Blinken threatened Russia with sanctions that the United States has not applied before

In the event of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the United States will invoke such effective sanctions that it has previously refrained from applying. This was stated by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Riga.

“If Russia takes the path of confrontation with Ukraine, we have made it clear that we will respond strongly, including a series of high-impact economic measures that we have refrained from in the past,” the US Secretary of State was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Washington called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian border. “We don't know if President [Vladimir] Putin has made the decision to invade. We know he's building the potential to do it on short notice if he decides to," Blinken continued.

The day before, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that Russia continues to increase the number of its troops near the border with Ukraine. “We are closely following this, and as for the number, I would not now give an assessment of what we see here. But I can say that we continue to see movements, we continue to see an increase in their forces, ”he said.