Biden warned Americans on Tuesday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would drive up the cost of gasoline in the United States, saying his administration would work to soften the impact of a disruption in the international gas market. energy in case of conflict.
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“To be clear, if Russia decides to invade Ukraine, it will also have consequences here,” the US president said during a brief address at the White House.
“I will not pretend that it will be painless. This will have an impact on energy prices,” he added, as fears of a war in Ukraine are already sending oil prices soaring to their highest level in seven years.
Mr. Biden assured that his administration was taking “active steps to ease the pressure on our own energy market and to offset price increases”.
“We are coordinating with major energy consumers and producers,” he added. “I will cooperate with Congress to help protect consumers and respond to rising prices at the pump.”
The American president also considered during his speech that a Russian attack against Ukraine remained “quite possible”.
A start of withdrawal of Russian soldiers to the Ukrainian border mentioned Tuesday by Moscow “would be positive”, but “we have not checked at this stage” its implementation, he added, affirming on the contrary that these troops , now estimated at “more than 150,000”, remained in “a threatening position”.