So what are you gonna do? Hi everybody, thank you all for hopping on one last second to make sure everyone was in neurology Knology Hi everybody. My name is Rob, Clarion Director of Digital Strategy here at the White House. Thank you all for hopping on on this call. We are here to talk about the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. And we are excited to chat with all of you about the latest. Obviously, we value the work you all are doing informing your followers of the ongoing events. And we recognize this as a critically important avenue and the way that the American public is finding out about the latest. So we wanted to make sure you had the latest information from us from an authoritative source. So you're you're here to answer your questions and give you a quick overview.
For our purposes here, this is sort of equivalent to what a background briefing would be for reporters. So you know, you're you're welcome to use the information saying you spoke to a White House officials and your government official or that you attended a briefing with the White House on on Ukraine. Just can't attribute to a specific people. So having to answer more questions about that, and how to handle this later. But in the meantime, I want to turn it over to our special guests. Jen Psaki, who was here, take some questions from you all, and Matt Miller, who is here from the National Security Council,
so I'll throw it over there.
All right. Thank you, Rob so much. And when I heard this breathing was happening, I basically crashed and invited myself. So Madison, time to let me join him at at this engagement discussions love you. And I just want to start by echoing what Rob said. And just to thank you all, for everything you're doing. I mean, your, to your voices and your platforms, to educate, to inform, to debunk to demystify, during what is a very tumultuous heartbreaking time in the world is, is remarkable. And we recognize and value of your platforms and hope this can be an open and ongoing conversation, I just thought I would start with two high level points from this end.
And then Matt is going to give us some more specific details. But just as you're thinking about how you're covering or how you're talking about what's happening, or how the US government, I guess, is making decisions. One thing we're doing here, and President instills this into us every time we're in the office is focused on the big being unified with our partners and allies around the world. And I know you've heard him say that, but having spent a lot of time with him over the past 1314 months or more. This has been such a huge focus for him from the beginning. So what you've seen over the past couple of weeks, and what the country has seen in the world, in a lot of ways, with all of these countries around the world, be unified in implementing sanctions on providing military assistance on welcoming refugees. That didn't happen by accident. That happened in large part because President Biden, the national security team has been rallying the world for the last several months on this specific anticipation of Russia invading Ukraine. But even before that part of and the number one focus he has had, when he's traveled around the world or engaged since he took office was rebuilding those partnerships and alliances, rebuilding the strength of NATO, rebuilding the role of the United States, having skipped the table and none of that again, happy accident. So I just wanted to mention that first. The second piece I wanted to mention is that, you know, there are a lot of questions. And believe me, I spent an hour so they are with our White House press corps here. And they all have really good questions too, about why we make certain decisions and why we give certain assistance and not other assistance. And I just wanted to say that a big part of our of the prism through which we make a lot of decisions is to prevent a more expansive war. That is our objective. Obviously, what we're seeing happen with President Putin invading a sovereign country. And the all of the horrors that we see on television and that you're sharing with your, with your audiences is is, you know, the largest invasion we've seen since World War Two. So I certainly don't want to downplay that. It's, but also what we're trying to do is prevented escalating. And so you know, that's why we've made decisions around issues like no fly zones, or what kind of military assistance we provide. There's been a lot of talk recently about planes and where planes take off. And I know we'll we'll discuss this with all of you. But that's what our focus has been. So I'll stop there. And I know, we just want to mainly have a conversation, but I'll turn it over to my to my colleague here, who can give you more of a specific company.
