(NewsNation Now) — As the United States and Russia squared off at the U.N. Security Council over Ukraine Monday, the Biden administration stepped up its hard stance against aggression in the region.

“Frankly, the Biden administration seems much more clear-eyed and willing to confront Putin than the Obama administration was in 2014,” NewsNation’s Leland Vittert said during an appearance on “Morning in America”.

Diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Russia have so far failed to ease tensions in the crisis, in which Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, stoking fears in the West of an invasion.

Washington called Moscow’s actions a threat to international peace and security, while a Kremlin envoy ridiculed Monday’s meeting as just a “PR stunt.”

Russia accused the West of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine, saying the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv.

Vittert says President Joe Biden has learned from the mistakes of the Obama administration that initially allowed Putin to take parts of Ukraine.

There’s been a war in Ukraine with Russian-backed forces in its Donbass region for eight years now.

“That’s why we’re seeing a lot more weapons head over to Ukraine,” Vittert said.

The US has been providing weapons to the Ukrainian military, but at this time will not be sending troops inside the country.

“Remember, President Obama was criticized for just giving blankets and meals,” Vittert said. “And now, all of a sudden, you’ve got a lot of U.S. military hardware … and a lot tougher talk.”

Tough talk of an imminent incursion by Russia is in large part coming from Washington and the Biden administration despite Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, downplaying the prospects of a full-blown invasion.

Now, these concerns are repeatedly relayed by senior U.S. officials.

“He tends to say it again, and again,” Associated Press journalist Philip Crowther said, “There is a difference of views there between the United States and Ukraine right now.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, escalated the rhetoric, warning that Putin is bent on waging an “attack on democracy,” not just on a single country.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during the U.N. Security Council debate that Russia was “attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack.”

Vittert points out that Ukraine has now had eight years to train for a potential escalation in the conflict with Russia, saying Ukrainians knew the Russians were coming and it was just a matter of time of when they were going to be tested again.

The U.S. had worked to ramp up diplomatic and financial pressure on Russia, promising to put Moscow on the defensive as lawmakers on Capitol Hill said they are nearing agreement on “the mother of all sanctions.”

“Sanctions can only do so much,” Vittert said, but the sanctions promised this time around not only target Russia but also focus on Putin’s inner circle.

In an attempt to drive up the price of going into Ukraine for Putin domestically, freezing the assets in Western countries of the Russian elite may prove to be an effective tool.

“You’re talking about everything from delisting Russian banks, which would force the Russian banking system into collapse,” Vittert said.

“We know that Vladimir Putin is propped up by this ring of oligarchs around him,” Vittert said. “And if you can extract a high enough price from them and say, ‘Look, your jets are going to be impounded, your yachts are going to be impounded, we’re going to take your businesses, we’re going to take your Swiss bank accounts,’ they may go to Putin and say, ‘You know, I’m not sure this is worth it.'”

As push comes to shove between the two world leaders, all eyes were on the stormy and bellicose debate at the U.N. Security Council meeting. But did the meeting accomplish anything?

“If you’re looking for Adlai Stevenson, circa 1962, Cuban Missile Crisis UN meeting, you’re just not going to get that today,” Vittert said. “Remember, the Russians have their own veto vote on the Security Council. So it’s pretty much going to be a dog and pony show.”

Watch AP journalist Philip Crowther report on the situation live from Kyiv in the video below.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.