Biden warns US is prepared to defend ‘every inch of NATO territory’

President Biden issued a stark warning to Vladimir Putin Friday that the United States is ‘prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory’ after the Russian leader annexed four regions of Ukraine.

‘Mr Putin, don’t misunderstand what I am saying, ‘ Biden said as he slammed Russia’s ‘sham’ referendum and the ‘disinformation and lies’ on Friday that the West was behind the Nord Stream pipelines explosion.

Biden’s explicit warning, which he repeated, came hours after Putin accused United States of creating a nuclear weapons ‘precedent’ by bombing Japan at the end of the second World War in an unhinged speech calling the West ‘satanists’ and accusing ‘Anglo Saxons’ of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.

Putin and top officials in his regime have escalated their nuclear threats in recent gains even as Ukraine has taken back more territory that Russian forces seized since its February invasion. 

Biden also ridiculed the show of unity Putin organize for his announcement. Putin declared his country was absorbing territory it does not even control militarily. Tens of thousands of Russian men have been fleeing to neighboring countries where they can still travel amid the ‘partial mobilization’ Putin has announced.

‘Putin’s actions are a sign he’s struggling. The sham referendum he carried out and this team he put on … th sham routine that he put on this morning, showing the unity and people holding hands together,’ Biden said.

‘The United States is never going to recognize this. And quite frankly, the world’s not going to recognize it either. He can’t seize his neighbor’s territory and get away with it. It’s as as simple as that,’ Biden intoned. 

He underlined his comments by speaking to Putin directly, amid fears that the Russian leader could seek to further challenge the west by trying to go after a member of the NATO alliance. That could once again put the alliance’s unity to the test, after nations have spent months rallying to the Ukrainian cause and shipping increasingly powerful weapons to the the nation on its eastern flank.

‘I want to say this again. America’s fully prepared with our NATO allies independent every single inch of NATO territory. Every single inch. So Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Every inch,’ he said.

Biden said allies are ‘going to stay the course to provide military equipment so that Ukraine can defend itself.’ He pointed to the continuing resolution providing an additional $13 billion ‘to help the Ukrainians defend themselves and fight back.’

He circled back to the Nord Stream pipeline, a day after admonishing a reporter who asked about it on a visit to FEMA headquarters as a storm pummeled Florida.

He called it a ‘deliberate act of sabotage’ and said now ‘the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies.’

That was a reference to Moscow floating the idea that the U.S. was behind the attack, by citing Biden’s pre-invasion comment that the U.S. would ensure Nord Stream II wouldn’t be completed if Putin invaded. 

He said the U.S. would work with allies and ‘send divers down to find out exactly what happened.’

His warning underscored the commitment between NATO allies that Biden in the past has described as a ‘sacred’ bond. That includes the small Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on Russia’s doorstep.

The president’s comments came after the Russian despot ranted about sex-change operations, claimed America is occupying Germany and Korea and vowed to ‘smash’ the West in the disturbing remarks as he announced the annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

His saber-rattling is another terrifying hint that he is prepared to use nuclear weapons as he vowed to use ‘all available means’ to hold onto Russian-occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Again, he blamed the West for his invasion of Ukraine because they believe Russia is a ‘colony’ and a ‘band of slaves, and wants to break it up into smaller states who ‘will be fighting against each other’. 

Biden released a statement earlier Friday claiming that the annexations have ‘no legitimacy’ and will not be recognized by the U.S. He also announced a new set of sanctions in response to the move.

‘The United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders,’ Biden said in the statement, adding: ‘We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically.’

‘In response to Russia’s phony claims of annexation, the United States, together with our Allies and partners, are announcing new sanctions today,’ the president released in his Friday statement. ‘These sanctions will impose costs on individuals and entities — inside and outside of Russia — that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.’

The U.S. Treasury Department updated its list of sanctions for Russia-related individuals and entities to include the Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina and Russia Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. 