Thanks, Jen. So first of all, if you did not gender crash, is happy to have her here because the deal we made was that she had to take all the hard questions. No one's better as the earth. Let me just give you a few points on what we see happening in on the ground and Ukraine. What we see how we see our response and United States response in the West response and wherever we go. So first of all, just on the ground, the Russian as you can all see, if you watch the press coverage closely, kind of continue to advance slowly but consistently on the same three axes that they initially launched invasion on from the north headed towards key from the east around Karki, and from the south mostly centered now around a miracle where they launched this devastating attacks on civilians. On all three fronts, the Russian attack has moved much more slowly than we believe they expected much more slowly than people on the west expected. We think that's for a few reasons. Number one, the Ukrainians can plot incredibly hard incredibly bravely, the military's supported by regular civilians who have joined the fight. The Ukrainians have been better armed than I think the rest of us expected and have been more nimble in launching attacks, especially on big lumbering Russian convoys of tanks and other armored equipment. And number two, the Russians have had their own difficulties even apart from what the Ukrainians have done. To them, I think their military hardware is not functioned, as well as people expected and supposedly great Russian war machine. They have logistical and mechanical difficulties. And then they really had significant morale, to continue to see reports of Russian soldiers who've not following orders of deserting in some cases, and a feeling among some in the Russian army that they were deceived. They thought they were on a training exercise. And they're now in a ward and their neighbors may have no idea what they're fighting for. So what does that all mean? So the way I think what what, where we're seeing the Russians turn their attack, and since their their initial plan to kind of take over the country very quickly, it's failed, they're now turning this kind of war of attrition, which is where you see them launching these really brutal attacks on civilians, bombing hospital, maternity wards, cutting civilians off and food and water, in some cases, electricity to try to really put pressure on Ukrainian population. I will say we think the effects of that are such that we're now comfortable saying the present state a couple days ago, that Russia can no longer achieve its long term objectives here. President Biden said two days ago that Ukraine will never be a big group. And what he meant by that is that Putin can win short term tactical objectives. He has a bigger military on the ground than the Ukrainians do. But he has so turned the population against him Ukrainians if they ever had any chance of supporting a Russian occupation, which is not was not ever the current anyway, now have been so brutalized by the Russian attacks, that they are never going to stand for any kind of long term obligation occupation, they're never going to stand for public government. So what Putin is hope to achieve in Ukraine is not going to be able to doesn't mean there aren't a lot of really long days ahead of us. There certainly, certainly are.
That, ultimately, is subjective. So what does the United States do to make that happen? Two things one, give as much support as we can to the Ukrainians. So that takes the form of military support, security assistance, we've talked a lot about that we've sent committed a billion dollars in the past year, 250 million and just last week or so that we searched in help the Ukrainian army. And there's more on the way, economic assistance to the Ukrainian government, and also, really critically now humanitarian assistance. We're sending into Ukraine, food, water, medical supplies, things that people really need to kind of just sustain daily life. The second part of that is holding Russia accountable, specifically holding accountable. And we've tried to do that by assembling this coalition in the west, to impose crippling economic sanctions on the Russian economy, to target himself and those closest to him. And to really kind of degrade Russia's ability to finance this war and its ability to project power. So at the same time, we're trying to support the Ukrainians in their struggle. We're trying to degrade degrade Russia's capabilities and put pressure on them. So how does that end? It's obviously too early to say the president Solinsky has made clear that he is open to a diplomatic solution in sending this foreign minister to negotiate with the Russian Foreign Minister. Now he's asked for a ceasefire, we obviously very much support ceasefire. We would really love to see the violence stop, even temporarily get supplies into people, we can get people out of the cities that are in the worst shape. But ultimately, that is a choice for the person who wants to support Vladimir Putin. And we're going to do everything we can to make that choice difficult as we can and support the Ukrainians in every way we can. And we will see, you know, ultimately, what choice to make.
Okay, I think we're gonna open it up to questions and my colleague Aisha is gonna manage that process.
Everybody, thanks so much for being here with us today. I think a lot of you I've been in touch with.
I know we're having that endemic problem, but we can't hear you.
No, no. Can you not hear me still?
Still can't When did you want your shot? Is this better? Yeah.
Okay, there we go. Thanks, Jen. Hey, everybody, thank you so much for being here. The way we're gonna run this is, for all of those folks who have questions, if you could just raise your hands. I will sort of call on you by name. And then we'll unmute you, you'll be able to ask your question, and we will follow along to the next person. Aaron was the very first person to raise his hand. So could we please unmute Aaron so that he can answer ask his question.
Thank you. And first, thank you so much for doing this gentleman, really appreciate it. My family in Ukraine, Jen actually watch her press briefings almost every day, even during the war. So they're really appreciative of that, as well. And my question is, some people feel as though the actions that have happened up until now war in a stronger response from the United States, including the imposition of a no fly zone. So is there anything Russia can do to Ukraine outside of a direct act of war against the United States, or NATO that would rise the level of the United States proceeding with increased measures, including a no fly zone, or even potentially boots on the ground?
