By Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian | Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland — President Joe Biden, returning on Tuesday to the Polish castle where he spoke shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, said the war had hardened Western resolve to defend democracy around the globe.
He warned that there were “hard and bitter days ahead,” but pledged that the United States and its allies would “have Ukraine’s back” as the war enters its second year.
“Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever,” he said at the Royal Castle, a historical landmark in Warsaw, before a cheering crowd of Polish citizens and Ukrainian refugees.
Biden’s speech came one day after his daring, unannounced trip to Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Kyiv stands strong,” Biden declared. “Kyiv stands proud.”
Before his speech, Biden met with Polish President Andrzej Duda as he began a series of consultations with allies to prepare for an even more complicated stage of Russia’s invasion.
“We have to have security in Europe,” Biden said at the presidential palace in Warsaw. “It’s that basic, that simple, that consequential.”
He described NATO as “maybe the most consequential alliance in history,” and he said it’s “stronger than it’s ever been” despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hopes that it would fracture over the war in Ukraine.
Earlier Tuesday, Putin announced that Moscow would suspend its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.
The so-called New START Treaty caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Biden laid into Putin throughout speech, but did not mention the START suspension.
Duda, in his meeting with Biden, praised the American president’s unannounced visit to Kyiv as “spectacular,” saying it “boosted…
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