Ukraine's military invasion of Russia " created a real dilemma" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding that US officials are in constant contact with the Ukrainians about the move, reports Reuters.
About 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers stormed across the Russian border in the early hours of August 6 with tanks and armored vehicles. A U.S. official said late Tuesday that the goal of Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast appeared to be to force Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine to defend Russian territory against a cross-border attack.
Taking questions from reporters upon his arrival in New Orleans, Biden said he had been briefed every four to five hours for the past six to eight days about Ukraine's actions.
"This creates a real dilemma for Putin," he said in his first substantive comments on the operation, which appears to have caught the Russians off guard.
The US has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of weapons, mostly for defensive purposes, as Ukraine tries to repel a Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
In May, Biden authorized Kiev to use US-supplied weapons against military targets in Russia that are supporting an offensive against the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The White House said Ukraine had no advance warning of its incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Russian forces on Tuesday retaliated against Ukrainian troops with missiles, drones and airstrikes.
White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre, speaking to reporters aboard the presidential plane, said Washington was not involved in the operation.
"We have nothing to do with this,", she said.
"We have no involvement. We will continue to have conversations with the Ukrainians about their approach, but we really need to talk to them," she added.
Putin said he believed the Ukraine operation was aimed at improving Kiev's negotiating position ahead of any talks and delaying the advance of Russian forces on the front.
U.S. officials say Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's goals are about to become clear.