Sorry about that.
So yeah, that is really like, that is the question that it's not that it's hard to ask the raises the boat, but like the thing that's really like troubling for everyone that watches watches this. So it is tough to see these atrocities on the ground every day and not want to do more. And so we always ask ourselves, what more can we do? And the that means what more could we do without making this a wider war that brings more countries into conflict puts American soldiers at risk. And the what the President has decided is, the best thing we can do to end this war as quickly as possible without escalating into a bigger conflict is to support the Ukrainians and all the ways I was talking about. And all the ways I was talking about end up with lots of military systems were flowing in that we never talked about. But what he's also decided that is not in the national interest of the United States to send American soldiers in by and die in this war, both because it's not in our interest. And also it would mean for wider conflict. And you don't have to think of two nuclear powers engaging in a shooting war, how that could end up. Now, that means, often sometimes watching these pictures and feeling like you want to do more, and you just have to be really responsible in the way you face these choices. And think about what we can do that it's going to lead to this war ending as quickly as possible, without it widening into a much more dangerous conflict, or the United States, praying for all the countries in Europe.
Yeah, the only thing I would add, and my first also say, Aaron, I thank you. I mean, you've been such an important voice during this moment. And I know, I don't know that you would have predicted that was what you're going to spend your time doing two months ago. So thank you for doing what you're doing as well. And I think you're informing so many people out there, and hello to your family in Ukraine. Amazing. Um, I would say that, you know, sometimes we say no fly zone. I think you know, this, a lot of you know, this, but I think this is one of the things we're trying to educate, frankly, a lot of people who who look to your voices, that what that means is if there's a Russian plane in the air, the United States would shoot down that plane. And what that would prompt is action in response. And then the fear there, just to build on what Matt was saying is then we're in a war with Russia, and a war between two huge global of power, you know, war powers, nuclear powers, is not what we feel is in the interest of our national security, or what, you know, the president most importantly, get the interest of national security, or, or, or, you know, the world's but it is, I mean, just to echo what Matt said, I mean, I try to keep very cool during briefings even when there's emotional things and I got, like, really choked up the other day, as I think everyone does, because it's just you've watched the bombing of, you know, the maternity hospital, and people just streaming over the border. And it is, um, I don't think either of us want to undervalue how hard this is and how hard this is to watch and, and you know, how we're trying to balance those things, even in those moments, but I'll stop there.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks so much, Jen and Matt. AB I see you have your hand up. We're gonna unmute you next for your question.
Thank you, and thank you for having me. So my question is, what efforts or strategies are currently in place to either reduce or prevent the misinformation that we receive in the United States? by outside sources essentially regarding the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?
So, um, this is such an important question when we're talking to all of you. And and I think that this part of that is we started off this conversation conveying is we recognize how important your platforms are and how important it is to provide as much accurate information as possible to all the people who are using their voices and their platforms to project accurate information, because the best antidote to disinformation is the true, right. And one of the big steps we've taken and made a decision to take is to declassify information over the course of the last several months, that is a hugely significant step, Matt and I have both spent many versions of time in government. And if you look back at 2014, and frankly, even 2016, when Russia invaded Ukraine, and then in 2016, when they, you know, of course, hacked our election here. It we did not do that, right, we did not dissent, we did not declassify information. And it was very hard to communicate to the public. And to compete with, frankly, the disinformation war that Russia was was waging. So that decision on its own to put out all of the steps we were anticipating them taking whether it was and we've called them these, you know, false flags, or setting up false pretexts, which is basically their effort to justify an invasion and justify all of the military action you've seen them take. Because of these efforts, classified information. Even as we're watching all of this happened, it has been nearly impossible for them to justify to the global community what they're doing, but I'll stop
there. That's I don't have much to add to that and say, look at this is obviously an issue the US like a lot of Western countries struggled with how to deal with this information. It's particularly hard when you're engaged in a kind of information war. With a country like Russia that plays by different rules that we do Russia, it's part of their strategy to go out and spread disinformation lies on social media. And elsewhere, they have their official stand up and say things that are not true. And we don't play by the rules of how we operate as a government. And so we've made a decision early on in the lead up to this invasion, as Jen said, just that the only way we could combat Russian disinformation was to call them on it as early as possible, and to flood the information space with what we thought that they were going to do. And I think we built up credibility by doing that there was a period when everyone forgets this. Now, when people said, the US is overdramatizing, what's happening here, the Russians don't plan to invade, they're just you know, they're moving their troops around. This is all hyped up by the United States. And I think we've now built a bit of a bit of credibility that we absolutely were not crying wolf here. And every step that we predicted the Russians were going to take, they've taken and so hopefully, that has helped cut down the credibility of their disinformation. But it is still a daily struggle, where we're constantly trying to knock down thing. They're saying accusations that are that are making no basis, in fact, at all. And what we try to do is be as clear from Jen from the podium and other other government spokespeople about what we see them doing and what we think they're going to do next.
