However, a White House official said shortly after the speech that Biden was not seeking regime change in Russia. Russia was quick to respond to Biden’s initial comment, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov saying: “This [Putin remaining in power] will not be decided by Mr Biden. It’s just a matter of choice for the people of the Russian Federation. “ Earlier in the day, Biden said people should prepare for a “long struggle ahead” as he described the war as part of a generation-long defense of universal democratic principles against a Russian-dominated class. ». “We have re-emerged in the great struggle for freedom,” the US leader said in a speech at Poland’s presidential palace. “The battle between democracy and empire. Between freedom and repression. Between a rule-based class and a class governed by brutal violence. “This battle will not be won in days or months. We have to strengthen ourselves for a long fight ahead of us “. Shortly before Biden began his speech, Russian cruise missiles hit targets in the city of Lviv near the western border with Ukraine, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from where the US president was speaking. Referring to Pope John Paul II’s “Do Not Be Afraid” speech at the beginning and end of 1979, Biden’s speech linked the war in Ukraine to historic moments of Eastern European disobedience to Soviet aggression. “The struggle for democracy did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall,” Biden said. “Today Russia has strangled democracy and sought to do so elsewhere, not just in its homeland.” He explicitly warned Russia to expand its war on NATO territory. “Do not even think about moving an inch into NATO territory,” Biden said. “The West is now more united than ever.” Earlier in the day, Biden stressed the “sacred” bond of NATO’s military alliance, which binds many nations bordering Ukraine to the United States. “We consider Article 5 a sacred commitment,” the president told his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, in Warsaw on Saturday. “I do not fly. A sacred commitment associated with every member of NATO. “ “I am convinced that Vladimir Putin relied on being able to divide NATO, to separate the east from the west, to divide nations based on previous stories. But he did not succeed. We have all stayed together. “And it’s so important that we stay closed,” Biden said. Biden’s motorcade had arrived at the presidential palace in Warsaw at around 12:30 a.m., after a short walk on a road full of Polish and Ukrainian flags. Members of the Polish forces representing different branches of the army were waiting for the American leader in ritual uniforms. About an hour earlier, Biden, Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken and Defense Minister Lloyd Austin had a brief meeting with Ukrainian counterparts, including Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and Defense Minister Rozhenko at the Oleriv Hotel in Oleksri Marz. At the Stadium Narodowy, a football stadium that was turned into a refugee center, Biden also met a number of people who have fled across the border into Poland to escape bloodshed in Ukraine, as well as volunteers working to provide them with meals. . Asked by reporters what made him think of seeing Ukrainian refugees at the Narodowy Stadium as he was dealing with Vladimir Putin, Biden replied: “He is a butcher.” 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the start of the war, of which about 2.2 million have taken refuge in Poland, whose conservative government’s welcoming attitude is in stark contrast to its reluctance to accept those who left the war in Syria six years ago. “We do not want to call them refugees,” said Polish President Duda, of the National Conservative Law and Justice Party, on Saturday. “They are our guests, our brothers, our neighbors from Ukraine, who are in a very difficult situation today.” On Friday, Biden flew to the Polish city of Rzeszów, about an hour’s drive from the Ukrainian border, where he took a first-hand look at international efforts to help more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees who have sought refuge in Poland since the war. and met American troops reinforcing the east side of NATO. In recent months, the United States has strengthened its European allies by temporarily deploying thousands more troops to Poland, Germany and Romania. After some tensions in its relations with the US and the EU in recent years, Poland – which already hosted many US and NATO military bases and is a cornerstone of NATO’s eastern front – enjoys a central position. The United States and Poland have at times disagreed on how best to support Ukraine. Earlier this month, the United States rejected a Polish proposal to send Soviet-era MiG fighter jets to Ukraine via US bases, which the White House described as potentially escalating. Similarly, when Jarosław Kaczyński – a Polish politician considered even more powerful by President Duda – recently suggested to NATO that it develop a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, Washington quickly and quietly pushed the idea off the table.
