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Joe Biden has said Vladimir Putin expected his enemies to “roll over” when he invaded Ukraine but was met with the “iron will” of its allies – as the Russian president suspended a key nuclear treaty with the US after accusing the West of starting the war.

The American president gave a historic speech from the gardens of Warsaw’s Royal Castle just hours after Mr Putin delivered a state of the nation address in Russia.

Mr Biden was speaking in the Polish capital a day after he made his highly-secretive and historic visit to Kyiv in Ukraine.

“I can report: Kyiv stands strong, Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall and, most important, it stands free,” Mr Biden said on Tuesday evening.

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‘Freedom, there is no sweeter word’

Ukraine war latest: Biden comes out dancing and declares ‘NATO is stronger than ever’

Mr Putin had earlier blamed the West for starting the war in Ukraine and claimed his country responded with force “in order to stop it”.

He added that Ukraine was in talks with the West about weapons supplies before Russia invaded its neighbour on 24 February last year.

“I would like to emphasise when Russia tried to find a peaceful solution they were playing with the lives of people and they were playing a dirty game,” Mr Putin said.

Biden says ‘democracy was too strong’

Both leaders gave speeches presenting starkly contrasting views of the war as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches.

Mr Biden used his address to repeatedly accuse Mr Putin of underestimating Ukraine and the strength of NATO before ordering the full-scale offensive.

The US president said: “When Russia invaded it wasn’t just Ukraine being tested, the whole world faced a test for the ages… all democracies were being tested.

“The questions we faced were as simple as they were profound. Would we respond or would we look the other way?

“Would we be strong or would we be weak?”

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Mr Biden continued: “One year later we know the answer.

“We did respond, we would be strong, we would be united, and the world would not look the other way.”

Mr Biden said: “President Putin ordered his tanks to roll into Ukraine, he thought we would roll over. He was wrong.

“The Ukrainian people were too brave. America, Europe, a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific, we were too unified.

“Democracy was too strong. Instead of the easy victory he perceived and predicted, Putin left with burnt-out tanks and Russia’s forces in disarray.

“He thought he would get the Finlandization of NATO, instead he got the NATO-isation of Finland and Sweden.”

The term Finlandization has been used to refer to the decision of a country not to challenge a more powerful neighbour in foreign politics while maintaining national sovereignty.

‘Autocrats have grown weaker’

“He thought NATO would fracture and divide. Instead, NATO was more united and more unified than ever before,” Mr Biden continued.

“He thought autocrats like himself were tough and leaders of democracies were soft, and then he met the iron will of America and nations everywhere who refused to accept a world governed by fear and force.”

Mr Biden added: “President Putin is confronted with something today that he didn’t think was possible a year ago.

“The democracies of the world have grown stronger not weaker, but the autocrats of the world have grown weaker not stronger.”

Mr Biden also said Russia had committed “abhorrent” crimes in Ukraine by targeting civilians with “death and destruction” and had used rape as a “weapon of war”.

He also accused Russian forces of stealing Ukrainian children and bombing maternity hospitals and orphanages.

Mr Biden insisted the US support for Ukraine will never waiver.

Biden the Cold War warrior is on a mission to build on the success of his visit to Kyiv


Dominic Waghorn - Diplomatic editor

Dominic Waghorn

International Affairs Editor

@DominicWaghorn

As billed by White House officials, this speech in Warsaw was about Ukraine but also “the larger contest at stake between those aggressors who are trying to destroy fundamental principles and those democracies who are pulling together to try to uphold it”.

This was Joe Biden the Cold War warrior and statesman whose lifelong belief in those principles of freedom and democracy took him all the way to war-torn Kyiv this week.

He recalled the World War Two struggles for freedom in this city and vowed its example would inspire the West’s battles today.

“The appetites of autocrats must not be appeased. They must be opposed.”

His mission now is building on that stunning surprise visit and to rally allies and maintain solidarity and unity as we pass the grim milestone of the first anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

Russia says the West ‘released the genie from the bottle’

In his address hours before Mr Biden’s, Mr Putin said Russia decided to “protect its people and history” by conducting a “special military operation step-by-step” – as he warned that Moscow will “continue to resolve the objectives that are before us”.

