I was in back room politics long enough to know that what is said in front of the TV camera is often not the same as what was actually discussed in the back rooms.

If the back-room goals were actually to break Russia economically, then we can say the Biden team was a mastermind in geopolitical engineering. But we will never know for sure.

Personally, I think the administration was more fearful of Russia unleashing some nukes by giving Ukraine a short leash.