President Joe Biden has tried his darndest as of late to assuage fears that rising tensions in Ukraine will spill over into an armed conflict involving the U.S. Maybe his efforts would be more successful if certain members of his administration, particularly in the State Department headed by Secretary Antony Blinken, would stop saying the quiet part out loud.

Biden has tried to assuage the public’s concerns about going to war with Russia over Ukraine by telling the members of the press the U.S. will not “unilaterally use force” against Russia if it decides to invade Ukraine. As I previously wrote in a blog post last week, not only is this statement essentially nonfunctional, it’s constantly being undermined by high-ranking members of his own administration.

The latest example came Sunday when Blinken made an appearance on Meet the Press and claimed the U.S. is committed to “continuing to shore up Ukraine’s defenses,” and that the administration is currently “looking at what NATO can do, if necessary.”

With such constant duplicitous messaging, is it any surprise that Putin, regardless of what he makes of Biden’s mental acuity, might think the current president isn’t in control of his own administration, and thus, has not backed off since the two held a virtual conference Dec. 7? Since their meeting, which was intended to quell tensions, Russia has continued to place more military assets in the area, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov said. According to the defense minister, Russian troops positioned from the Southern peninsula currently occupied by Russia to the north where the borders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine converge have now eclipsed 100,000.

For its part, foreign ministers of the G-7, joined by the European Union, also offered their “condemnation of Russia’s military build-up and aggressive rhetoric towards Ukraine” and urged Russia to “de-escalate,” or face dire consequences in a statement over the weekend.

Any use of force to change borders is strictly prohibited under international law. Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe cost in response.

We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future. We commend Ukraine’s posture of restraint.

We will intensify our cooperation on our common and comprehensive response.

Thus far, the Biden administration has again reiterated that the costs incurred by Russia in the event of a Ukrainian invasion will be economic in nature, not militaristic. However, Blinken’s comments over the weekend about exploring the possibilities for NATO to respond in such an event doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the Biden administration’s ability to avoid another foreign policy blunder.