‘For God’s sake, this man can’t remain in power’
US policy in chaos as Biden calls for Putin to be deposed but White House backtracks
JOE BIDEN last night appeared to call for regime change in Russia, as he said Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” in a highly charged speech in Warsaw.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” the US president said, as he urged democracies around the world to unite against Mr Putin in a speech in Poland’s capital littered with historical references to war in Europe.
The Kremlin issued a furious response, as critics accused Mr Biden of playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands.
The White House immediately sought to clarify Mr Biden’s comments, insisting his statement should not be taken as official policy.
White House insiders said Mr Biden’s comments on removing Mr Putin from power were not planned and came as a surprise to travelling officials.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said: “This is not to be decided by Mr Biden. It should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.”
The Kremlin is likely to further seize on the comments to bolster its claims that Nato is an aggressive alliance and further justify its war against Ukraine.
Aaron David Miller, a former state department adviser, said that to Russian ears, Mr Biden’s comment “only confirms what Putin has believed all along – US policy is regime change, thereby ensuring this becomes a fight not just for Ukraine but for Putin’s survival”.
Mr Biden took the stage for his speech minutes after Russia fired missiles at Lviv, 40 miles from the Polish border. Andriy Sadovyi, the city’s mayor, said the attacks had targeted infrastructure, including a fuel storage facility, but not residential buildings. Five people were wounded and fuel depots destroyed, with smoke billowing over the city, which now hosts many of the diplomatic missions that fled the bombardment of Kyiv. Mr Sadovyi said the six missile attacks on his city were a way of “saying hello to President Biden” on his visit to Poland.
In his speech, Mr Biden issued a stern warning that Washington would be prepared to join the war if Moscow widened its assault to attack a Nato ally.
“Don’t even think about moving on one single inch of Nato territory,” he said, reiterating the “sacred obligation” of collective defence for alliance members. He said the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to bring “decades of war” to Europe, declaring the continent must prepare itself for a long fight against further Russian aggression.
“In this battle we need to be cleareyed. This battle will not be won in days, or months, either,” he added. “We must commit now, to be in this fight for the long haul.” Earlier in the day, Mr Biden had vowed to send more weapons and aid to Ukraine.
The missile strikes on Lviv appeared to highlight growing splits between the Kremlin and its generals, who had suggested Russian forces were preparing to scale back their invasion.
Dmitriy Medvedev, the former Russian president, said Moscow still intended to topple the Ukrainian government, highlighting a schism with Russia’s leading military figures.
“The special operation is aimed at, namely, the neutral status of Ukraine, its demilitarisation, the refusal to use Nazi ideological laws that were adopted by Ukraine,” he said.
Ukrainian officials said that they believed Mr Putin’s invasion force was consolidating its positions in order to launch fresh attacks on Kyiv, rather than shifting their focus to the Kremlincontrolled regions in the eastern Donbas region.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian resistance fighters scored an apparent victory when they recaptured the north-east town of Trostianets, near the Russian border, one of the first settlements to fall to Moscow after it invaded a month ago. “The Russian army fled Trostianets leaving behind weapons, equipment and ammunition,” the Ukrainians said.
But more morbid warnings were sent about the port city of Mariupol, where United Nations workers are said to have discovered mass graves.
Mr Biden’s speech was not the first time he has appeared to go off-script. In January, the president had to clarify his stance on a potential Russian incursion into Ukraine, after suggesting a “minor incursion” by Russia would elicit a lesser response than a full-scale invasion.
Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons defence select committee, described Mr Biden’s remarks as “unwise”. Ben Rhodes, a national security adviser to Barack Obama, said: “That speech was not about regime change in Russia, it was about the long term stakes in the fight between democracy and autocracy. Unless the Biden team formally says it has a regime change policy.”
It is not yet the moment of liberation. Indeed, that may still be some time away. But inside the Ukrainian towns and cities besieged by Russian forces people are beginning to feel something they thought they’d lost – hope after weeks of terror.
With Ukrainian fighters experiencing growing success in pushing back the might of Putin’s military, residents of places like Kherson and Kharkiv are starting to breathe just a little bit easier.