Thanks so much, Matt, and thanks for your question. AB. You've been doing incredible work and sort of explaining all of this. So so really appreciate it. Um, the next person we're going to take a question from is under the desk news, the spacebar?
Hi, yep, it's vSphere. Just silent age.
I'm sorry, sphere.
That's okay. So yesterday, the big picture $13.6 billion aid package for Ukraine was released. Just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about how this will be action.
So we've had to start by saying what we've been doing up until now kind of gave the highlights. We've had these packages of military assistance manager and economic assistance that we've been kind of the technical government terms, you do a draw down, pull down this amount of money, and then you send the material into Ukraine. When this bill passes and consuming, it does when we need it like we will next week that will give us more resources on all three of those fronts, economic aid, humanitarian aid and military aid. And without getting into details we have plans to as soon as that bill is signed to be able to flow assistance in the Ukraine across all those so they get the military aid they need to continue defending their country they get the humanitarian aid they need. Provide him medical supplies and food, water and other equipment to people that are suffering. And then they get economic aid, which they also fared much need. Obviously, their economy is shut down, we'll have an ongoing war. So we will be taking that that money as quickly as we get it and pulling it out of the government in
Ukraine. Yeah, one of the kind of not untold, because there's so many stories that are being told, but just compare it in comparing it to kind of past efforts to get security assistance or military assistance out in the fact that we have been able to get $250 million of military essentially military assistance that I called it is to Ukraine, and to the people who are fighting in Ukraine over the last, I think 10 days or so, there have not ever felt that period of time is pretty remarkable. I mean, they're in the middle of a war. And we also typically have a lot of red tape and approvals. And no, you often have to prepare this material to get it there. And we have taken every step to expedite getting that there and used a range of means to get it to people so that they they have it on the ground. So
yeah, not said one pointed out, it's a good point about doing a bit of work. We can't just land a plane in Kiev right now, and offload all of this aid. It's not so much more complicated situation. Now, it's the middle of a conflict zone. So we've had to be very creative work with a lot of allies to get that aid in never talked about how we do it for all these reasons. Because the security situation, there had to be really creative. And it's because of the hard work of just a lot of people throughout the US government in the US military, humanitarian organizations, the US government supports to get that assistance in. So
yeah, thank you for that. I think what I'm looking for is how I'm going to overcome some of the What about Islam that I get a lot on the platform, and we're floating about great things. We always get back. What about this? What about Americans? What about that? So thank you for clarifying that. I think we just do our best to try and keep keep them focused.
Thanks so much. For me. Okay, great. Ellie, do you want to go with your question next?
Yes, please. Am I unmuted? Yeah. Okay, great. Hi, thank you so much for having me. First of all, my question is a little less related to the war. But nonetheless, it's still affecting the United States. So the United States is united, the United States inflation rate is at a four time, decimal high. What does this mean to young people? And what does this mean for our future?
Yeah, what a good question. Let me just go down a nerd rabbit hole for like 30 seconds, and then come back out, I promise. But I feel like this is a safe nerd place. Um, so what we're experiencing and what you all are experiencing, and everyone in this country, but certainly young people, is, um, a huge pandemic prompted uh escalation of inflation. Right? Because the pandemic, obviously, we all were locked in our houses — But, it also meant that around the world, manufacturing sectors were shut down. Uh, people couldn't, you know, we have a global supply chain, which is such now a term everybody uses like in common vernacular, which is a little funny, but it meant it means that things are cheaper, because we get parts from different parts of the world. But what the parts aren't available, it makes it harder to produce the goods and makes it things more expensive. So, I'll use an example. Cars, if you try, I don't know if anybody here has tried to buy a car in recent six months, or the latter...
