Barack Obama Rules out 'military Excursion' in Ukraine - Breaking news - 20 March
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President Barack Obama ruled out U.S. military involvement in Ukraine on Wednesday, emphasizing
diplomacy in the U.S. standoff with Russia over Crimea.
"We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine," Obama told KNSD, San
Diego's NBC affiliate, in an interview. "We need do not need to trigger an actual
war with Russia," he told KSDK, a St. Louis station owned by Gannett in a separate interview.
Obama, who imposed sanctions on 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials on Monday, said the
United States will push diplomatic efforts to bring pressure on Russia to loosen its
grip on the Crimea region of southern Ukraine. "There is a better path, but I think even
the Ukrainians would acknowledge that for us to engage Russia militarily would not be
appropriate and would not be good for Ukraine either," Obama told KNSD.
The president, who spoke to seven local television stations, said the United States would announce
additional sanctions over the next several days.
If Russia fails to respond to international pressure, "in coordination with our European
allies, you could expect even more disruptive economic actions that could end up having
a significant impact on the Russian economy," he told KSDK.
