US President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Warsaw vowing that Russia will never see victory in Ukraine, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would continue its military offensive in the region.
In his annual state-of-the-nation address, Putin accused the West of escalating the conflict and announced that Russia would suspend participation in the New START nuclear arms treaty with Washington.
Biden responded to Putin’s accusations by saying that the West “is not plotting to attack Russia”. He also reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to NATO’s principle of collective defense and pledged that “there should be no doubt: our support for Ukraine will not waver, NATO will not be divided, and we will not tire.”
Putin’s decision to suspend participation in the New START treaty was met with widespread international condemnation, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “the whole arms control architecture has been dismantled”. Biden is due to meet with the leaders of nine eastern NATO members who fear the war in Ukraine will spill over.