The order's still on ship.
...expensive, in part because we can't get semiconductor chips, we don't have enough in this country, we can't get them from other parts of the world because they weren't produced. That makes new cars more expensive, makes us cars more expensive. And that for a period of time was about a third to a quarter of the reason why inflation was so high. So just as an example. But um, what we've been doing to address it is a couple of things. And I know you didn't ask this, but I'm just going to add it and then I'll come out of the nerd place, um, is work on the supply chain that's addressing all those bottlenecks. But also making sure things can come in, all the goods can come in through ports. So many goods were coming in, that the ports couldn't handle it. So we had to increase the capacity. And a lot of the big ports in the country, including a lot of you in California. And if you're in California right now. A lot of goods coming through those ports in Southern California. So, we worked with that. We've made a lot of progress, like a 60% increase, I believe and stuff coming through those ports, which is huge. Um, the other thing that we've done is we're working to get a bill through Congress to get... make semiconductor chips here. So, hopefully the President's gonna sign that soon. Because if we go through another iteration of this, we don't want cars to be expensive. Okay, let me get back to the third nerd point and then we'll come back out of it. Right now. We're going to see increasing levels of inflation-- we anticipate that can happen because of energy crisis, which has been a driver of inflation For some time, even before Putin, President Putin invaded Ukraine. And that is a factor because obviously, the price of gas impacts people everywhere, right? Impacts everybody who drives their cars, impacts how expensive your airline tickets are, impacts everything. That's what we think is going to be the driver, now. Gas has gone up, I think as many of you experienced about 75 cents since President Putin started lining up his troops on the border. And what we're trying to do is take a range of steps to address that. Okay, so that was the nerdy portion of this of this program. But what I would say is how will impact young people. I mean, right now, inflation is supposed to moderate. And that means come back down by the end of the year. And our hope is that because of all the steps we've taken, uh, that we can continue to take steps to expedite them. Right? To to work to to stay on that timeline. Well, we don't make those projections from here. They're made from outside from the Federal Reserve and others. Um, so hopefully, this will not impact everybody for the long term. Right? That's our hope. But what you're experiencing right now, and the things that are impacting inflation, whether it's COVID, or right now, this invasion, I mean, you're you're part of, um, in many ways, standing up for a generation that is standing up for the values of the United States, right? Which is the invasion of a foreign dictator into another country, and standing up for the rights of the people in that country. And well, it's his actions present, who that is prompting the rising gas prices. That is what, why, what is prompt, that is why it's happening. And that is what I would say, as young people are experiencing this moment and thinking, what does this mean? And what am I a part of? And why is my gas prices going up? It's because of what President Putin is doing. But also because you live in a country where we're rallying the world to stand up against that. And that's part of our values and part of who we are. And... as much as no one wants to pay more in gas — we don't — we're gonna take steps to lower them. Uh, you know, that's what this moment in history will be as well. That was a very long answer, and I apologize, but a very good question, Eliana [sic]. Okay, we'll start I promised I want everything won't be that long in future. No, thank
you, Jen. That was a really good reminder. Go ahead, Ellie. Thank you so much. Thank you. Perfect. Okay, the recount. We're going to take your question next.
