Biden warns Russia will pay a ‘severe price’ if it uses chemical weapons in Ukraine

By Sam Fossum and Betsy Klein, CNN

President Joe Biden warned on Friday that Russia will pay a “severe price” if the country uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.

“I’m not going to speak about the intelligence, but Russia will pay a severe price if they use chemicals,” Biden told CNN’s Arlette Saenz following remarks announcing further economic moves against Russia.

While the US has so far not presented any evidence that Russia plans to use chemical weapons in Ukraine, the White House — most notably, press secretary Jen Psaki — has warned that the weapons could be used in the conflict.

Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine or manufacture a “false flag” operation that uses them, Psaki said Wednesday. The press secretary, slamming what she called false claims from Russia that the US is developing chemical weapons in Ukraine, tweeted, “Now that Russia has made these false claims, and China has seemingly endorsed this propaganda, we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them. It’s a clear pattern.”

She also noted Russia’s “long and well-documented track record of using chemical weapons” as well as its pattern of “accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating.”

The US government has previously found that the Russian government used chemical weapons in both the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and in 2018 against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in England. Both determinations by the US led to sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, which requires the President to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions if a country is found to have used chemical weapons.

Additionally, the US has said that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is supported by Russia, has used chemical weapons on its people dozens of times during the war there

When asked about her tweets at Thursday’s press briefing, Psaki declined to speculate on hypotheticals regarding the US response if Russia were to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.

“Well, they have a large biological and chemical weapons program. So it’s a pattern, but they also have the capacity. While I’m not going to get into specific intelligence, we look at all of those factors,” Psaki told reporters.

She continued, “So the objective (of the tweets) was to make clear the inaccuracy of the information and the misinformation they’re trying to put out and make clear to the world that they not only have the capacity, they have a history of using chemical and biological weapons, and that in this moment, we should have our eyes open for that possibility.”

She declined to speculate on whether there is any sign of imminent use of chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine.

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on whether there will be a military response from the US if Russia were to conduct a chemical weapons attack, Psaki said the current US posture has not changed.

“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. What we’re saying right now is they have the capacity and the capabilities. I’m also not going to get into intelligence. But the President’s intention of sending US military to fight in Ukraine against Russia has not changed,” she said.

She later declined to specify any red lines but said there will be “significant consequences for every escalatory step” taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned earlier this year of the possibility of Russia carrying out a fake or real chemical weapons attack as a manufactured pretext for an invasion into Ukraine. But his comments came before Russia’s full invasion began.

The-CNN-Wire
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