The Ukrainian ministry of defence said its forces are on the verge of taking back Kherson from Russian control, in what would be a significant blow for Vladimir Putin’s invasion strategy.
The southern port was the first major city the Russians captured after launching their invasion last month and its recapture would be a boost for Ukraine’s resistance to Moscow.
Now the country’s national flag is once more flying over its buildings – including a huge blue and yellow banner draped over the municipal offices – as its residents try to cope with the privations of war.
In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, which has suffered some of the worst bombing, many of those who fled are returning to their homes, the streets are being cleaned and a concert is even planned in a symbolic show of Ukraine’s endurance.
And in Slavutych, the Soviet-model town close to the border with Belarus, built for Chernobyl workers after the 1986 disaster, people took to the streets yesterday, after Russian forces moved back into the city and seized its mayor.
Here dozens of people braved tear gas to march through the centre carrying the Ukrainian flag, chanting against the Russian president and singing patriotic songs. Following the protests the Russians released Yuri Fomichev, the mayor, and reportedly agreed to leave on condition that any weapons were handed over.
President Biden compared the “backbone” displayed by Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion to the pro-democracy protests in China in 1989 that ended in bloodshed and fierce repression.
Speaking in Poland to US soldiers stationed near the Ukrainian border during a visit on Friday, he said: “This is Tiananmen Square squared.”
In Kherson, with the Russians’ grip around the city being loosened as the Ukrainian military pushes Putin’s forces further back, a clean-up has begun and residents venture out to queue for essentials.
Margarita, 29, told said: “It is safer to go outside. I am sometimes in the city centre or in other areas. I go out only in the morning or in the afternoon, when there are a lot of people.
“I haven’t been in the city centre, but in the district where I’m currently living it’s rather calm. People are going to the markets and stores to buy some food, some people are cleaning the territory around their apartment buildings. Distant explosions can be heard from time to time.”
She added: “It feels surreal. People are trying to get back to their normal lives, while there’s war around us.
“People have to stay in queues to buy some bread, to buy medicine, or to get some cash from the ATMs which are still working. However, we still have enough food. A lot of vegetables are at the markets.”
Alina Shapoval, 30, a psychologist, spoke of her pride in the resistance displayed by Kherson’s citizens, who have over the past weeks staged repeated demonstrations against the Russian occupiers.
On Monday Russian troops responded with tear grenades and fired live rounds over the heads of the crowds, wounding protesters.
In a separate incident some days
‘Kherson is a Ukrainian city and always will be. Nobody wants to join Russia. Russian soldiers come here like terrorists’
later protesters draped in Ukrainian flags played the popular resistance song Bayraktar at loud volume in the direction of Russian troops.
The song, which takes its name from a Turkish-made drone used by the Ukrainian army, has become a rallying cry of the opposition to the invasion.
Mrs Shapoval told this newspaper: “Now Ukrainian flags are hanging in the city. I was in the city centre yesterday and saw it. Our mayor is also in the city.
“The risk is still there. At a peaceful rally, Russian soldiers wounded several Kherson residents a few days ago. And some were taken prisoner.
“A few days ago they took the director of the theatre prisoner, but they released him yesterday, he is fine. There are many people in the city despite the risk.”
She prays that life for her fellow residents will soon return to normal.
“It is not known what will happen tomorrow. I know one thing for sure, we are for peace, we want to live in our native Ukrainian city and we believe in our army and president.
“I feel hope. Faith and hope are the best feelings that bring us closer to victory. I will feel pride, joy and freedom if Ukraine wins back Kherson. I will cry of happiness all day long.”
Like everyone else in the city, Viacheslav, 27, an events manager, is looking forward to that moment of liberation, when victory is assured.
“We always knew Ukraine would get back control of Kherson.
“We just waited for them to come. Because Kherson is a Ukrainian city and always will be and nobody wants to join Russia. Russian soldiers come here like terrorists. Every one of our citizens wants to return to the old life, like one month ago,” he said.
“We will help each other to return to normal life. We will help our army.
“We want to be with Ukraine. Everybody wants to come to visit relatives from another city.
“We will celebrate. It will be the main day of Ukrainian history, when we win in this cruel war.”