Well, first off, just want to reiterate the things that everybody's given so far, we really appreciate this. Matt touched a little bit on the question we had, in the beginning of his statement about the reasons the Russian offensive has not gone the way that they planned. We approach things a lot from explaining to young people, you know, tangible reasons why things have occurred outside of the messy and sometimes complicated way foreign policy occurs. And the way we advocate it was the three factors were Ukraine being better than Russia expected. Russia not being as good as they expected, both of which Matt touched on and then the third being NATO, and the West being more unified and more potent in its response than expected. Of those three, which do you think is played the biggest role in the invasion not occurring, the way that Russia anticipated? And is there any other factor that we are missing there? You know, it's a really hard question, I think. So I would say up, never like disaggregate figure out which one of those has the most effect? I will think I will say the one that is maybe the most surprising is the rush is the morale of the Russian soldier on the ground. I think I will say he did. We expected the Ukrainians to fight hard. We knew the Ukrainians were not going to just just, you know, sit down and let food roll over their country. Don't everyone forgets he actually has invaded and been invading Ukraine that fighting a war in Ukraine in 2014, took Crimea, they also has been fighting this war in the Donbass and the Ukrainians have been fighting really hard to pull out of the territory, and they've been upping their military capabilities and that time, so we expected that they would be a tougher adversary than the Russian expected. But I don't think anyone expected is the problems with Russian morale. And I think this goes to the this kind of goes to the limits of disinformation to some extent. So, you know, Putin has been telling the Russian people for years that Ukraine is a country run by Nazis, despite the fact that, you know, the president Ukraine is Jewish and has family members who died in the Holocaust, thankfully, an offensive thing to say the Ukrainian people are hostile to the Russians. Russian Russian people know Ukraine United because these countries are close. They used to be part of the same country. They have people have family ties going across, you know, they traveled back and forth across the border. So let's see him Self was a famous Russian TV star who appeared on Russian TV speaking Russian. So he's a hard character to demonize the Russian public. So I do think the disinformation that the Russian government has been should have been sowing among its people about Ukraine that says, and with the effect, there are people really that way you can use mine as a backup, right here, as well. I'm right across the table okay, great. Sorry about that. Everywhere we go out, sometimes you can see, so just give me a second.
Hold that one, my phone, we can also log in on my phone. I have one of those stands over there up. Sorry about that, guys. More technical difficulties. Sorry about that. Now I was making a really important point to go.
Alright, we're back. So what I'll just end with is, I think a lot of the, you know, the foot soldiers in the Russian army, number one, don't know what they're fighting for. And number two, don't know why they're being asked to invade a foreign country who they see as a friendly neighbor and kill people with whom they have friendly relationships. And that affects people on a just very human level. And I think because of that, you see a lot of Russian soldiers who either aren't fighting as hard as they could or in some cases are just turning and walking away. And that's a that's a major ongoing problem. So much. Can
you hear me? Can you take your question? Next, please?
Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm just going to read off the question that I typed out. The question that I have is that many people from marginalized communities here in the United States have become dejected regarding the situation, because there's a perceived imbalance of coverage and assistance given to the Ukraine Russia crisis compared to other occupations, invasions and attacks throughout the world, some of which have US involvement. So why should these Americans be in support of the United States giving such high levels of tension and direct support against the Russian invasion, as they feel there isn't attention on related issues and other places throughout the world war here in the US?
Know what a good and thoughtful question? I mean, let me I'll start. You know, I think one, this is the largest invasion since World War Two. So let's start there, I will say that, you raise a really important point in question, and I think you have you and your platforms can help. Maybe change this a bit. But there are, to your point, a range of conflicts that are happening, frankly, every day, and human rights abuses that are happening and genocides that are happening around the world that don't get and warrant, they weren't it, but they don't get the coverage and attention from the US media, or from the public as a result that they deserve. Um, you know, and I'll give you a couple of examples you guys may have may be following, but I would, I would encourage you to shine some light on them. What we've seen happen in Ethiopia in recent months, the abuse of wiggers, and China. I mean, I could go on of what we're seeing around the world. And I know many of you are following us and tracking this very closely. And I don't think that, you know, the this conflict should take away from that we should be we should be, have our eyes wide open and be educating the public about all of these issues. You know, and I think, frankly, most of you have have have audiences that are bigger than most media organizations don't tell them that. So I think you can, you can use your platforms, and you should to dig into and explain all of these conflicts and what's happening on the as the public which is fascinating, and frankly, surprising to me. One thing I've been surprised by and I worked at the State Department and have been working on foreign policy national security issues for a while is how has how closely engaged the public has been. So let's tap into that. I would also say that just because something is not getting attention in the news in the US media, it does not mean we aren't getting writing assistance, or we aren't providing humanitarian assistance or security assistance, we are engaged in conflicts all around the world and providing all sorts of different types of assistance, including military assistance at times. But you know, that is something that I hope that you all shine a light on. I'll stop there. But
I think that's that's, that's extremely well said, The only thing I'll add to that is, I hope, if there's one thing that comes out of this horrible war, it's a little bit of an awakening of the American public, yeah, people around the world to atrocities, not just that are happening here for the atrocities that happen all over the world and some of these conflicts that that you alluded to. And I will say, I know that there are times when Americans are not always some have ended up proud of the actions their governments have taken overseas, I hope that this will be a moment when we look back on it, and people can be proud of the actions the United States has taken to rally the West to stand up to what is, you know, really a country that's trying to reorder the rules of the world, you know, Russia is trying to go back to the rules before World War Two to say, if you're stronger than your neighbor, you can invade it and change the boundaries. And that's just the way it is. And the United States, the President has stood up and rally the West and rallied other countries in the world to say, That's not acceptable. That's not the way the rules work. And we're going to make sure that we hold you accountable, and we're going to support the people who are fighting for their liberty and and their sovereignty. And I hope Americans can be proud of that. And I hope it can be an example that we said for other conflicts around the world. And you know, we'll see what the outcome is. But I will tell you that everyone that works here is the you know, as hard as they can to get an outcome that everyone in America can be proud of.
