section_path: History/Biden administration (2021–2025)/Russian invasion of Ukraine and significantly increased tensions
section_name: Russian invasion of Ukraine and significantly increased tensions
paragraph_text: Russian invasion of Ukraine and significantly increased tensions
  
  On February 24, 2022, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine opening fire with explosive ordinance and hitting several residential buildings, by the 25th the invading army had taken all of the Chernobyl exclusion zone and began to attack the Ukrainian capital with high resistance from both the Ukrainian military and a makeshift militia. On February 26, President Joe Biden authorized the US State Department to deliver up to $350 million in weapons from US stockpiles to Ukraine.
  
  President Joe Biden rejected the idea of a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine, in order to avoid a direct war with Russia.
  
  On February 26, 2022, the deputy head of Russia's Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, warned that Moscow may retaliate to international sanctions by withdrawing from the most recent nuclear arms treaty with the US, severing diplomatic ties with Western nations, and freezing their assets.
  
  On February 28, 2022, the U.S., during a meeting with the U.N., asked the Russian ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, to remove 12 Russian diplomats from the U.S. under claims of abuse of power.
  
  On March 4, 2022, the United States and its allies strongly denounced Russia at the United Nations on Friday for shelling and seizing Europe's largest nuclear power facility overnight in Ukraine, and some insisted that Moscow not allow such an action to happen again.
  
  On March 13, 2022, President Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned of a full-fledged NATO response if Russia were to hit any part of NATO territory.
  
  The poll, conducted by NPR / Ipsos between March 18 and 21, 2022, found that only 36% of Americans approved the Biden administration 's response to the invasion.
  
  On April 28, 2022, President Biden asked Congress for an additional $33 billion to assist Ukraine, including $20 billion to provide weapons to Ukraine.
  
  On July 6, 2022, the speaker of the Russian Parliament threatened the US about the possible " return " of Alaska to Russia.
  
  On September 21, 2022, President Putin warned the US and NATO during his partial mobilization speech regarding Russia's ability to use nuclear weapons, stating that if Russia's "territorial integrity" was threatened, Russia would "certainly make use of all weapon systems available" to them.
  
  On September 27, 2022, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre encouraged Russian men fleeing their home country to avoid being drafted to apply for asylum in the United States. In early 2023, the Biden administration resumed deportations of Russians who had fled Russia due to mobilization and political persecution. Texas-based attorney Jennifer Scarborough said that "In March of 2022, the US said they were stopping deportations to Russia because of the political situation – so I don't understand why they restarted it and they did it so quietly."
  
  On January 25, 2023, the Biden administration decided to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
  
  In February 2023, the United States stepped up efforts to pressure the countries, including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, to stop the commercial activities that had been benefiting Russia and helping them to evade international sanctions. Turkey, a NATO member, and the United Arab Emirates, a close ally of the US, agreed to Western pressure and imposed sanctions on Russia.
  
  A Gallup poll conducted in June 2023 found that 62% of respondents in the United States wanted to support Ukraine in regaining territory that Russia had captured, even if it meant prolonging the war between Russia and Ukraine, while 32% wanted to end the war as quickly as possible, even if it meant allowing Russia to keep the territory it captured and annexed in southeastern Ukraine. According to a 2023 CNN poll, 55% of American respondents said the US Congress should not approve additional funding to support Ukraine, while 45% would support additional funding.
  
  In 2022, Congress approved more than $112 billion to help Ukraine in its war with Russia. At the end of 2023, the White House requested $61.4 billion more for Ukraine for the year ahead.
  
  In January 2024, the Biden administration rejected Vladimir Putin's proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan informed Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that the United States would not discuss a ceasefire without Ukraine's participation.
  
  On April 13, 2024, the London Metal Exchange set out measures following US and UK imposed sanctions that banned delivery of new Russian metal including aluminum, copper and nickel. Aim of this decision is to agitate Russian export revenue as Moscow continues it war against Ukraine.
  
  On May 30, 2024, Biden gave Ukraine permission to strike targets inside Russia near the Kharkiv region using American-supplied weapons. The Russians were then exploiting the artificial limitation to focus attacks on the city, which lies 60km from the frontier. A little later he sat with David Muir during the D-Day memorial in Normandy France and said "They are authorized to be used in proximity to the border. We are not authorizing strikes 200 miles into Russia. We are not authorizing strikes on Moscow, on the Kremlin." On August 9, 2024, a convoy of Russian troops in the Kursk Oblast of Russia was destroyed in a strike by U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket system in what the Russian Telegram channel called "one of the bloodiest and most massive strikes in the entire war."
  
  In June 2024, the U.S. sanctioned multiple Hong Kong firms, for facilitating trade in gold produced by Russia's Polyus. As per the Treasury Department, several Hong Kong and the UAE -based were used to convert payments from sale of Russian gold into fiat currency and cryptocurrency. Hong Kong's Holden International Trading Limited and Taube Precious HK Limited were used to route payments, while the UAE-based Red Coast Metals Trading DMCC to obscure payments from Russian gold sale. Besides, Hong Kong-based VPower Finance Security was transporting the Russian gold.
  
  On July 28, 2024, Russian president Vladimir Putin threatened to deploy long-range missiles that could hit all of Europe after the United States announced its intention to deploy long-range missiles in Germany starting in 2026 that could hit Russian territory within 10 minutes.
  
  On August 1, 2024, the United States and Russia conducted the most extensive prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, involving the release of twenty-six people.
  
  Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the persecution of Russian citizens who disagree with the policies of Russian leader Vladimir Putin has increased significantly. For example, in early 2024, ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina, a dual American-Russian citizen and resident of Los Angeles, was arrested while visiting family in Russia and charged with treason for sending $51.80 to Razom, a New York City -based nonprofit organization that sends humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. She initially faced life in prison, but pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.