Biden on the borders of Ukraine … and Putin completed the “first phase”

A day after a round of intense diplomatic talks in Brussels, US President Joe Biden appeared on the Ukrainian stage from the Polish border, on a two-day visit to the country that received more than two million refugees in one month. This came at a time when the Russian army announced that it had “finished the first phase” of its military campaign launched by President Vladimir Putin last month.

Yesterday (Friday), Biden inspected US soldiers stationed in Poland, near the city of Jyszow. He thanked the soldiers repeatedly, and said in a short speech, “You are in the midst of a battle between democratic and authoritarian regimes.” “What you do is very important, really important,” he added. He repeatedly described President Putin as a “war criminal.”

Hours before the visit, Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the formation of a “working team” with the aim of supporting Europe’s “liberation” from dependence on Russian gas. Through this initiative, the United States seeks to supply Europe this year with additional quantities of liquefied natural gas amounting to 15 billion cubic meters.

For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry announced yesterday the outcome of the operations in Ukraine, a month after the outbreak of hostilities. The First Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff, Sergei Rudskoy, said that his forces had achieved within a month “the main objectives of the first phase of the military operation,” explaining that the forces “successfully complete the implementation of the tasks assigned to them, and focus is on the priority of the complete liberation of Donbass.”

In turn, President Vladimir Putin denounced the West’s attempts to “abolish” Russian culture. “Today they are trying to abolish a thousand-year-old country,” he said in a televised interview with cultural figures. “I’m talking about increasing discrimination against everything related to Russia,” he added.
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