US President Joe Biden has pledged the support of the United States to the people of Ukraine. “We stand by you,” said Biden in Warsaw on Saturday at the end of a two-day visit to Poland. Russia is trying to crush democracy at home and is also endangering neighboring countries. There is no justification for Russia’s brutal war of aggression in Ukraine, Biden said.
In his speech, Biden prepared the world for a long conflict over the future international order. It is about a “great battle between democracy and autocracy, between freedom and oppression, between a rules-based order and one that is determined by brute force,” said Biden. “We have to be clear about this: this battle will not be fought in days or in months. We have to steel ourselves for a long fight.”
Biden believes Russian President Vladimir Putin should no longer remain in office. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” said the US President, without explicitly mentioning the Russian President at this point.
With the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Putin made a strategic mistake, said Biden. “A dictator who wants to rebuild an empire can never extinguish people’s love for freedom,” Biden said. In Ukraine, Putin will “never” achieve a victory, he stressed.
Biden appeals to the people of Russia to distance themselves from the Ukraine war. “You, the Russian people, are not our enemy,” said Biden on Saturday evening in Warsaw. But the Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine, which have forced millions to flee, are not befitting of a large nation.
“That’s not what you are, that’s not the future you deserve for your family,” Biden said. “This war is not worthy of you.” He recalled that 200,000 Russians had already left their homeland.
Build: AP