CNN’s Chance: Ukrainian Officials Watched Biden ‘With Horror’ and Said He Gave ‘The Green Light to Putin’

During CNN’s coverage of President Joe Biden’s press conference on Wednesday, CNN Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance said that he believes Ukrainian officials watched Biden’s remarks on a smaller incursion by Russia into Ukraine “with horror” and quoted Ukrainian officials expressing their displeasure with the comments, including one who said Biden’s statement, “gives the green light to Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure.”

Chance said, “I mean, they watched those remarks, I think, with horror. One Ukrainian official who I’ve been in close contact with while this marathon press conference was underway said that he was, I’m quoting here, ‘shocked’ that President Biden would give a green light to Vladimir Putin in this way, that the U.S. president would distinguish between an incursion and an invasion, and then suggest that a minor incursion would elicit a lesser response than a more full invasion. The big concern, of course, which is what he was alluding to, is that it gives Putin — and this is another quote — it ‘gives the green light to Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure.’ And that’s not just one Ukrainian official. Other Ukrainian officials have responded in a similar way. Kiev, in the words of another, is ‘stunned’ by what President Biden had to say.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett