by WARSAW, Poland – President Joe Biden framed the war in Ukraine on Tuesday as an existential test for democratic nations that are showing on the battlefield that they will aggressively defend political freedoms in the face of autocracies bent on extinguishing them forever.
Fresh from his surprise visit to Ukraine, Biden delivered a 20-minute speech here on Tuesday that included a sweeping indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion exactly one year ago on Friday.
Putin made a serious miscalculation in assuming that Ukraine would rapidly collapse and its democratic allies disperse as Russian forces advanced, the president said. The collapse never happened. As the war enters its second year, Putin has presided over a series of humiliating defeats, Biden added, striking a triumphant note.
“A year ago, the world was preparing for the fall of kyiv,” Biden told an audience of thousands gathered in 44-degree weather outside the Royal Castle in Warsaw. “Well, I just got back from a visit to kyiv and I can report that kyiv is holding strong. Kyiv is proud. It stays high. And most importantly, it stays free.”
“When President Putin ordered his tanks into Ukraine, he thought we would turn around,” he added. “I was wrong! The Ukrainian people are too brave. America, Europe, a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific, we were too united. Democracy was too strong. Instead of an easy victory he perceived and predicted, Putin left with tanks burnt out and Russian forces in disarray.”
Before the trip, the White House had said that Biden would only make one stop: Warsaw. But that turned out to be a ruse. Under extraordinary secrecy, Biden left the White House a day ahead of schedule, flew to Poland and arrived in kyiv on Monday morning after a 10-hour train ride. The fact that he risked his own safety by visiting a war zone was itself a powerful statement that the administration’s alliance with Ukraine is enduring, analysts said.
“It was a courageous move and demonstrates Biden’s personal commitment to supporting Ukraine,” said Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland. “It’s not the kind of thing a president does if he’s looking to back down from supporting Ukraine. It is a way of demonstrating the opposite: that we are in this and we are in this to succeed.”
What made the visit even more extraordinary was the relative lack of security for the US commander-in-chief. When presidents visit theaters of war, they usually go to places under the control of US troops. But there are no US forces stationed in Ukraine, leaving Biden more exposed.
If the Ukraine leg was a personal show of solidarity, the visit to Poland was Biden’s attempt to explain the war to a skeptical audience at home. Recent NBC News polls show that people may be tired of the war effort. Americans are almost split on whether to send more money and weapons to Ukraine, with 49 percent in favor and 47 percent against.
In his speech, Biden tried to show that more is at stake than Ukraine’s independence.
“President Putin’s cowardly desire for land and power will fail, and the love of the Ukrainian people for their country will prevail,” he said. “The democracies of the world will watch over our freedom today, tomorrow and forever. That is what is at stake here: freedom.
Biden treated the speech as one of the most important of his presidency. He went through many drafts before reaching his final form, an administration official said. Biden and his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, were photographed working on the text while sitting in a train carriage on Monday, leaving Ukraine and back to Poland.
A common thread was Putin’s guilt as the architect of the invasion. Expanding on a speech given by Vice President Kamala Harris in Germany last week, Biden outlined a litany of Russian atrocities in waging war. Russian forces and paid mercenaries had committed “crimes against humanity without shame or scruples,” she said. They have bombed maternity hospitals and orphanages, taken children out of the country and “used rape as a weapon” to try to subdue Ukraine, she said.
Biden directly addressed Putin’s claim that the West instigated the war. Hours before Biden was due to speak, Putin delivered his own speech. He blamed the West for provoking the war, though he did not mention Biden by name. “They started the war and we are using force to stop it,” Putin said. He called on Russia to suspend its participation in the New START Treaty, the nuclear weapons deal between the two nations.
Biden reiterated a point the White House has been making for months: if Russia stops fighting, the war will end; if Ukraine stops fighting, she will disappear as a sovereign country.
The US president made a direct appeal to the Russian people, countering Putin’s persistent claims that the West is to blame for the conflict.
“The West was not conspiring to attack Russia, as Putin said today,” Biden said.
“President Putin chose this war,” he added. “Every day the war continues is his choice. He could end the war with a word.
During a pre-speech conference call, Sullivan told reporters: “You will hear Joe Biden in this speech. The President has passionately believed in the issues he will discuss tonight for decades.”
For all the attention paid to Biden’s foray into Ukraine, the speech could prove historic as the world grapples with a 21st century iteration of the Cold War.
Biden caused a stir last year when he spoke in Poland and improvised a line suggesting he wanted to see Putin ousted: “For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power,” he said.
The White House quickly backtracked on the comment, saying that regime change in Russia was not Biden’s goal.
This time, Biden stuck to the final text. There were no blunders or apparent improvisations on his part.
“The president understands that this is a unique moment and he is going to take advantage of it,” said an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak more freely.
Whether the speech will sway Americans and rally public support for the war is another question. For many, the war is a distant drama, far removed from their worries about the rising cost of living.
“Part of this speech is for an American audience,” said Fried, the former ambassador. “Why do we care? We care about Ukraine for the same reason we cared about Europe during World War II. We don’t want rowdy dictators.”