The Russian president said westerners have made the leap from issuing sanctions to conducting ‘terror attacks’ in a hostile speech delivered from the Kremlin.

The West sabotaging Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines was an attempt to ‘destroy the European energy infrastructure,’ he claimed – and added that ‘those who profit from it have done it,’ without naming a specific country.

Fears of nuclear war have grown since Putin confirmed last week he was ‘not bluffing’ when he said Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory. 

He claimed that there is ‘centuries-old Russophobia’ against his country and people because they dared defend themselves from western colonization. 

He also said any country who wants to ‘live by the rules of the United States’ are ‘political masochists.’ 

Putin even made the outlandish claim that the U.S. is occupying Germany in downplaying the relationship between the two nations.

‘Germany is still their vassal, but the United States is still calling them an ‘equal ally’. This is a real shame,’ the Russian leader said.

Announcing on Friday that he was annexing four Ukrainian regions, Putin delivered a blistering speech claiming Russia would use ‘all the power and all the means’ at its disposal to defend its new lands from attacks by the West or Ukraine and to help liberate the world.

The Russian despot, speaking in front of his cronies in Moscow, declared that ‘millions of people’ had ‘opted’ to become vassals of Russia after staging sham referendums in which gun-toting troops went door-to-door with clear glass ballot boxes in order to force people to vote.

‘They are our people, forever,’ he said to a standing ovation inside the Kremlin’s grand Georgian Hall before calling on Ukraine and its Western allies to abandon hopes of re-taking them, repeating a threat to use ‘all forces’ to defend the ‘new territories’.

He said: ‘The West wants to see Russia as a colony, an unfree society.’

‘One of the reasons for the centuries-old Russophobia is that we did not allow ourselves to be robbed during the period of colonization, we forced Europe to trade on an equal footing,’ Putin added, claiming he has plans for ‘intervention.’

Putin slammed the U.S. for being the only country to have twice used nuclear weapons against another nation and also accused America of leaving a ‘terrible mark on the history of Korea and Vietnam’ with engagements in conflicts in both conflicts. 

European nations, which have been reeling under soaring energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have noted that it is Russia, not Europe, that benefits from chaos in the energy markets and spiking prices for energy. 

Putin claimed that the U.S. is to blame for the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline. 

He also called the West ‘satanic’ because of the rejection of ‘moral norms’ in an attack on liberalism. Unlike Russia, he claimed that the U.S. and other western nations have turned away from ‘traditional’ and ‘religious’ values.

At one point in the speech, he asked the assembled dignitaries if they wanted ‘children to be offered sex-change operations,’ a practice he implied was widespread in the West.

‘From the elementary grades, perversions were imposed on children, which lead to degradation and extinction,’ he said. ‘To be drummed into them that there are supposedly other genders besides the woman and the man and offered to have a sex change operation? This is unacceptable for us.’ 

In his two decades in power, Putin has routinely promoted what he says are ‘traditional values’ and suppressed LGBTQ rights through a number of laws and by backing ultra-restrictive social movements and initiatives. 

Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in February with claims that the nation wants to be united with Russia – and now he has claimed four regions have voted to be annexed to the Kremlin.

The leader’s promise to protect his ‘new territories’ will be put to an almost-immediate test, possibly within hours, as thousands of Russian troops are currently thought to be encircled in Lyman, in the Donetsk region.

The city is on the verge of falling with troops either being captured or killed in the process.

Russia is also continuing to attack the regions it now claims as part of its own country, firing a rocket at a humanitarian convoy of cars in Zaporizhzhia earlier in the day – killing at least 25 civilians and wounding 50 in the process. The cars were heading into Russian-occupied territory to distribute aid, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky branded Russia ‘bloodthirsty scum’ after the blast.

‘Only complete terrorists could do this,’ he claimed, telling Putin, ‘You will definitely answer [for it]. For every lost Ukrainian life!’

Putin promised in his remarks that Moscow would rebuild all the cities and towns in Ukraine that were destroyed by his assault on the eastern European nation.