Joe Biden has declared that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” while attempting to “rebuild an empire.”
In a stirring speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, President Trump denounced Putin as a “dictator.”
It comes after years of claims that Putin is desperate to re-establish Russian control over countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
Biden slammed the dictator after meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Poland’s capital today.
When asked what he thought of Putin after the meeting, Trump replied, “He’s a butcher.”
“In this hour, let the words of Pope John Paul burn as brightly today – never, ever give up hope, never doubt, never tyre, never become discouraged,” Biden said outside the Royal Castle. Don’t be afraid.
“A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty.
“Brutality will never crush their desire to be free. Ukraine will never be a Russian victory because free people refused to live in a world of despair and darkness.
“We will have a different, brighter future, one founded on democracy and principle, hope and light, decency and dignity, freedom and possibilities.
“For the love of God, this man cannot remain in power.”
The White House later clarified that Biden was not in Moscow to discuss regime change.
Instead, he was emphasising that Russia should not be allowed to exert control over its neighbours, according to a US official.
In his speech today, Biden also addressed the Russian people, saying, “You are not our enemy,” while warning that the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine were “not (those) of a great nation.”
Biden added: “Of all people, you the Russian people, as well as all people across Europe still have the memory of being in a similar situation in the 30s and 40s, the situation of World War Two, still fresh in the mind of many grandparents in the region.”
After sharing accounts of the horrors of World War Two, he added: “These are not memories of the past – not any more, it’s exactly what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine right now.”
According to the US president, Moscow’s troops “met their match with brave and stiff Ukrainian resistance,” which has strengthened the resolve and unity of both the defending forces and the West.
“Russia wanted less of a Nato presence on his border, but now he has a stronger, larger presence,” he explained.
Mr. Biden claimed that 200,000 Russians left their country in a single month in a “remarkable brain drain” as Mr. Putin, whom he previously referred to as a “butcher,” “strangled democracy.”
In front of a thousand people, including refugees fleeing the war, he told Ukrainians, “we stand with you – period,” defending the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Putin has the audacity to claim that he is destabilising Ukraine. He knows it’s a lie, it’s just cynicism “Mr. Biden stated.
“It’s also heinous. President Zelensky was democratically elected, he is Jewish, his father’s family was wiped out in the Nazi holocaust, and Putin, like all autocrats before him, believes that might makes right.”
