Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke about the situation in Ukraine, on Friday, as the nation faces an attack from Russia. Affirming support, Pelosi noted that the US would not be sending its troops to the battle, as per Newsweek. 

She was visiting the University of California and touched upon this subject at the time. NBC Los Angeles quoted Pelosi saying, “We are not going in. Putin is not going to provoke the world, NATO, and the rest of us into World War III”. 

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While Pelosi was visiting San Francisco the day before, she made similar comments, directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, ABC 7 News reported. 

She was quoted saying, “I don’t usually say someone is an evil person, I say they’re doing bad things. [Putin] is an evil person doing bad things…We’re not going to let him provoke WWIII, but we are going to make sure he is debilitated”. 

Pelosi also took the opportunity to extend her support for US President Joe Biden’s approach of imposing economic sanctions in response to military movements from the Moscow government. Newsweek reported her clarifying that she didn’t believe another approach would have been more suitable in this situation.

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The Speaker of the House said, “I think that we’re very blessed to have this president with his knowledge of foreign affairs, his understanding of the personalities that he has to deal with. And what the president said today is to ratchet it up and that’s what he’s doing and the package is very, very devastating to Russia”. 

Since the Russian move into Ukraine started, the country has faced a slew of sanctions, some even targeted at Putin himself as well as Russian individuals.

In the latest move, the US, along with the European Union and other allies have voted to remove Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment system. This is expected to hurt Russia’s economy since it’ll impede seamless transactions between Russia and other countries.