• Joe Biden will deliver his speech in Warsaw, Poland, as part of a three-day visit to the country.
• It will come just hours after Russia’s president blamed the West for the war.
• Mr. Biden paid a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday.

At a speech later on Monday, US President Joe Biden is set to lay out his perspective on the Ukraine conflict as a battle for democracy.

He will deliver his speech in Warsaw, Poland, as part of a three-day visit to the country.

It will come just hours after Russia’s president blamed the West for the war.

Mr. Biden paid a surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday to reinforce America’s support for Kyiv.

Both leaders’ statements come only days before the year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In Warsaw, the US president is expected to emphasize the critical role the US has played in rallying Western support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.

But he will also be looking to shore up support for his policy at home, where some politicians are expressing doubts about the scale of US involvement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his annual state of the nation speech – accusing the West of hypocrisy and of withdrawing from “fundamental agreements”.

“I want to repeat: it is them who are culpable for the war, and we are using force to stop it,” he said to great applause.

Mr. Putin also reiterated his unfounded claim that Moscow had been facing a Nazi threat from Ukraine, which he used as justification to launch his “special military operation”.

Before to his speech, US Vice President Joe Biden will meet with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and other central European allies to discuss bilateral cooperation and strengthening Nato’s defenses against aggression.

That’s after the president met his Ukrainian colleague, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Kyiv on Monday – assuring a news conference that the US will assist Ukraine for “as long as it takes”.

“We have every confidence you’re going to continue to prevail,” he said.

The two also went to a memorial for troops who perished in the nine years since Russia annexed Crimea and its proxy forces took control of sections of the eastern Donbas region.

Following the visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $450 million (£373 million) package of security support for Ukraine, as well as an additional $10 million in emergency aid to preserve Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

A new round of sanctions targeting individuals and firms “seeking to escape or backfill Russia’s war machine” will be unveiled later this week.

The United States is one of Ukraine’s most important allies, having already provided billions of dollars in military aid.

Mr. Biden recently declared that the United States would supply 31 combat tanks and longer-range missiles, but has so far declined to send F-16 fighter fighters, despite repeated requests from Ukraine.

However, Mr. Zelensky on Monday said that he had discussed with Joe Biden the possibility of the US sending other weapons.

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