedom,” he said again he was not prepared to directly confront Russian troops by moving NATO forces into Ukraine or imposing a no-fly zone, as some Democrats have suggested.
“Let me be clear: Our forces are not engaged and will not engage with the Russian forces in Ukraine,” he said.
“Our forces are not going to Europe to fight Ukraine but to defend our NATO allies in the event Putin decides to keep moving west,” Mr. Biden added. “For that purpose, we have mobilized American ground forces, air squadrons and ships.”