So much. Just a quick check on time, I think, maybe not permitted to possibly just one more question. If that's the case, go. TV right now, Chairman, take the next one.
Or sharing, you might be on mute.
Can you hear me now? Thank you so much for doing this incredibly helpful. I really appreciate your time. And one of the things that my community has been asking me a lot that I would love to hear your response on is, what would the United States response be? If we're Russia, were to use chemical or nuclear weapons on Ukraine. Would that warrant an escalated response on our part? Or would we continue to stay the course that we currently are on? I'd love to hear your response on that.
So and I think Sharon, maybe asking this question, in part, because yesterday, we put out some, we put out some detailed information where we conveyed that. Well, Russia and this goes back to one of the interesting disinformation questions that was asked earlier, Russia has been conveying or telling the world that the United States has a biological and chemical weapons program, and that the Ukrainians do both false and inaccurate component pieces of information, which we wanted to swap back with, really yesterday. What is also true, as Sharon, I think knows, but for everybody is that Russia has a chemical and biological weapons program. They have used chemical weapons in the past against people in their own country against the people in NATO countries. And so they have that capacity and capability. Um, you know, I think what you have seen us do is take escalatory steps, as as Russia takes escalatory steps. And we have, we have largely done that through a range of means that Matt outlined up top. The financial sanctions we have done that have crippled the Russian economy are unparalleled. There's really no comparison, you could compare it a little bit to Iran or North Korea, but they're much smaller economies. So what we have done in that regard has been more than has ever been done in history, if you look at the totality of the size of the economy, also the range of assistance and security assistance we've been providing. And, and the the means and speed at which we've been providing it is is not is not standard practice, I should say. So obviously, our hope and and pray for that that is not the step they take. Um, but um, you know, any, any additional escalatory step would warrant a response from the United States an escalated responsibility.
Yeah, the only thing I said the reason why we've made public our concerns about their intention involving chemical biological weapons is to put them on notice that we're watching and the whole world is watching. And I will say in addition to the United States response, whatever form that would take, question has already turned itself into a pariah state through its actions. Only four countries voted within the United Nations and the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to condemn it here. It took that type of action It would see itself so isolated from the world economically, diplomatically. It would be a game changer, I think in terms of the response, not just from the United States, but from the international community in all sorts of ways.
Thank you so much that I think we are a little bit tight on time. So that may have been our last question. But I just want to say, I know that you all have more questions, I think you know where to find us. So please email us because we are so grateful, and want to ensure that we can get your questions answered. You know, we're so grateful for your time. And we're so grateful for Jen and that your time I will throw it to you to say any last words, and hopefully we can get this group back together again. So we'll throw it to Janet.
I think we just wanted to say thank you, um, thank you for following so closely, and again, for educating and informing so many people at such a pivotal, pivotal time. And, you know, the best, the best combat misinformation is probably all of you. So we really appreciate it. And also you taking the time to talk with all of us today as well.
Yeah, well said the only thing I'll add is thanks for such great questions. Really, really was a great discussion. Great question. Stay in touch.
Perfect. Thank you so much. I know you guys have more questions, so feel free to email them to us. We'll sign off right now and hope you guys have a good rest of the day. Appreciate your time.