US President Biden has repeatedly spoken in clear terms about the war in Ukraine and has not been spared in his criticism of Russia. In a speech, he now calls for the downfall of the Russian president.
20:32, March 26, 2022
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US President Biden during his speech in Warsaw © (c) APA/AFP/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI)
US President Joe Biden has openly called for the overthrow of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “This man cannot remain in power”, Biden said Saturday night at the end of a speech about the war in Ukraine in Warsaw. In it he assured the besieged country of Western support, reiterated the defense of NATO’s territory as a “sacred obligation”, but at the same time prepared the world for a long struggle against autocracies.
Biden had made sharp judgments about the Kremlin chief several times in recent days. After calling him a “war criminal” and a “murdering dictator”, he dubbed him a “butcher” just hours before his historic speech in Warsaw.
NATO assistance obligation “sacred obligation”
US President Joe Biden has reaffirmed Poland’s loyalty to the NATO alliance in light of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “We regard Article 5 as a sacred obligation, you can count on it,” Biden said at a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Saturday.
He assumes that Russian President Vladimir Putin “hoped to be able to split NATO, separate the east flank from the west,” Biden said. But he wasn’t able to do that.
Biden also thanked Poland for welcoming refugees from Ukraine. “We recognize that Poland is taking on a great responsibility, which I believe should not only concern Poland. It should be the responsibility of the whole world, of the whole of NATO”, said the US President. “We understand the fact that so many Ukrainians are seeking refuge in Poland because we have thousands of people on our southern border who … try to reach the United States every day.”
Biden traveled to Rzeszow, in southeastern Poland, on Friday and had American troops stationed there. The city is just 90 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. During his visit, Biden also emphasized that he would like to get a better impression of the situation. However, security concerns would not allow him to visit Ukraine, for example. In Rzeszow, together with President Duda, he also got to know the work of aid organizations that serve refugees. Nearly 2.24 million people from Ukraine have traveled to Poland so far, most staying there.
Sanctions will ‘cut in half’ the Russian economy
According to US President Joe Biden, the Russian economy “will halve” in the coming years because of tough Western sanctions. Before the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Russia was the 11th economy in the world, soon Russia is unlikely to be among the 20 largest, Biden said in Warsaw on Saturday at the end of a two-day visit to Poland.
Sanctions are so effective that they compete with “military power”. The economic costs are also hurting the Russian military, Biden said. “As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble was reduced to rubble almost immediately,” Biden said, referring to the dramatic devaluation of Russia’s national currency, playing with the word rubble. “The economy is about to halve in the next few years,” he said.
Travel in the light of the war in Ukraine
Biden’s trip to Poland was about the war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s neighbor is worried about Russia’s aggression. As far as refugees from Ukraine are concerned, Poland bears the main burden, said before Biden’s trip from the White House. NATO’s partner is not only faced with the war in Ukraine, but also with Russian military rallies in Belarus, said security adviser Sullivan. This fundamentally changed the security balance in the region. The United States had recently moved additional US troops into Poland to strengthen the eastern flank.
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