The Russian president has always referred to the invasion as a “special military operation” since it began last year.

“I would like to repeat, they started the war and we used force in order to stop it,” he said.

Read more:
Biden’s secretive trip to Kyiv was disguised as a ‘golf tourney’ – here’s how it unfolded

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Putin’s state of the nation address

Mr Putin also announced that Russia was suspending its participation in a key nuclear treaty with the US which limits the two sides’ strategic nuclear arsenals.

The New START treaty caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy.

Mr Putin said Russia was not fully withdrawing from the treaty and said Moscow must stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the US does so.

The Russian president took aim at the West and said they “released the genie from the bottle” in the 10 years prior to the war, by starting others.

He claimed Western countries were painting Russia as an enemy of the state to divert attention from the corruption and socio-economic problems in their own countries.

On weapons, Mr Putin also claimed the West was “in negotiations” over the “supply of heavy military equipment and planes and anti-aircraft missile systems” before the operation began.

President Joe Biden, , and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talk during an unannounced visit in Kyiv, Ukraine
Pic:Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP
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Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv

While Russian forces have suffered three major battlefield reversals since the war began, it still controls around one-fifth of Ukraine.

In his wide-ranging speech, the Russian president also claimed millions of people in the West are being “led to a real spiritual catastrophe”, as he criticised the “Anglican Church’s plan to consider the idea of a gender-neutral God”.

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In his visit to the Ukrainian capital on Monday, Mr Biden said Washington would provide Kyiv with a new military aid package worth $500m (£413m) as he was pictured walking in the city with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mr Biden said Mr Putin had believed Ukraine was “weak and the West was divided” and “thought he could outlast us” but added – “he was dead wrong”.

Mr Zelenskyy said he discussed long-range weapons with Mr Biden and described negotiations as “very fruitful”.

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Donald Trump imposes sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies as frustration grows with Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war

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Donald Trump imposes sanctions against Russia's two biggest oil companies as frustration grows with Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war

Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies – and spoke of his frustration with Vladimir Putin.

In a major policy shift, new restrictions have been unveiled against Rosneft and Lukoil – as well as dozens of subsidiaries – due to “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.

“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. We encourage our allies to join us in, and adhere to, these sanctions.”

The move marked a significant change for the Trump administration, which has veered between pressuring Moscow and taking a more conciliatory approach aimed at securing peace in Ukraine.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Image:
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters

Trump frustrated with Putin

The US president has resisted pressure to impose energy sanctions on Russia, hoping that Putin would agree to end the fighting. But with no end in sight, he said he felt it was time.

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Mr Trump explained he has a “very good relationship” with his Russian counterpart, but felt he had to cancel their planned meeting as “it didn’t feel right to me”.

In a sign of growing frustration, he told reporters: “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it. But we’ll do it in the future.

“I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”

He also hinted that the sanctions could be lifted if the Russian president was prepared to cooperate in peace talks.

“We hope that they [the sanctions] won’t be on for long,” he said in the Oval Office. “We hope that the war will be settled.”

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Putin-Trump talks: The view from Moscow

Trump wants Xi to help with Ukraine

Ahead of a meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Mr Trump said he would like Beijing to help put pressure on Moscow to halt the fighting.

“I think he [Xi] can have a big influence on Putin. I think he can have a big influence … he’s a respected man. He’s a very strong leader of a very big country. And we will certainly be talking about Russia-Ukraine,” he said.

Xi and Putin have formed a strategic alliance between their countries.

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Why Tomahawks are off the table

Ukraine denied Tomahawk missiles

However, Mr Trump warned he is not prepared to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested.

He explained it would take the Ukrainians up to a year to learn how to use the “highly complex” weapons.

“The only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot … is if we shot it. And we’re not going to do that.

“It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it, and we’re not going to be teaching other people.”

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Pete Hegseth makes Al Qaeda claim as US strikes eighth alleged drug boat

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Pete Hegseth makes Al Qaeda claim as US strikes eighth alleged drug boat

The US has launched its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel – this time in the Pacific.

