"For weeks," Joe Biden said in his Thursday night White House address, "for weeks we've been warning that this is happening." And now it's largely happening as predicted.

Two days earlier, the American President had expressed the hope that things would turn out differently.

"I hope I'm wrong about that - I hope we're wrong about that," he said of a Russian attack on Ukraine.

But when Biden was back in front of the press on Thursday, Russian troops were attacking numerous cities in Ukraine. In the capital Kiev, people were sitting in air raid shelters, and there were the first reports of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians being killed.

Sofia Dreisbach

Editor in Politics.

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"Putin is the aggressor, Putin chose this war," Biden said.

Now he and his country would have to face the consequences.

Many have been waiting eagerly for this moment, although the American President always added to the warnings that if the worst came to the worst, he would react with all severity.

Before talking about the specific sanctions, Biden emphasized the "serious consequences" for the Russian economy, "immediately and over time".

The punitive measures were deliberately chosen to have the maximum impact on Russia but the least possible harm to America and its allies.

One name that many had been waiting for in this context was Swift.

Banning Russia from the payment processor is seen as one of the options that could hurt Moscow the most.

But that was not among the extensive sanctions, especially against large Russian banks, that Biden announced that evening.

And when asked by a journalist, the president was convinced that these were just as effective as being expelled from Swift.

A coalition that represents “more than half of the global economy” has agreed on this.

It should be made difficult for Russia to do business in "dollars, euros, pounds and yen," Biden said.

Any funds that the sanctioned banks in America had would be frozen.

In the United States, the sanctions are sometimes viewed critically because Americans fear that the already high gasoline prices will continue to shoot through the roof.

Biden had already addressed this concern aggressively in the past few weeks and also addressed the population on Thursday.

"I know it's tough.

And Americans are already suffering.” But he will do everything in his power to ease the pain Americans feel at the pump.

"That is crucial for me."

Trump pours fuel on the fire

After the attack on Ukraine, the deep rift in America's dealings with Russia also became apparent in domestic politics, especially among Republicans.

Many support the Democratic president's hard line.

But Donald Trump took the opportunity to pour fuel on the fire.

He had just described Putin as a "genius," then he added on Wednesday evening: With him in the White House, he said in an interview with Fox News, Russia would not have attacked Ukraine.

There are good reasons why this has not happened in the past four years.

Putin saw Biden's "weakness" and exploited it.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham sided with Ukraine.

It was "imperative," he wrote on Twitter on Thursday, to continue to support the country "with defensive weapons and good intelligence."

The world must condemn Putin's destruction of a neighboring democracy as a war crime.

For Biden, the foreign policy impact is also crucial in this conflict.

For weeks he had symbolically placed himself close to NATO and its western allies, and coordinated every step with them.

And so he also emphasized when the sanctions were announced: "NATO is more united and more determined than ever before." "Every centimeter" of alliance territory will be resolutely defended.

Biden announced that he would send even more American troops to Europe, including Germany.

An hour after the first explosions in Ukraine, Biden spoke to Volodymyr Zelenskyy and again assured the Ukrainian President of the United States' support.

This will come in the form of logistics, arms supplies and financial aid, but not by sending American troops to Ukraine.

Biden has made this clear several times and he also emphasized it on Thursday.

Under no circumstances should soldiers from the two largest nuclear powers meet.

Biden also ruled out a meeting with Putin, which was discussed in between.

"Now the whole world sees what Putin and his Kremlin allies are really about," Biden said Thursday night.

“It was never about safety concerns.

It was always about naked aggression.

About Putin's desire for a great empire at any price.” He had instigated a war “for no reason” and that would be difficult for Russia, economically and strategically.

Biden promised: “We will make sure of that.

Putin will be a pariah on the international stage.”