Biden was leaving a service in Washington when asked by a reporter about the speech. When asked if he was calling for regime change in Russia, Biden replied: “No.” Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:18 Biden: “This man can not stay in power” Senior U.S. officials had spent most of Sunday afternoon and Monday trying to downplay that part of Biden’s speech, which was delivered Saturday during a visit to Poland. Among them was Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken, who said Biden simply meant that Putin should not be “authorized to wage war” against Ukraine or anywhere else. Key developments: • The next round of face-to-face talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey starting today. Ukraine says 1,100 people were evacuated from the front lines on Sunday, including the city of Mariupol, after both sides agreed to build two “humanitarian corridors” • The UN says 1,119 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,790 injured in Russian invasion begins in late February • Ukrainian Deputy PM says Russian forces ‘militarize’ blockade zone around occupied Chernobyl Picture: Russia invades Ukraine on March 26 Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to discuss adopting a neutral regime as part of a peace deal with Russia. Speaking to Russian journalists via video late Sunday, he said: “Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state – we are ready to achieve this. This is the most important point.” Mr Zelenskyy, speaking to the group in Russian, said such an agreement should be guaranteed by third parties and put the Ukrainians to a referendum. He ruled out trying to seize all of Russia’s occupied territories by force, saying it would lead to a third world war. Subscribe to Ukraine War Diaries on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker However, he added that he wanted to reach a “compromise” on the eastern Donbass region, which has been held by Russian-backed forces since 2014. There will be no movement for other Russian demands, such as demilitarization, he said. It comes as another top official warned that Russia was aiming to cut Ukraine in two to create a Moscow-controlled area. Follow the Daily Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said Putin had realized that he “could not swallow the whole country” and would probably divide it as in the “Korean scenario” – a reference to the division between North and South Korea. Mr Budanov said: “The occupiers will try to pull the occupied territories into a single quasi-state structure and put them against an independent Ukraine.”
