Full Transcript Of President Biden S Speech In Warsaw On Russia S Invasion Of Ukraine

As the invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, Biden vowed that democracy will prevail and told all nations that love freedom that “we must commit now to this struggle for a long time.” He also had a strong message for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “[D]”I do not even think about moving to an inch of NATO territory,” Biden said. “We have a sacred obligation under Article 5 to defend every inch of NATO territory with all the strength of our collective strength.” Biden spoke for nearly 30 minutes at Warsaw Royal Castle to an audience of between 750 and 1,000 in attendance, including Polish President Andrzej Duda, lawmakers, local officials, students from local universities and White House officials. At the beginning and end of his remarks, Biden borrowed a phrase from Pope John Paul II, the first Polish Pope, saying to the Ukrainian people: “Do not be afraid.” Read the full text of Biden’s speech: President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, on March 26, 2022. “Do not be afraid”. These were the first words that the first public speech of the first Polish Pope after his election in October 1978, were the words that would identify Pope John Paul II. Words that would change the world. John Paul brought the message here in Warsaw on his first trip to his homeland as Pope in June 1979. It was a message of strength, the power of faith, the power of resilience, the power of the people. In the face of a harsh and brutal system of government, it was a message that helped end Soviet repression in central Europe 30 years ago. It was a message that we will overcome the cruelty and barbarity of this unjust war. When Pope John Paul II delivered this message in 1979, the Soviet Union ruled with an iron fist behind an Iron Curtain. Then, a year later, the solidarity movement prevailed in Poland. Although I know he could not be here tonight, we are all grateful to Lech Walesa in America and around the world. [Applause] It reminds me of that phrase of the philosopher Kierkegaard, “Faith sees best in darkness.” And those were dark moments. Ten years later, the Soviet Union collapsed and Poland and Central and Eastern Europe would soon be free. Nothing about that battle for freedom was simple or easy. It was a long, painful slogan. They fought not for days and months but for years and decades. But we re-emerged in the great battle for freedom. Battle between democracy and empire. Between freedom and repression. Between a rule-based class and a class governed by brutal violence. In this battle, we must have clear eyes. Nor will this battle be won in days or months. We must prepare for a long race ahead of us. Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, Mr Mayor, members of parliament, distinguished guests and the people of Poland, and I suspect some Ukrainian people are here. We are [applause]we are concentrated here in the royal castle of this city which holds the sacred place in the history not only of Europe but also of the endless search for the freedom of the human species. For generations, Warsaw has stood where freedom has been challenged and freedom has prevailed. In fact, she was here in Warsaw when a young refugee who had fled Czechoslovakia under Soviet rule returned to speak out and stand in solidarity with the dissidents. Her name was Madeleine Korbel Albright. He became one of the most ardent supporters of democracy in the world. She was a friend I served with. America’s first female Secretary of State. He passed away three days ago. She fought all her life for the central democratic principles. And now in the eternal struggle for democracy and freedom, Ukraine and its people are at the forefront. The struggle to save their nation and their brave resistance is part of a broader struggle for basic democratic principles that unite all free people. Rule of law, fair and free elections, freedom of speech, writing and assembly. The freedom to worship as one chooses. Freedom of the press. These principles are essential in a free society. [Applause] But always, it was always under siege. They were always fighting. Every generation had to defeat the moral enemies of democracy. This is the way of the world, because the world is imperfect, as we know it. Where the appetites and ambitions of a few seek forever to dominate the lives and freedom of many. My message to the people of Ukraine is a message I delivered today to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, who I believe is here tonight. We stand with you. Period! [Applause] Today’s battles in Kyiv and Melitopol and Kharkov are the last battle in a long battle. Hungary, 1956. Poland, 1956, and then again, 1981. Czechoslovakia, 1968. Soviet tanks crushed the democratic uprisings, but the resistance continued until finally in 1989, the Berlin Wall and all the walls of Soviet rule fell. They fell! And the people prevailed. But the battle for democracy could not be completed and was not completed by the end of the Cold War. In the last 30 years, the forces of totalitarianism have revived all over the world. Its characteristics are well known – contempt for the rule of law, contempt for democratic freedom, contempt for truth itself. Today, Russia has strangled democracy and sought to do so elsewhere, not just in its homeland. Under false allegations of ethnic solidarity, there are annulled neighboring nations. Putin has the gall to say he is “rewarding” Ukraine. It is a lie. He is just cynical, he knows it and he is also obscene. President Zelensky was democratically elected. He is a Jew. His father’s family disappeared in the Nazi Holocaust. And Putin has the audacity, like all authoritarians before him, to believe that power will be corrected. In my country, a former president named Abraham Lincoln expressed the opposite spirit to save our union in the midst of the Civil War. He said let us believe that the right makes power. The right makes power. Today, let us have that faith again. [Applause] Let us decide to put into practice the power of democracies to overthrow the plans of totalitarianism. Let us remember that the test of the moment is the test of all time. One criminal wants to present NATO enlargement as an imperial plan aimed at destabilizing Russia. Nothing is further from the truth. NATO is a defense alliance. He never sought the collapse of Russia. In the face of the current crisis, the United States and NATO have been working for months to commit Russia to averting war. I met him in person, I talked to him many times on the phone. We have repeatedly offered real diplomacy and concrete proposals to strengthen European security, to increase transparency, to build trust on all sides. But Putin and Russia treated each of the proposals with indifference to any negotiation, with lies and ultimatums. Russia was bent on violence from the beginning. I know that not all of you believed me and us when we kept saying, they will cross the border, they will attack. He repeatedly claimed that we had no interest in war, with the guarantee that he would not move. He has repeatedly said he would not invade Ukraine. Repeatedly saying Russian troops along the border were there for training. And the 180,000. There is simply no excuse or challenge for choosing Russia’s war. It is an example, one of the oldest human impulses, using brute force and misinformation to satisfy a longing for absolute power and control. It is nothing more than a direct challenge to the rule-based international order created by the end of World War II. And it threatens to return to decades of war that ravaged Europe before the rule of law came into being. We can not go back to that. We can not. The seriousness of the threat is why the West’s response was so quick and so strong and so unified, unprecedented and overwhelming. The rapid and punitive cost is the only thing that will make Russia change course. Within days of its invasion, the West moved together with sanctions to hurt Russia’s economy. Russia’s central bank has been shut down by global financial systems, denying the Kremlin access to a hidden war fund. We aimed at the heart of the Russian economy by stopping Russian energy imports to the United States. To date, the United States has imposed sanctions on 140 Russian oligarchs and their families, seizing their illicit profits, their yachts, their luxury apartments, their mansions. We have imposed sanctions on more than 400 Russian government officials, including key architects of this war. These officials and oligarchs have reaped huge benefits from the Kremlin-linked corruption. And now they have to share the pain. The private sector has also acted. More than 400 private multinational companies have withdrawn from doing business in Russia. He left Russia completely. From oil companies to McDonald’s. As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble is almost immediately reduced to rubble. The Russian economy – this is true, by the way, it takes about 200 rubles to equal $ 1. The economy is on track to halve in the coming years. Ranked, the Russian economy was ranked the 11th largest economy in the world before this invasion. It will soon not even be ranked among the top 20 in the world. They are taken together [applause] these economic sanctions, a new kind of economic state with the power to inflict damage that competes with military power. These international sanctions reduce Russia’s power, its ability to replenish its military, and its ability to assert its power. And it’s Putin, Vladimir Putin’s fault. Period. At the same time, in parallel with these …