President Joe Biden has arrived back in the United States after three days of diplomacy in Europe that were capped by a fiery speech in which he framed Russia’s war in Ukraine as the battle of a generation in the fight for democracy
As the president sought to rally the world’s support behind the embattled nation, he stepped up his condemnation of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said of Putin at the end of Saturday’s speech in Poland, after earlier calling him a “butcher.”
The White House quickly sought to explain that Biden was not discussing a regime change, and instead meant Putin “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.” The Kremlin responded swiftly, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling Reuters that it was “not for Biden to decide” who leads Russia.
Hours earlier, several rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in what officials said were two separate attacks 45 miles from the border with Poland, a NATO ally. The powerful explosions shook a city that has been a haven for millions of people fleeing the Russian assault.
Having struggled to make progress in the first month of the war, Moscow has indicated its troops may now scale back their ambitions and focus on securing control of eastern Ukraine. They appear to be “concentrating their effort” on an attempt to encircle Kyiv’s forces in that region, the U.K.’s defense ministry said early Sunday.