The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the “lethal kinetic” strike on social media.

In a video shared by Mr Hegseth, a small boat carrying brown packages explodes after being struck.

According to the US war secretary, the action killed two “narco-terrorists”, taking the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people.

“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organisation and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” said Mr Hegseth.

“There were two narco-terrorists aboard during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed, and no US forces were harmed.”

Mr Hegseth likened the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11 attacks, Islamist terror organisation Al Qaeda.

Pete Hegseth, pictured addressing a meeting at NATO on October 15, has revealed another strike on an alleged drug boat. Pic: AP
Image:
Pete Hegseth, pictured addressing a meeting at NATO on October 15, has revealed another strike on an alleged drug boat. Pic: AP

Read more:
US airstrike destroyed ‘drug-carrying submarine’
Survivors reported after US military strike

“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Mr Hegseth said. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice.”

The seven previous US strikes had all targeted vessels in the Caribbean.

Amid a US military build up in the region and anxiety that Mr Trump may order military action against Venezuela, which the US president accuses of narcoterrorism, President Nicolas Maduro.has denied any connection to drug smuggling and said the boat strikes were a pretext for regime change.

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Putin-Trump Budapest meeting in doubt as official says ‘no plan for immediate future’

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Putin-Trump Budapest meeting in doubt as official says 'no plan for immediate future'

There are no plans for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet in person in the near future, according to a White House official.

The US leader later shed further light on the issue when asked why his planned summit in Hungary had been put on hold.

He said he did not want to have a wasted meeting, telling reporters in the Oval Office he had not made a determination about the talks he had wanted to hold.

The presidents last week agreed to meet in Budapest after a phone call Mr Trump called “extremely frank and trustful”.

The US leader suggested it was possible it could happen within a fortnight, though no date was set.

However, it appears that’s now off the table – and there are fears the meeting could be shelved altogether due to Russia‘s rigid stance on the Ukraine war.

The White House official, speaking to Sky’s US partner network NBC, said secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken on Tuesday.

The call was described as “productive” but the official added there was no plan for the presidents to meet “in the immediate future”.

The last Trump-Putin meeting was in Alaska in August, but it ended without any meaningful progress towards a ceasefire.

The Budapest plan was announced shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington last Friday to try to get approval for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

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Why Tomahawks are off the table

Mr Zelenskyy accused the Russian leader of acting out of fear Ukraine could get the green light and the ability to hit targets far deeper into Russia.

In his nightly address on Tuesday, he said Russia “almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy” after it became clear Mr Trump had backed away from any decision on the Tomahawks.

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Professor Michael Clarke answers your questions on the Ukraine war.

Two US officials told Reuters that plans for the Budapest meeting had stalled over Russia’s insistence any peace deal must give it control of all of the Donbas region.

Those terms are said to have been reiterated over the weekend in a private communique known as a “no paper”.

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The Kremlin’s refusal to budge effectively rejects Mr Trump’s latest assessment that the frontlines should be frozen as they are.

The president shifted position last week after previously telling the UN General Assembly that Ukraine could win back all the land it has lost.

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UK ‘ready to spend over £100m’ on possibly sending troops to Ukraine

Ukraine and European nations issued a joint statement on Tuesday insisting “international borders must not be changed by force” and accusing Russia of “stalling tactics”.

But, in an apparent effort to keep the US leader onside, it added: “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

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Trump: ‘We can end this war quickly’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave the impression his country was in no rush to arrange another Trump-Putin meeting, saying on Tuesday “preparation is needed, serious preparation”.

Such talk is likely to increase concerns Russia does not want to stop fighting and is “playing” President Trump – all while continuing to launch drone barrages at Ukrainian cities.

Russia currently holds about a fifth of Ukraine after its invasion in February in 2022. It also annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Meanwhile, NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte is travelling to Washington to meet with President Trump on Wednesday.

He will “discuss various aspects related to NATO’s support to Ukraine and to the US-led efforts towards lasting peace”, an official for the alliance said.

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