Russia has rejected the US President’s remarks
US President Joe Biden described Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a butcher who “cannot remain in power” after meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland, as Kremlin forces stepped up attacks across Ukraine, including the western city of Lviv.
Biden’s comments, an escalation of US rhetoric towards Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, were not a call for regime change in Russia, a White House official said later, but meant to prepare the world’s democracies for an extended conflict.
While rejecting President Biden’s statement that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that this is not to be decided by him, adding that it should only be a choice of the people of the Russian Federation.
As the fight since Russia’s February 24 invasion of its neighbour drags on, a visibly irritated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again demanded Western nations send military hardware.
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Ukraine has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross not to open a planned office in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, saying it would legitimise Moscow’s “humanitarian corridors” and the abduction and forced deportation of Ukranians.
The head of the ICRC said on Thursday after his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian armies was needed before civilians could be evacuated properly from war-torn Ukraine.
Ukraine needs just one per cent of aircraft and tanks that are stationed in NATO countries, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, accusing Kyiv’s Western allies of being indecisive in terms of military assistance to Ukraine.
“Only 1 per cent of all NATO aircraft and 1 per cent of all NATO tanks, 1 per cent – we are not asking for more,” Zelenskyy said in a video address posted on his Telegram channel.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicks off a Middle East trip on Sunday in Israel, where he will take part in a rare Arab-Israeli summit and hold talks with regional partners on stalled Iran nuclear talks and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on the first leg of a Middle East and North Africa trip lasting until March 30.
Russian forces took control of a town where staff working at the Chernobyl nuclear site live and briefly detained the mayor, sparking protests, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.
“I have been released. Everything is fine, as far as it is possible under occupation,” Yuri Fomichev, mayor of Slavutych, told AFP by phone, after officials in the Ukraine capital Kyiv announced earlier he had been detained.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says UK sanctions against Russia could be lifted if Moscow commits to a full ceasefire and withdraws its troops.
Truss says the Kremlin must also agree to “no further aggression” towards Ukraine for the British sanctions imposed on hundreds of people and entities to remain eased.
The Kremlin dismissed a remark by U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” saying it was up to Russians to choose their own president.
Asked about Biden’s comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin could not remain in power, and his war against Ukraine has been a strategic failure for Moscow, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden told a crowd in Warsaw. Biden also said the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its second month, had united the West, adding that NATO was a defensive alliance which never sought Russia’s demise.