Concluding a three-day diplomatic trip to Europe with a fiery speech outside a centuries-old castle in Warsaw, Biden described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the “test of all time” in a post-World War II struggle between democracy and empire. , “Between freedom and repression, between a rule-based order and a class governed by brute force”. “In this battle, we must be clear,” Biden said in front of a crowd waving flags of Poland, Ukraine and the United States. “This battle will not be won in days or months. We must strengthen ourselves for the long struggle we have ahead of us “. Mr Biden used the speech to support a key NATO ally on Ukraine’s western border that has served as a pipeline for Western weapons and has absorbed more than 2 million refugees fleeing the violence, more than any other country in Europe. And he tried to prepare the public, at home and abroad, for a fierce conflict that could last for weeks, months or more. Hours before the incident, rockets hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, about 50 miles from the Polish border, extending Russia’s monthly offensive on major cities and civilians – and undermining Russian statements a day earlier suggesting that may limit its goals. the war. Smoke billows from a building in Lviv after being attacked by Russian rockets on Saturday. Credit … Vladyslav Sodel / Reuters While declaring that “the Russian people are not our enemy,” Biden issued an angry statement against Putin’s claim that the invasion of Ukraine was intended to “de-Naziize” the country. Mr Biden called the excuse “a lie”, saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a Jew and that his father’s family had been killed in the Holocaust. “It’s just cynical,” Biden said. “He knows it. And it is also obscene. “ It was not immediately clear whether Mr Biden’s apparent call for Putin’s ouster was one of the unexpected statements he is known for or a calculated piercing, one of many in the speech. But it risks confirming Russia’s central propaganda claim that the West, and especially the United States, is determined to destroy Russia. The White House immediately tried to underestimate the remark. “The president’s issue was that Putin should not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” a White House official told reporters. “He did not discuss Putin’s rule in Russia or regime change.” Dmitry S. Peshkov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said Putin’s fate was not in the hands of the US president. “It is not Biden’s turn to decide,” Peshkov told reporters. “The president of Russia is elected by the Russians.” Experts were divided over whether Biden’s remarks were intended to signal that he believed Putin’s ousting should be ousted, a political escalation that could have repercussions on the battlefield. President Biden with President Andrzej Duda of Poland in Warsaw. Credit … Doug Mills / The New York Times Richard Haas, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted that the White House’s attempt to withdraw from the president’s comment was “unlikely to be washed away.” “Putin will see it as a confirmation of what he once believed,” he wrote. “Bad delay in discipline that runs the risk of extending the scope and duration of the war.” Mr Biden’s statement that Mr Putin could no longer remain in power could be seen as “a call for regime change”, said Michal Baranowski, a senior fellow and director of the German Marshall Fund in Warsaw. non-partisan political organization. But he said he did not read it that way and that Putin was unlikely to do so. “I think what President Biden was saying is, how can such a terrible man rule Russia?” said Mr. Baranowski. “In this context, I do not think it will lead to any escalation with Russia.” Earlier in the day, Biden stood shoulder to shoulder with Polish President Andrei Duda and assured him that the United States considered its support for NATO a “sacred obligation.” “America’s ability to live up to its role in other parts of the world is based on a united Europe,” Biden said. While Poland’s right-wing, populist government has been embraced by Washington and Brussels as a link in Western security, it has sparked controversy with both in the past. Mr Duda, however, thanked Mr Biden for his support, saying Poland was ready to be a “serious partner, a credible partner”. At one stage in Warsaw, Biden met with Ukrainian refugees in his first personal meeting with some of the civilians trapped in a devastating humanitarian crisis sparked by weeks of indiscriminate Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities and towns. President Biden met with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw on Saturday. Credit … Doug Mills / The New York Times After speaking with refugees, including several from the Russian city of Mariupol, which has been razed to the ground by Russian bombings, Mr Biden called Mr Putin a “butcher”. The comment also prompted a response from Mr Peshkov, who told TASS, Russia’s state-run news agency, that “such personal insults limit the window of opportunity” for bilateral relations with the Biden government. Mr Biden also met with Ukrainian ministers in his first personal meeting with the country’s top leaders since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, part of what US officials hoped would be a strong demonstration of US commitment to Ukraine. sovereignty. “We have received additional promises from the United States on how our defense cooperation will develop,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told reporters, according to Reuters. But Biden gave no indication that the United States was willing to back down from its previous rejection of Ukraine’s demands for a no-fly zone over the country or to provide it with the MIG-29 fighter jets offered by Poland before. a few weeks. As Mr Biden was visiting Poland, two rockets hit Lviv, knocking on residents who ran to underground shelters as smoke billowed into the sky. The mayor of Lviv said a fuel storage facility was on fire and a district governor said five people had been injured. President Biden met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskii Reznikov in Warsaw on Saturday. Credit … Doug Mills / The New York Times Although Russian missiles hit a warplane repair plant near Lviv on March 18, the city, which had a population of 700,000 before many of them left the war, has survived airstrikes and rocket attacks that have whistled at other Ukrainian crowds. . Mr Biden ended his trip a day after a senior Russian general suggested that the Kremlin could redefine its goals in the war by focusing less on occupying large cities and instead targeting the separatist-held eastern Donbass region. Russia has been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years. Mr Biden’s government has been quietly investigating the aftermath of a statement by Russian General Sergei Rudskoi, which suggested Mr Putin may be looking for a way out of the brutal invasion he launched a month ago with confidence and courage. Western intelligence services have been debating in recent weeks between top Russian commanders about abandoning efforts to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and other key areas in the north and west of the country, according to two people with access to intelligence. . Instead, the governors spoke more closely about the security of the Donbas area. Military analysts have warned that General Rudskoi’s statement could be misleading, as Russian forces regroup for a new offensive. A Ukrainian soldier inspects the remains of a damaged Russian T90 tank on the outskirts of Kiev on Friday. Russian commanders say they are shifting their focus from Kyiv and other major cities in eastern Ukraine. Credit … Ivor Prickett for the New York Times Just weeks ago, Putin threatened to completely absorb Ukraine, warning that “the current leadership must understand that if they continue to do what they are doing, they are jeopardizing the future of the Ukrainian state.” In the latest case of nuclear crackdown, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s vice-president of the Security Council, has reiterated Moscow’s willingness to use nuclear weapons against the United States and Europe if its existence is threatened. “No one wants war, especially since nuclear war would be a threat to the existence of human civilization,” Medvedev told Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency in an interview published Saturday. Hoping to rally his country and encourage negotiations with Moscow, Mr Zelensky said the success of a Ukrainian counterattack that began two weeks ago “led the Russian leadership to a simple and logical idea: Discussion is necessary”. At present, large parts of Ukraine remain a battleground in what increasingly looks like a bloody impasse between the smaller Ukrainian army and Russian troops struggling with logistical problems. On Saturday, Russian forces entered the small northern town of Slavutych, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where they occupied the hospital and briefly arrested the mayor, a regional military official said. In a photo provided by Reuters on social media on Saturday, Russian soldiers and armored vehicles stood guard at a distance as dozens of Slavutych residents of Ukraine shouted “Glory to Ukraine.” Credit … via Reuters In response, dozens of residents unfolded the …
