White House responds to Putin ordering highest alert of deterrence forces

By: Braden Gerow, Opinion Editor, The Pawprint 

According to CNN, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, has ordered the deterrent forces of the country on to the highest alert, and the forces include some nuclear weaponry. Press secretary of the White House, Jen Psaki, stated that this action is part of a pattern of unnecessary escalation, and a part of the Kremlin’s “manufactured threats.”

Psaki stated in an interview, “This is really a pattern that we’ve seen from President Putin through the course of this conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression–and the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism.” A senior administration official added in an interview, “he was never under threat from Ukraine or NATO.”

The move to put the deterrence forces on the highest alert comes in response to the extensive condemnation and sanctions from Western powers.