Biden promises US commitment to ‘unbroken’ Ukraine ‘will not falter’
Naomi Lim
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President Joe Biden praised Ukraine for remaining “unbroken” despite the “crimes against humanity” Russia has committed against it since President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion in February 2022.
“After nearly a year and a half of Russia’s forces committing terrible atrocities, including crimes against humanity, the people of Ukraine remain unbroken. Unbroken,” Biden told a crowd Wednesday at Vilnius University in Lithuania. “Ukraine remains independent. It remains free.
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“The defense of freedom is not the work of a day or a year. It’s the calling of our lifetime — of all time,” he said. “We are steeled for the struggle ahead. Our unity will not falter, I promise you.”
Biden condemned Putin for not being amenable to a diplomatic resolution to the war, describing the strongman’s conflict as “craven” and reminding the audience he has not spared Ukraine’s women and children.
“Putin still wrongly believes that he can outlast Ukraine,” he said. “He can’t believe it is their land, their country, and their future and, even after all this time, Putin still doubts our staying power. He is still making a bad bet.”
Addressing his own constituents, Biden underscored how the idea the U.S. “can prosper without a secure Europe is not reasonable,” alluding, too, to China.
“We will not waver. I mean that. Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken,” the president said. “We will stand for freedom today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes.
“We face a choice,” he added. “A choice between a world defined by coercion and exploitation, where might makes right, or a world where we recognize that our own success is bound to the success of others — when others do better, we do better as well.”
Biden sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensk Wednesday afternoon after the pair attended the inaugural meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council and a Group of Seven event to discuss additional military support to supplement the $46 billion the U.S. has already provided, Ukraine’s path to NATO membership, and security guarantees that can be offered in the interim.
Earlier, during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Zelensky expressed “gratitude” for NATO’s continued assistance and for agreeing to remove certain conditions included under Ukraine’s Membership Action Plan. One day before, Zelensky had aired his frustrations at NATO for its decision to not extend Ukraine an invitation to become a member or to specify a timeline or specific requirements.
“President Zelensky, how soon after the war would you like to join NATO?” one U.S. reporter asked before the Biden-Zelensky bilateral.
“An hour and 20 minutes,” Biden replied. “You guys ask really insightful questions.”
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While reporters were in the room, Zelensky also thanked Biden for sending Ukraine controversial cluster bombs, contending Russia has been using such munitions “from the first days on a full scale, from the first days of [the] occupation of Crimea, from 2014 and 2015.
“The United States is doing everything we can to get you everything we can,” Biden said. “Bad news for you is we’re not going anywhere.”