- Joe Biden ailed Western democracy for standing up to open Russian aggression.
- Mr. Putin said that the West had aided Nazi Germany and had transformed Ukraine into an “anti-Russian” neo-Nazi regime.
- Mr. Putin has repeatedly blamed the West and Nato.
Vladimir Putin’s antipathy for the West has grown as President Joseph Biden, fresh from a visit to Kyiv, hailed Western democracy for standing up to open Russian aggression.
Mr. Putin spoke first in a week packed with activities leading up to the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
He stated that the West had aided Nazi Germany and had transformed Ukraine into an “anti-Russian” neo-Nazi regime.
Mr. Biden later stated that autocrats understood only one word: “No, no, no!”
“Putin thought the world would roll over, he was wrong,” he said, vowing that Nato was more united than ever. Kyiv stood strong, proud, tall, and free and Western support for Ukraine would not fail, he added.
While welcoming him to Warsaw’s royal castle, Polish President Andrzej Duda stated that by traveling to Kyiv, Mr. Biden demonstrated that the free world is fearless. Nato’s job was to defend and support the free world, and Ukraine “must win this battle,” according to the organization.
No indication
Mr. Putin’s speech scarcely touched on Russia’s military accomplishments in Ukraine, and there was no indication of how the war may finish. The primary military news came from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who accused the chief of staff and defense minister of attempting to destroy his outfit and deprive it of weaponry.
Russia’s president did, however, declare the suspension of the New Start nuclear arms control accord struck with the United States in 2010. The agreement limits the number of nuclear warheads, and Nato and UK leaders have pushed Trump to reconsider.
He also stated that he had deployed new ground-based combat systems. Last year, he promised to use “all means at our disposal” to safeguard Russia and the territory it had acquired in Ukraine.
The reality was among the first casualties of Mr. Putin’s lengthy address at an exhibition center near the Kremlin.
“They were the ones who started the war… we’re using force to stop it,” President Putin asserted in his address to both houses of Russia’s parliament.
Although there have been no Western troops on the ground in Ukraine, Russia’s foreign ministry appeared to back up this allegation when it summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Tuesday, stating that Washington should take steps to evacuate “US-NATO military and equipment” from the country.
Putin repeatedly blamed the West and Nato
Mr. Putin has repeatedly blamed the West and Nato, and he repeated many of his accusations from his Broadcast address on the day of the invasion a year ago. He brought up the Iraq war and the bombing of Belgrade but avoided discussing Russia’s protracted and destructive role in the Syrian civil war, its invasion of neighboring Georgia, or its territorial grab in Crimea.
There was a terrible reminder of the human cost of Europe’s most lethal invasion since World War II as he spoke.
Six people were killed and several more were injured when Russian munitions hit Kherson, which was liberated from Russian soldiers in November. In the city center, a bus stop, a drugstore, and residential areas were targeted, and local media reported that a kindergarten was among the structures targeted.
In his nightly address on Tuesday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attacks “did not and could not have any military purpose”, and were instead intended to sow “terror”.
He noted that despite intense pressure, Ukrainian forces remained on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where the majority of the present fighting is taking place.
What is the New Start treaty?
The New Start deal, signed in 2010 by two then-presidents, Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, was intended to prevent nuclear war. It restricts the amount of strategic nuclear warheads that each country can deploy and gives each country the authority to inspect the other.
The agreement went into effect in 2011 and was extended ten years later, despite the fact that weapons inspections were hampered by the Covid epidemic.
Each side has a limit of 1,550 long-range nuclear warheads, which is lower than the prior Start agreement.
The two former Cold War adversaries control nearly all of the world’s nuclear weapons. Notwithstanding aggressive rhetoric on both sides during the Ukraine war, Moscow has previously stated that it wished to preserve the treaty in force.
In a highly complicated security operation, President Biden visited Warsaw a day after visiting Kyiv to see President Zelensky.
The visit, according to the Polish president, conveyed “an enormously important political signal, mainly for Ukraine,” but it was also a sign that the free world and the US president were with them and did not forget.
Mr. Biden lavished admiration on Mr. Zelensky and the Ukrainians who had recaptured the area captured in the early days of the war.
He did, however, express support for Moldova’s pro-EU president, Maia Sandu, in the face of suspicions that Russia was conspiring to destabilize the existing government.
President Putin inflamed tensions in Moldova on Tuesday by canceling a 2012 directive that supported Moldova’s sovereignty in determining the future of Transnistria, a breakaway territory of Moldova where Russian forces are stationed.
An attack against one is an attack against all
President Biden is scheduled to meet with leaders of nine nations on Nato’s eastern flank on Wednesday, and he went out of his way to reiterate the United States support for one of the alliance’s key objectives.
Nato members agree to support any other member who is attacked under Article 5. Mr. Biden stated that the US was “rock solid” in its commitment to both the alliance and Article 5.
“Every member of Nato knows it and Russia knows it as well – an attack against one is an attack against all.”
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, followed up Mr. Biden’s visit to Kyiv on Tuesday with her first trip to Ukraine. Visiting the towns of Bucha and Irpin, where Russian troops murdered hundreds of civilians, she said Ukrainians could count on Italy: “We have been with you since the start and we will be until the end.”
[embedpost slug=”/president-joe-biden-departs-kyiv-after-unforgettable-trip/”]
Read more
