US President Joe Biden said Saturday’s war in Ukraine was a “strategic failure” for Russia, and Russian President Vladimir Putin “can and must end this war.” ..
Biden also said Putin “cannot maintain power,” and the statements later made by White House officials were not intended as a call for a change of power.
Biden was in Poland on the second day of his trip to Poland, the fourth and last day of his trip to Europe. In a major speech from Warsaw, the US President warned Russia of the invasion of NATO’s territory.
“Don’t even think about moving an inch of NATO territory,” Biden said. “We have a sacred obligation to defend every corner of NATO’s territory with all our might, under Article 5.”
according to The United Nations has entered Poland for the majority (more than 2.2 million) of the more than 3.7 million people who have fled Ukraine since the invasion of Russia on February 24.
Approximately 750-1,000 people attended the Royal Palace in Warsaw on Saturday, including Polish President Andrzej Duda, MPs, local civil servants, local university students, and US Embassy staff. Biden spoke for nearly 30 minutes.
Biden told the crowd that the US military was not involved in the conflict with Russia, but was in Europe to protect NATO’s allies.
“The Kremlin wants to portray the expansion of NATO as an imperial project aimed at destabilizing Russia. Nothing is far from the truth. NATO is a defense alliance. Never sought the end of Russia. “Biden said.
Within days of Russia’s invasion, Western nations “acted in collaboration with sanctions to damage Russia’s economy,” Biden said, and as a result of collective sanctions, the Russian ruble was “immediately reduced to rubble.” I added. Eastern countries such as Japan and Taiwan have also announced sanctions against Russia.
” [Russian] The economy is on track to be cut in half over the next few years.Russia’s economy has been ranked as the 11th largest economy in the world so far [invasion].. We won’t be in the top 20 of the world soon. “
Biden also told the crowd: We need to train ourselves for the long battle to come. “
Mr Biden said Europe “must end Russia’s dependence on fossil fuels” and ensured that the United States would support it. “That’s why, yesterday in Brussels, we announced a plan to overcome the imminent energy crisis with the President of the European Commission,” Biden said.
Biden also told the Russian people, “You, the Russian people are not our enemies.” The US president said he refused to believe that the Russian people would tolerate the current situation that innocent Ukrainians would endure. He condemned the sanctions for Putin’s invasion, which “separated” the Russian people from the rest of the world and “returned Russia to the 19th century.”
Putin describes Russia’s military action in Ukraine as a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “demilitarize” the country.
Near the end of the speech, Biden said Putin “cannot maintain power.”
A White House official later revealed: “The president’s allegation was that Putin was not allowed to exercise power over his neighbors and territories. He was not discussing Putin’s power or regime change in Russia.”
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Kremlin, accused Biden of saying, “It is not the responsibility of the US president to decide who will take power in Russia, nor is it the responsibility of the Americans.”
Early on his trip, Biden had meetings with the G7, the European Council, and NATO allies.Friday, Biden I met the U.S. military In the Polish town of Rzeszow, I was later briefed on the situation of refugees on the ground.
At the beginning of Saturday, Biden stopped at a meeting between Ukraine’s Foreign Minister and Defense Minister to make an additional unspecified security pledge on the development of defense cooperation, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Meanwhile, the city of Lviv in western Ukraine Hit with a missile, At least 5 people were injured. The city is about 50 miles from the Polish border. Mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovyy Said Fuel storage facilities were hit and homes were not damaged by strikes that seemed to target infrastructure.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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