Blinken says U.S. aim is not regime change
Hours after President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken made clear the United States does not have a plan for regime change in Russia.
“I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else,” Blinken said Sunday during a press conference in Jerusalem.
“As you know, and as you have heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter,” he said.
Julianne Smith, U.S. ambassador to NATO, also reaffirmed Sunday that the U.S. is not pursuing regime change in Russia.
In a sweeping and forceful speech concluding a four-day trip to Europe, Biden on Saturday cast the war in Ukraine as part of an ongoing battle for freedom and ended with a blunt call for Putin to be stopped.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said during a visit to Warsaw, Poland, in his strongest comments to date about his desire to see Putin gone.
Shortly after the speech, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity said Biden was not calling for Putin to be removed from office.
“The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,” the official said. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded, “it’s not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia.”
“Only Russians, who vote for their president, can decide that,” Peskov said.
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►In remarks from Warsaw, Biden slammed Putin as a “butcher” for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and said the West “has never been stronger.” Poland has been on the front lines of the refugee crisis, having accepted 2 million Ukrainians fleeing the war.
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NATO ambassador: Biden comments a ‘human reaction’
The United States’ top NATO representative clarified President Joe Biden’s comments where he said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” saying the full administration believes “we cannot empower Putin right now to wage war in Ukraine or pursue these acts of aggression.”
Julianne Smith, United States ambassador to NATO, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that the United States is not pursuing a policy of regime change.
Smith said Biden met with Ukrainian refugees ahead of his speech on Saturday and his ad-libbed line was “a principal human reaction to the stories that he had heard that day.”
“As you’ve heard from Secretary Blinken and others, the U.S. does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, full stop,” she said.
– Rebecca Morin
Ukraine’s ambassador asks for weapons
Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova called Sunday on Western allies to give Ukraine more military support, not in the form of troops but warplanes and anti-aircraft equipment so the nation can win the war against Russia.
“We are not asking for American soldiers, but we need all the support … all the weapons including the anti air, including the airplanes, everything, to stop this brutal destruction,” she told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“We will not surrender,” she said.
– Katie Wadington
Macron responds to Biden remark
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday distanced himself from President Joe Biden’s comments calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” and someone who “cannot remain in power,” adding that he is trying to avoid an escalation from Russia.
In an interview with French TV station France 3, Macron said he would not use that kind of language and noted his task is to achieve “a cease-fire and then the total withdrawal of (Russian) troops by diplomatic means.” Macron and Putin have continued to be in talks after Russia invaded Ukraine last month.
“If we want to do that, we can’t escalate either in words or actions,” Macron said, according to a translation from France 24.
– Rebecca Morin
Zelenskyy: West’s jets, missiles are ‘collecting dust,’ and they should share
KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again urged the West to provide Ukraine with warplanes and air defense missiles.
Speaking in a video address early Sunday, Zelenskyy said that “our partners have all that, and it’s just collecting dust. And in fact it’s necessary not just for Ukraine’s freedom, but for the freedom of Europe.”
Zelenskyy warned that the Baltic states, Poland…
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