Biden again attempts to walk back Russia-Ukraine ‘minor incursion’ gaffe

President Biden insisted Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has no misunderstanding” about the “severe” economic sanctions that would follow a Russian invasion of Ukraine — after Biden said Wednesday that a “minor incursion” might result in less severe penalties.

“Let me start by first saying a few words about Russia and Ukraine,” Biden opened a White House meeting on infrastructure. “I’ve been absolutely clear with President Putin. He has no misunderstanding. If any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion.

“It will be met with [a] severe and coordinated economic response that I’ve discussed in detail with our allies as well as laid out very clearly for President Putin,” Biden added. “But there is no doubt — let there be no doubt at all — that if Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.”

The White House has tried repeatedly to walk back Biden’s remarks — made  “green light” to invade.

“I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades,” the president said Wednesday. “And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, etc.”

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Biden also raised eyebrows by admitting that NATO member states disagree on possible responses to Russia if it invades its western neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Biden on social media Thursday.

“We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations,” Zelensky tweeted. “Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the President of a great power.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday at her regular briefing that Biden and Zelensky have not spoken since his Wednesday remarks.

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“Just to make it very clear, has President Biden spoken to President Zelensky since his comments yesterday?” NBC News reporter Peter Alexander asked.

“He has not,” Psaki said. “He has spoken with him a couple of times, as you know, in the last month, but we have spoken at a very high level, but below the president.”

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department announced financial sanctions against four Ukrainian citizens — including two members of the country’s parliament, Taras Kozak and Oleh Voloshyn — for allegedly being “purveyors of Russian disinformation” Thursday.

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“Kozak, who controls several news channels in Ukraine, supported the [Russian security service] FSB’s plan to denigrate senior members of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s inner circle, falsely accusing them of mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Treasury Department said. “Furthermore, Kozak used his news platforms to amplify false narratives around the 2020 US elections first espoused by US-designated Andrii Leonidovych Derkach (Derkach). Kozak has attempted to legitimatize Derkach’s claims by rebroadcasting Derkach’s false assertions about U.S. political candidates.”

Derkach, also a member of Ukraine’s parliament, was sanctioned by the US in September 2020 during the Trump administration.

When Biden was vice president in 2014, Russia invaded Crimea and then annexed the important ports region from Ukraine following a disputed referendum. The Black Sea peninsula was considered part of Russia within the Soviet Union prior to 1954.

Putin’s government also allegedly supports a pair of pro-Russia breakaway states in eastern Ukraine. Those territories in the coal-rich Donbas region have been at war with Ukraine’s central government since 2014.

Biden told reporters Thursday that a direct Russian invasion of Ukraine wasn’t the only possible spark for conflict.

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“Russia has a long history of using measures other than overt military action to carry out aggression,” he said. “And paramilitary tactics, so called gray zone attacks and actions by Russian soldiers not wearing Russian uniforms — remember when they moved into the Donbas with little green men?

“They were dealing with those who were Russian sympathizers and said that Russia had nobody in there. Well, that includes little green men in uniforms as well as cyber attacks. We have to be ready to respond to these as well and decisively in a united way with a range of tools at our disposal.”

Biden added, “The Ukrainian foreign minister said this morning that he’s confident of our support and resolve and he has a right to be.” He did not address the harsh rebuke from Zelensky.