President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday suspended Moscow’s participation in a nuclear arms treaty with Washington as US President Joe Biden vowed in a rival speech that Russia would never win in Ukraine.
In his state of the nation address ahead of the first anniversary of the campaign in Ukraine, Putin also accused the West of escalating the conflict and vowed that Russia would keep fighting to ‘systematically’ achieve its aims.
The Russian leader accused Western powers of wanting ‘to be done with us once and for all’, but said increasingly stringent sanctions on Russia ‘will not succeed’.
Then in a rival speech from Biden on Tuesday, the U.S. slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend participation in a nuclear arms control treaty as ‘irresponsible’.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the decision ‘deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.’
‘We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does, of course, to make sure that, in any event, we are postured appropriately for the security of our country and our allies,’ he told reporters in Athens, Greece.
The back and forth puts the global focus on eastern Europe, as Biden prepares to go head-to-head with Putin delivering his own speech on Tuesday evening in Warsaw.
He met with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the presidential palace, where he set out once again the United States’ dedication to European security and to Ukraine.
‘We have to have security in Europe,’ he said. ‘It’s that basic, that simple, that consequential.’
He talked about his visit to Poland last year, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine.
‘A year later, I would argue that NATO is stronger than it’s ever been,’ he said.
‘As I told President Zelensky while we spoke in Kyiv yesterday I can proudly say that our support for Ukraine remains unwavering.’
A day earlier Biden has generated global headlines with a surprise visit to Kyiv, much to Moscow’s fury.
The visit triggered response from Putin and Moscow as they condemned the West, accusing the U.S. and allies of threatening Russia and sparking the conflict in Ukraine.
