Biden says fight against Ukraine-Russia war is ‘new fight for freedom’
US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to dismantle global security, and that the world’s democracies must prepare for a long battle against authoritarianism.
“The West is now stronger and more united than it has ever been,” Biden told hundreds of Polish elected officials, students and US embassy staff, many of whom carried American, Polish and Ukrainian flags.
“We need to strengthen ourselves for the long battle ahead.”
Biden called the war against Vladimir Putin a “new fight for freedom” and said Putin’s desire for “absolute power” was Russia’s strategic failure and a direct challenge to European peace that has largely prevailed since World War II.
The comments at the Royal Castle in Warsaw came as Biden made new security promises to Ukraine and called Putin a “butcher” during a meeting with refugees who fled the war in Ukraine for the Polish capital.
Biden, who took office last year after a hotly contested election, has vowed to restore democracy at home and unite democracies abroad to confront autocrats including Russian President and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 tested this promise and threatened to unleash a new Cold War three decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The US president is wrapping up three days of emergency meetings in Europe with the Group of Seven, the European Council and NATO aimed at building a unified approach to thwarting Putin.
Earlier today, Biden attended a meeting that Ukraine’s foreign and defense ministers had with US officials.
“President Biden said that what is happening in Ukraine will change the history of the 21st century, and we will work together to ensure that this change is in our interest, in the interest of Ukraine, in the interest of the democratic world,” Dmytro Kuleba, said on the country’s national television service.
After a separate meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Biden reiterated Washington’s “sacred” commitment to security guarantees within NATO, of which Poland is a member.
Ukraine is not a member of the Western military alliance, and the United States is worried about being drawn into a direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia, but Washington has pledged to defend every inch of NATO territory.
Kuleba told reporters that Ukraine had received additional security pledges from the United States on the development of defense cooperation, while Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov expressed “cautious optimism” after the meeting with Biden.
Refugees in Warsaw, Biden also visited a refugee reception center at the National Stadium. People, some waving Ukrainian flags, lined the streets as his motorcade made its way toward the stadium.
Greeted by celebrity chef Jose Andres, Biden spoke to refugees who had gathered to receive food from the NGO World Central Kitchen, asking their names and country and taking pictures with some.
More than two million people fled the war to Poland.
In all, about 3.8 million people have left Ukraine since the fighting began.
Asked about the impact of Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine on the Ukrainian people, Biden said the Russian leader was a “butcher”.
The Russian Tass news agency quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying that Biden’s recent statements about Putin narrowed the prospects for repairing relations between the two countries.
Putin describes Russia’s military operations in Ukraine as a “special military operation” to disarm and “disarm” the country.
Russia denies targeting civilians.
Standing outside the stadium, Hana Kharkowitz, a 27-year-old woman from the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, expressed frustration that the world was not doing more to help.
“I don’t know what he wants to ask us here,” she said, as she waited for her mother to register for a Polish national ID number. “If Biden goes to Kyiv…it would be better than talking to me here.”
The invasion of Ukraine tested the ability of NATO and the West to unite.
Poland was under communist rule for four decades until 1989, and was a member of the Moscow-led Warsaw Security Pact. 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 European Union and Washington, but fears of Russia pressure outside its borders have brought Poland closer to its Western allies.
Biden’s election has put the National Law and Justice government in an awkward position as it put so much place in its relationship with his predecessor, Donald Trump.
But as tensions with Russia soared ahead of its invasion of Ukraine, Duda appeared to be seeking to cool relations with Washington. And in December, he vetoed a law his critics said was intended to silence a 24-hour US-owned news station.
In their meeting, Biden and Duda were expected to address the dispute over how to arm Ukraine with warplanes and other security guarantees.
(Reuters)
