Speaking in Warsaw on Sunday, Biden called on NATO members to remain united in confronting Putin and defending Ukraine, comparing the struggle against Moscow’s aggression with the resistance against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Speaking just over a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US president addressed Putin directly, saying he was now in favor of his removal, in a change from Washington’s stance so far. “A dictator who wants to rebuild an empire will never erase a people’s love for freedom. Barbarism will never stifle their desire to be free. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, because free people refuse to live in a world of despair and darkness,” Biden said. “For God’s sake, this man can not stay in power.” A White House official later clarified the remarks. “The president’s point was that Putin is not allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. “He was not discussing Putin’s rule in Russia or regime change,” he said. Biden’s speech included a three-day visit to Europe that included a summit with NATO, G7 and EU leaders, as well as a visit to US troops stationed in eastern Poland near the Ukrainian border. Earlier in the day, Russian missiles landed three kilometers from the center of Lviv in nearby western Ukraine. “We have to commit now to be in this fight for a long time. We must remain united today and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, for years and decades to come. “It will not be easy,” he said. “There will be costs, but it is a price we have to pay.” He also warned the Russian president not to expand his attack to include NATO members. “Do not even think about moving an inch of NATO territory,” Biden said. Washington and European capitals have already imposed heavy economic sanctions on Moscow and flooded Ukraine with military aid. Russian forces, bogged down and unable to occupy key cities, have resorted to bombing and shelling of the civilian population. The United States and its NATO allies are facing difficult decisions on how to respond to Russia’s threats, including the possible use of weapons of mass destruction. They must also agree on how to defend NATO’s vulnerable territories, including Poland, and how to coordinate further economic sanctions to isolate Russia from the international financial system. Biden began the day by meeting with Ukrainian Foreign and Defense Ministers Dmitry Kuleba and Oleksiy Reznikov to discuss further efforts to strengthen their country’s military capability. He then met with Andrei Duda, President of Poland. In a video call with Duda on Saturday afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated the need to prevent aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities. Zelensky said that the available aircraft in Eastern European countries, especially in Poland, had not been delivered. “The price of plane delays is the lives of thousands of Ukrainians,” Zelensky said. Without more planes and tanks “there is a great danger that the Russian troops will put. . . “a missile threat to the territory of our neighbors,” he warned. Kuleba, Reznikov and Duda were in the audience on Saturday as Biden delivered his speech on a clear but cold and stormy night in the courtyard of the Royal Castle at the entrance to the old town of the Polish capital, in front of up to 1,000 people, according to White House estimates. The US president opened his speech by saying “Do not be afraid” – echoing the words of the late Pope John Paul II, who is believed to have played a crucial role in the fight against communism. In the crowd was Dmytro Bodnaruk, a 31-year-old Ukrainian from the western city of Lviv working in Warsaw. His wife and child reunited with him in Poland two days after the start of the war. He said he hoped Biden would provide additional assistance to his country, including weapons. “He has done a good job, but maybe he can do more,” he said. Hours earlier outside Hala Mirowska, a Warsaw market, Bartek Ozarowski, a 23-year-old engineer, said Poles’s main concern was to reassure his country that it was being protected from the West, especially by its nuclear deterrent. He said he feared Biden would be a “weak leader”, but had handled Russia’s war in Ukraine “better than expected” and had so far been able to “surpass” Russia. The US president also visited a stadium that houses some of the more than 2 million refugees who have arrived in Poland from Ukraine in recent weeks, including some from the besieged coastal city of Mariupol. “Each of these children said. . . “say a prayer for my dad, for my grandfather, for my brother,” who is “back there fighting,” Biden said. Having already called Putin a “war criminal”, the US president called the Russian president a “butcher”. The Kremlin said the remarks made any improvement in relations between the two countries less likely. “Leaders should have a sober head,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov was quoted as saying by the state-run Tass news agency. “Each time, these personal insults close the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations [to improve] downstream [US] management.” Viacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, wrote in the Telegram message that Biden’s words were “a hysteria of weakness.” Additional references by Polina Ivanova, Andres Schipani and Max Seddon
