Putin threatens Ukraine’s ‘statehood,’ likens sanctions to a ‘declaration of war’ against Russia

WaPo explains Putin's "statehood" remark as Ukraine would "lose its sovereignty as a nation." I guess he said that for domestic consumption because everybody outside Russia understands that that is what is at stake.

Even a sanctions leader, a banker as I recall, used that exact language. Others have used synonymous wording. I have zero problem with this--if the Bidens had been prepared for this interpretation. What I have a problem with is they were not. They were surprised by Europe's immediate galvanization after Zelensky spoke to an EU meeting. 

Biden told Putin directly and explicitly that he, with our allies, would cut Russia off from the global financial system in the event of invasion. Putin said in response that that would cause a "complete diplomatic rupture" but Putin did not think that the West would come together on sanctions and Biden did not envision how quickly and completely it happened. Putin calculated that the West was splintered after four years of his puppet in the White House, that NATO had been gravely weakened by the puppet and that the U.S. was fractured at home. He likened the U.S. situation to that of Russia immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union and calculated that this was the time to strike. Putin had, as Biden said in his State of the Union, "badly miscalculated." But Biden did not fully calculate. Biden is still behind the eight-ball: we have no strategy, we are reactive, we have no exit ramp in mind for either Putin or sanctions, and thus, we're in this reactive position of waiting on Putin, brooding alone in the Kremlin, to decide our next move for us.