Call for ‘butcher’ to go
WAR: WHITE HOUSE SCRAMBLES AFTER BIDEN’S IMPASSIONED SPEECH
Lviv bombed after Putin suggests he’d be targeting other side of the country.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday castigated Vladimir Putin over the month-old war in Ukraine, bluntly calling the Russian leader “a butcher” who “cannot remain in power”.
In an impassioned speech from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, delivered after meeting top Ukrainian ministers in Poland and earlier conferring with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and European Union allies on the conflict, Biden plainly warned Russia: “Don’t even think about moving on one single inch of Nato territory.”
Although the White House moved quickly to temper Biden’s unprecedented comments, insisting the US leader is not seeking “regime change” in Russia and was referring to Putin’s influence in the region, the Kremlin made its displeasure clear.
Personal attacks, one official said, were “narrowing down the window of opportunity” for bilateral relations.
Biden coupled his harsh words for Putin with a pointed attempt to appeal to ordinary Russians, saying they were “not our enemy”.
He offered reassurance to Ukrainians, at a time when nearly four million of them have been driven out of their country. “We stand with you,” he said.
Biden also cast doubt on Russia’s signal that it may scale down its war aims to concentrate on eastern Ukraine, even as two Russian missile strikes slammed into the west of the country.
The missiles struck a fuel depot in western Ukraine’s Lviv, a rare attack on a city just 70km from the Polish border that has escaped serious fighting.
At least five people were wounded, regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said.