Watch Jake Tapper’s unique interview with President Joe Biden on CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.

CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday after a deluge of Russian missiles focused cities throughout Ukraine, condemning the strikes and pledging continued US safety help “together with superior air protection techniques.”

Throughout the name, a White Home assertion stated, Biden “expressed his condemnation of Russia’s missile strikes throughout Ukraine, together with in Kyiv, and conveyed his condolences to the family members of these killed and injured in these mindless assaults. President Biden pledged to proceed offering Ukraine with the assist wanted to defend itself, together with superior air protection techniques.”

The White Home didn’t specify which air protection techniques Biden mentioned with Zelensky, however the US beforehand dedicated to offering Ukraine with Nationwide Superior Floor-to-Air Missile Techniques. NASAMS can be able to participating Russian cruise missiles.

Biden, the assertion stated, “additionally underscored his ongoing engagement with allies and companions to proceed imposing prices on Russia, holding Russia accountable for its struggle crimes and atrocities, and offering Ukraine with safety, financial, and humanitarian help.”

Requested whether or not the assaults of the previous 24 hours would change the calculus on what the US would take into account providing Ukraine, a senior administration official stated they’d no bulletins to make on that entrance, however that the US will proceed to assist present Ukraine with short- and long-range air protection techniques, because it has previously.

And a second senior administration official supplied the next abstract of air protection assist supplied to Ukraine from the US: “We’ve got transferred greater than 1,400 Stinger anti-air techniques to Ukraine, in addition to air surveillance and multi-mission radars. We enabled our Allies to switch air protection techniques of their very own to Ukraine – together with Slovakia’s switch of a essential S-300 system in April. And in August, President Biden introduced a brand new help bundle for Ukraine that included orders for 8 new NASAMS—Nationwide Superior Floor to Air Missile Techniques. We are going to proceed to offer Ukraine with what it must defend itself.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally spoke with Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday to reiterate US assist following the lethal strikes. Biden is anticipated on Tuesday to affix an emergency video convention with G7 leaders throughout which Zelensky is anticipated to handle the group.

Russia launched a complete of 84 cruise missiles in opposition to targets throughout Ukraine on Monday, the Basic Workers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated in a Fb submit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated the strikes had been a response to what he described as acts of “terrorism” by Kyiv. Particularly, he referred to Saturday’s explosion on the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and Crimea – which he blamed on Ukraine’s “particular providers” – and a listing of different alleged “crimes.”

Kuleba stated that such claims had been “nonsense,” writing in a tweet, “Putin is determined due to battlefield defeats and makes use of missile terror to attempt to change the tempo of struggle in his favor.” And Ukraine’s protection intelligence company claimed in a press release on Monday that Moscow had been planning a “large” missile assault on Ukraine since early final week.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Safety Council, additionally lately stated he thinks Moscow ought to purpose for the “full dismantling” of Zelensky’s “regime.”

In a submit on Telegram, Medvedev – who served as President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 – stated: “The Ukrainian state in its present configuration … will pose a relentless, direct and clear menace to Russia. Subsequently, along with defending our individuals and defending the borders of the nation, the objective of our future actions, in my view, needs to be the entire dismantling of the political regime of Ukraine.”

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the Nationwide Safety Council, stated Monday that there’ll doubtless be extra assist packages for Ukraine introduced “within the very close to future.”

“It’s clear that he’s feeling the stress each at residence and abroad, and the way he reacts to that solely he can say,” Kirby advised CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

Kirby added: “He understands nicely that he’s not doing nicely on the battlefield.”

Requested if he thinks such strikes make it extra doubtless Putin would resort to nuclear weapons, Kirby stated that the US has seen nothing new.

“We proceed to watch his nuclear capabilities, Kate, finest we will. And what I can inform you at this time is that we simply don’t see any indications that Mr. Putin has decided to make use of weapons of mass destruction and even nuclear weapons. And we’ve seen nothing, Kate, that might give us trigger to alter our personal deterrent posture,” Kirby stated.

The point out of air protection system comes amid a sequence of escalations within the struggle.

Putin final month delivered a speech saying the partial mobilization of some 300,000 reservists following profitable Ukrainian counterattacks, elevating the specter of nuclear weapons if he deemed the “territorial integrity” of Russia to be jeopardized. And the Russian president lately introduced the annexation of 4 Ukrainian areas in defiance of worldwide regulation.

Final week, Biden delivered a stark warning concerning the risks of Putin’s nuclear threats, invoking the prospect of “Armageddon.” However a number of US officers have stated the remark was not based mostly on any new intelligence about Putin’s intentions or modifications in Russia’s nuclear posture.

This story has been up to date with extra data Monday.