Biden news - live: President speaks with Zelensky amid warnings Putin’s forces could storm Kyiv within hours

President Biden insisted he never underestimated Vladimir Putin when his past comments about the leader were dredged up during a heated Q&A following his remarks on the invasion on Thursday.

Mr Biden was asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy: “Did you underestimate Putin, and would you still describe him the way you did in the summer as a ‘worthy adversary?’”

Mr Biden replied by suggesting that Mr Doocy was twisting his words. “At the time he was - I made it clear he was an adversary and I said he was worthy,” he said. “I didn’t underestimate him.

“And I’ve read most of everything he’s written, did you read -” he began to probe before saying: “I’m not being a wise-guy.”

“You heard the speech he made, almost an hours-worth of speech as to why he’s going to Ukraine,” he continued. “He has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about. And I think that his ambitions are completely contrary to the place where the rest of the world has arrived.”

The Independent’s Megan Sheets and John Bowden report:

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, on Thursday shared heartbreak and “grave concern” for the health of people in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

In a statement posted to Twitter, he wrote: “The health system must continue to function to deliver essential care to people for all health issues.

“International humanitarian law calls for protection of health facilities, workers, patients, transport, and supplies. As part of WHO’s role to document attacks on health, we will continue to monitor and report such incidents.

“I call for peace and sustained access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. I’ve released a further $3.5 million from WHO’s Contingency Fund for Emergencies to buy and deliver urgent medical supplies. This adds to supplies we prepositioned in health facilities.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered an update on the Ukraine situation before a special meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday, where he warned “all evidence suggests that Russia intends to encircle and threaten Kyiv”.

“And we believe Moscow has developed plans to inflict widespread human rights abuses – and potentially worse – on the Ukrainian people,” he added.

Mr Blinken described Russia’s actions as “an affront to democracy, to human rights, to human decency”.

“The members of this organization and the entire international community now plainly see Russia’s complete abandonment and abdication of the commitments it made to the world – and we will never forget,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration has expanded its no-fly zone for US aircrafts to cover all of Ukraine, all of Belarus and parts of Russia.

Flying had already been restricted to US pilots over the eastern region of Ukraine but the FAA said on Thursday it was expanding the zone further afield.

Ukraine closed its airspace to all commercial flights on Thursday morning, after Russian forces invaded the country.

Former President Barack Obama has called for all Americans “regardless of party” to support Mr Biden with his sanctions against Russia.

Mr Obama, who served as president when Mr Biden was vice president, tweeted a statement on Thursday calling for the American people to put their political differences amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Last night, Russia launched a brazen attack on the people of Ukraine, in violation of international law and basic principles of human decency,” he said.

“People of conscience around the world need to loudly and clearly condemn Russia’s actions and offer support for the Ukrainian people.

“And every American, regardless of party, should support President Biden’s efforts, in coordination with our closest allies, to impose hard-hitting sanctions on Russia - sanctions that impose a real price on Russia’s autocratic elites.”

The Biden administration has directed the deployment of an additional 7,000 US troops to Europe in response to the situation in Ukraine.

The Pentagon said on Thursday that the troops will be deployed to Germany to “reassure NATO Allies, deter Russian aggression and be prepared to support a range of requirements in the region”.

The troops, which will include an armored brigade combat team with associated capabilities and enablers, are expected to depart for the continent in the coming days.

Texas senator Ted Cruz did not react well to being challenged on the timeline he was citing to assign blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to President Joe Biden.

Mr Cruz, who serves on the Senate’s foreign relations committee, spoke to The Independent on Thursday as he arrived to speak at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.

Read the full story here:

During Thursday’s press conference, Mr Biden said that the US’s new sanctions will have “severe costs” for Russia as the international community unites against Moscow.

“This is going to impose severe costs on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time,” he said.

“We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”

Mr Biden said that the sanctions had been reached following discussions with allies including members of the G7 and the EU.

“I want to be clear the United States is not doing this alone. For months we have been building a coalition of partners representing well more than half the global economy,” he said.

“Twenty-seven members of the European Union, including France, Germany, Italy as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and many others to amplify the joint impact of our response.

“I just spoke with the G7 leaders this morning, and we’re in full and total agreement. We will limit Russia’s ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen to be part of the global economy. We’ll limit their ability to do that.

“We’re going to stunt the ability to finance and grow the Russian military. We’re going to impose major, impair their ability to compete in the high tech 21st century economy.”

Mr Biden said sanctions rolled out earlier in the week were already taking their toll on Russia.

“We’ve already seen the impact of our actions on Russia’s currency in the ruble which early today hit its weakest level ever, ever in history. The Russia stock market plunged today,” he said.

“The Russian government borrowing rates spiked by over 15 per cent. In today’s actions we’ve now sanctioned Russian banks that hold around $1trn in assets.”

Mr Biden introduced what he said were a series of “major” and “strong” sanctions on Russia that he said would impact the country in the “long term”.

These measures are:

• Cutting off Russia’s largest bank Sberbank, which holds one third of the nation’s banking sector assets, and 25 of its subsidiaries
• Full blocking sanctions on Russia’s second largest bank VTB Bank and 20 subsidiaries
• Full blocking sanctions on three other major Russian banks: Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC, and Novikombank and 34 of their subsidiaries
• Restricting debt and equity on 13 of Russia’s most critical state-owned enterprises and entities which together have assets of around $1.4trn. This includes: Sberbank, AlfaBank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Rostelecom, RusHydro, Alrosa, Sovcomflot, and Russian Railways. 
• Sanctions on Russian elites and their family members, cutting them off from the US financial system, freezing US assets and blocking their travel to the US
• Sanctions on 24 people and companies in Belarus including state-owned banks and defense firms
• Sweeping restrictions on Russia’s military
• Restrictions on Russia’s imports of technological goods

The US is “prepared to respond” if Russia hits American corporations or infrastructure with cyber attacks amid its assault on Ukraine, warned Mr Biden on Thursday.

“Let me also repeat the warning I made last week. If Russia pursues cyberattacks against our companies, our critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond,” he vowed.

“For months we’ve been working closely with the private sector to harden our cyber defenses, sharpen our ability to respond to Russian cyber attacks as well.”

Earlier on Thursday, House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep Adam Schiff told reporters that it is a possibility that Russia “lashes out at the United Sates and NATO and in this hybrid warfare that they use cyber tools to attack American companies or American infrastructure”.