A rallying cry for freedom: Biden hits back at Putin in charged speech

After making a surprise visit to Kyiv on February 20th, President Joe Biden arrived in Poland the following day ready to give one of the most important speeches of his life—and he nailed it. 

Biden delivered a short but passionate thirty-minute speech, slamming Russia for its brutality in Ukraine and issuing what CNN called a “rally cry” against Vladimir Putin and his ongoing assault on democracy in the country. 

“You know, it was nearly one year ago I spoke at the Royal Castle here in Warsaw, just weeks after Vladimir Putin had unleashed his murderous assault on Ukraine,” the President said in a challenge to Putin’s State of the Nation speech made less than 24 hours before Biden's address. 

“The largest land war in Europe since World War Two had begun. And the principles that had been the cornerstone of peace, prosperity, and stability on this planet for more than 75 years were at risk of being shattered,” Biden added. 

Biden did a remarkable job of calling out Putin's false narrative of the war and how it began. Unlike Biden, who used the Russian dictator's name nearly a dozen times in his speech, Putin failed to mention Biden when blaming the West for the war. 

“One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Well, I’ve just come from a visit to Kyiv and I can report Kyiv stands strong. Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall, and most important, it stands free,” the President of the United States said passionately.

Biden framed the issue at hand in Ukraine perfectly while speaking from Warsaws Royal Castle. Putin was responsible for the war in Ukraine and it was his atrocities and his desire to subjugate a free democracy that was prolonging it. 

“President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail,” Biden said, adding that the West “was not plotting to attack Russia” in a direct response to Putin and his narrative. 

But Biden’s speech wasn’t just about proving Putin wrong on the world stage, it was about bringing the democratic world together to stand against the biggest challenge its faced since the Cold War. 

“When Russia invaded, it was not just Ukraine being tested. The whole world faced a test for the ages,” Biden said to not only the assembled crowd but also to the world and its citizens. 

“Europe was being tested. America was being tested. NATO was being tested,” Biden railed, before stating that the collective West rose to the occasion. 

Buried in the backend of the Biden speech was a commitment of “unwavering support” from the United States and a warning of what was to come for the free world. 

“We have to be honest and clear-eyed as we look at the year ahead,” Biden said. “The defense of freedom is not the work of a day. It’s always difficult. It’s always important.”

“Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never.” This rallying cry was a call to action from Biden to the world and its free peoples, a call to help a nation suffering from the predations of a despotic power acting as if it was still living in a bygone imperial era. 

“No one can turn away their eyes from the atrocities Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people. It’s abhorrent,” Biden added, and he wasn’t wrong…

Invoking images of Wagner’s brutality and Russia’s war crimes, Biden challenged the world to see what was happening and stand up to make a difference. 

Biden challenged us to see the sexual assaults, see the targetting of civilians, and see the crimes against humanity Putin was ordering against Ukraine and its people... It was a powerful speech for a powerful moment in history.