Biden called Putin a “butcher” after meeting with Ukrainian refugees and ministers

The U.S. president, asked by reporters about his opinion of Putin after chatting with refugees, said: “He’s a butcher.” On the contrary, he called “brave” the people who fled Ukraine, with whom he spoke and took photos, as reported by CNN. Biden was also asked about yesterday’s announcement by the Kremlin, which said it will concentrate on eastern Ukraine, after fulfilling “in general” the main goals of “the first stage of the operation.” I’m not sure they’ve changed,” he replied, fueling doubts about a change in strategy. Previously, Biden met in Warsaw with two ministers of Ukraine, in the first face-to-face meeting between representatives of both countries since the beginning of the war, and promised them more economic, humanitarian and security aidThe president spoke with the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba and Oleksiy Reznikov, respectively, in a meeting in which the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, and the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, also participated.” Secretaries Blinken and Austin vowed to continue their support to meet humanitarian, security and economic needs as President Putin’s large-scale invasion enters its second month,” an official State Department statement said after the meeting. Biden and his advisers “discussed future efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory,” the White House said in another statement. For his part, Kuleba said in a tweet that the meeting with that broad U.S. delegation will allow “to seek practical solutions in the political and defense spheres, to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to fight Against Russia’s aggression.” After that meeting, Biden visited his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, before whom he reaffirmed that Article 5 of the NATO treaty – which stipulates that the attack on a member country of the alliance is an attack on the entire pact – constitutes a “sacred commitment” for the United States. You can count on that (…) For their freedom and for ours,” he said, referring to the slogan used during the Polish uprising against the occupation of Tsarist Russia. Biden also declared that Putin “had a divided NATO,” but that this break did not occur, the AFP news agency reported. For his part, Duda said that relations between Poland and the United States will be “immensely strengthened” by the visit of the US president. Duda also said his government is a “serious” ally of the United States and mentioned future cooperation with U.S. companies for nuclear power plant projects in Poland, as well as his desire for Polish aeronautical companies to be able to participate in the manufacture of U.S. Black Hawk helicopters. Biden ends today a visit to the neighboring country of Ukraine and that received more refugees for the war, after participating in a summit of the European Union (EU) and another of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held in Brussels this week. Yesterday he met with U.S. soldiers stationed in Poland, near the Ukrainian border, and with aid workers helping refugees fleeing the conflict. In the framework of these activities, he praised the courage of the Ukrainian people, which he said was reminiscent of the events in Tiananmen Square, and reiterated that Putin is a “war criminal.” When you see a 30-year-old woman standing in front of a tank with a gun (…), if we talk about Tiananmen Square, this is Tiananmen Square squared,” he said from Rzeszow, 80 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, referring to the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing, repressed by the Chinese army.

Original source in Spanish