From Reuters:
“Biden says Putin 'cannot
remain in power' in fiery speech on Ukraine war”
(U.S. President Joe Biden speaks
during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in
Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022.)
U.S. President Joe Biden said
that Russia's leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" in
Poland Saturday, remarks a White House official said later were meant to
prepare the world's democracies for extended conflict over Ukraine, not back
regime change in Russia. Biden's comments on Saturday, including a statement
earlier in the day calling Putin a "butcher," were a sharp escalation
of the U.S. approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
In a major address delivered at
Warsaw's Royal Castle, Biden evoked Poland's four decades behind the Iron
Curtain in an effort to build a case that the world's democracies must urgently
confront an autocratic Russia as a threat to global security and freedom. But a
remark at the end of the speech raised the spectre of an escalation by
Washington, which has avoided direct military involvement in Ukraine, and has
specifically said it does not back regime change. "For God's sake, this
man cannot remain in power," Biden told a crowd in Warsaw after condemning
Putin's month-long war in Ukraine. A White House official said Biden's remarks
did not represent a shift in Washington's policy. "The President's point
was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the
region," the official said. "He was not discussing Putin's power in
Russia, or regime change." Asked about Biden's comment, Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: "That's not for Biden to decide. The president
of Russia is elected by Russians." Calling the fight against Putin a
"new battle for freedom," Biden said Putin's desire for "absolute
power" was a strategic failure for Russia and a direct challenge to a
European peace that has largely prevailed since World War Two. "The West
is now stronger, more united than it has ever been," Biden said.
"This battle will not be won in days or months, either. We need to steel
ourselves for the long fight ahead."
The speech came after three days
of meetings in Europe with the G7, European Council and NATO allies, and took
place roughly at the same time as rockets rained down on the western Ukrainian city
of Lviv, just 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the Polish border. "Their
brave resistance is part of a larger fight for essential democratic principles
that unite all free people," Biden said. "We stand with you.
Period." In his speech, Biden said NATO is a defensive security alliance
which never sought Russia's demise and he reiterated that the West has no
desire to harm Russia's people even as its sanctions threaten to cripple their
economy. Poland was under communist rule for four decades until 1989 and was a
member of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact security alliance. It is now part of the
European Union and NATO. The rise of right-wing populism in Poland in recent
years has put it in conflict with the EU and Washington, but fears of Russia
pressing beyond its borders has drawn Poland closer to its Western allies.
Speaking to a crowd holding U.S.,
Polish and Ukrainian flags, Biden said the West is acting in unison because of
the "gravity of the threat" to global peace. "The battle for
democracy could not conclude and did not conclude with the end of the Cold
War," Biden said. "Over the last 30 years the forces of autocracy
have revived all across the globe." Reaction was mixed in Warsaw. Mykyta
Hubo, a Ukrainian from Dnipro who has been living in Poland for several years
called the speech "ordinary": "Lots of talk, little
action," he said. Pawel Sterninski, who traveled nearly three hours to
Warsaw from elsewhere in Poland to hear Biden, came wrapped in a U.S. flag. "The
U.S. can't really engage militarily because that could result in a third world
war. Putin is unpredictable. If you're threatening with nuclear weapons, it
takes just a moment to turn into a global conflict." Earlier in the day,
Biden dropped in on a meeting with Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers and
made additional, unspecified security pledges on developing defence
cooperation, according to Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. read more In
Warsaw, Biden also visited a refugee reception centre at the national stadium.
More than 2 million people have fled the war to Poland. Altogether, about 3.8
million have left Ukraine since fighting began. Putin calls Russia's military
actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" to demilitarise and
"denazify" the country.
^ This sounds exactly like what Biden
said. I don’t see it as a major shift in policy since it is mostly just talk,
but at least it was said – although when you hear Biden speak and he tries to
sound tough it is pretty funny. It sounds forced and scared rather than tough. ^
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