Biden Says Putin A “Butcher”, Ukraine War Russia’s “Failure”
US President Joe Biden castigated Vladimir Putin over the month-old war in Ukraine, bluntly calling the Russian leader “a butcher” who “cannot remain in power”.
Here are the top 10 updates on this big story
US President Joe Biden called the conflict in Ukraine a “strategic failure” for Russia but said ordinary Russians were “not our enemy”. He also warned Russia not to move on an “inch” of NATO territory.
President Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power” after meeting top Ukrainian ministers for the first time since Russia’s invasion. However, within minutes of his comments in Warsaw, a White House official played down President Biden’s remarks.
Kremlin dismissed the remark by US President Joe Biden”, saying it was up to Russians to choose their own president. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Western nations provide a fraction of the military hardware in their stock piles and asked whether they were afraid of Moscow.
The United States intends to provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the assistance would be to build the capacity of the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that UK sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine could be lifted if Moscow committed to a full ceasefire and withdrew its troops.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said 3,772,599 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s invasion a month ago.
Ukraine said its forces recaptured the northeast town of Trostianets, near the Russian border, one of the first towns taken in the Russian invasion.
Two rocket strikes hit Ukraine’s western city of Lviv on Saturday, wounding five people, regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said, after local authorities told residents to seek shelter in the wake of powerful blasts on the city’s outskirts.
Mariupol city council posted on Telegram to say that while 140,000 civilians have been able to escape the besieged city, another 170,000 are still trapped there.