The very thing that Putin has tried to do from the beginning, and I’ve been saying this since my days as Vice President of the United States, is to break up NATO.

This is part of the reason, why Americans have - why we've sort of come to understand that Putin may have taken this step, because he thought that we were not unified.

He now sees, this war, in Ukraine, as an attack, not only on the people of Ukraine, but on the concept of democracy, as a governing philosophy.

We would respond. And we would respond if he uses it and the nature of the response will depend on the nature of the use.

We would respond, we will respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.

The single most important thing that we can do from the outset is keep the democracies united in our opposition and our effort to curtail the devastation that is occurring at the hands of a man who, quite frankly, I think is a war criminal…

What you`re engaging in is much more than whether or not you can alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Ukraine. We`re in a new phase of your generation, we`re at an inflection point. Ukrainian people have a lot of backbone…

Putin was banking on NATO being split. NATO has never, never been more united than it is today. Putin is getting exactly the opposite what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine. The single-most important thing is for…

And I sat down, and I said, 'America is back.' And one of the -- one of my counterparts, colleagues, a head of state, said, 'For how long?' 'For how long?'

so long as President Putin continues the invasion, continues the horrific attacks that we've seen over the course of the last month, the U.S. and its allies will continue to ramp up sanctions.

NATO Has 'Never Been More United'

Today, the administration announced the U.S. will take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

the sanctions will only have a harsher effect. And they've also acknowledged they will continue to ramp up those sanctions, which will continue to take a major chunk out of Vladimir Putin's economy.

I think that the President and his top advisers believe it is working as it is designed to and perhaps better.

I think it`s a real threat.

We would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.

It would -- it would trigger a response in kind. Whether or not -- you`re asking whether NATO would cross -- we`d make that decision at the time.

Sanctions never deter. The maintenance of sanctions -- the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain, and the demonstration, why I asked for this NATO meeting today, is to be sure that, after a month, we will sustain what we`re…

The State Department formally accused Vladimir Putin`s military of committing war crimes in Ukraine, citing the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, and civilian infrastructure.

We would respond. We will respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.

The President mentioned it this morning saying it's a very real threat.

Now Putin is back against the wall, he wasn`t anticipating the extent or strength of our unity.

Look, we have to think about, where does our energy, come from? Beginning to find new sources, so we're not so reliant on Russia.

We are energy independent if we do that.

The more his back is against the wall, the greater severity, the tactics he may employ.