By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters), -The U.S. president Joe Biden pledged Tuesday that Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be paid over the long term, even if he achieves gains on the Ukrainian battlefield.

“While he may make gains on the battlefield – he will pay a continuing high price over the long run,” Biden said in his State of the Union address.

The U.S. President stated that he had no idea of what was coming.

On the sixth day after Russia invaded Europe, he spoke with Congress. Kyiv was facing a mile-long Russian armored column that could be preparing for the takeover of the capital.

Biden, in his prime-time speech, announced that he would take new steps to ban Russian aircraft from American airspace.

He suggested steps that Russia could take to weaken its military, even though he said it might see greater gains in the near future. “We are choking off Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come,” he said.

He stated that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine would have made Russia less powerful and made the rest of the globe stronger.

Biden spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier in the day. He has rejected U.S. direct military involvement on the ground.

The U.S. government shared intelligence about Russia’s activities and was the first to impose a historical set of economic sanctions against Putin’s government and allies, as well as the largest banks in the country, sending its currency into freefall.

After overcoming far greater resistance than expected, Russian troops have yet to capture any major Ukrainian cities in the week that has passed since they crossed the border.