Joe Biden is set to make a strong statement to Vladimir Putin with a speech in Poland today. One day after a trip to Kyiv, the President met with Polish leader Andrzej Duda to discuss the strength of NATO on the first anniversary of the invasion.
Biden and Duda will speak outside Poland’s Presidential Palace on the war in Ukraine at 4.30pm GMT.
The US President is expected to reiterate his condemnation of Russia’s brutality, though national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it will not pitch Biden “head to head” with Putin.
“This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else”, he added. “The president’s remarks today are … about something larger.
“And we selected this time, we selected this date, not because President Putin was speaking today.”
On Tuesday, Putin announced Russia would suspend its participation in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the last nuclear nonproliferation accord it has with the US.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Putin’s decision to end New START “deeply unfortunate and irresponsible.”
Blinken said Biden’s administration remains ready to talk about the nuclear arms treaty “at any time with Russia, irrespective of anything else going on in the world.”
“We’ll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does, we’ll of course make sure that in any event that we are posturing appropriately for the security of our own country and that of our allies,” he added.
“I think it matters that we continue to act responsibly in this area … it’s also something the rest of the world expect of us.”
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