After US President Joe Biden, while speaking at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power", the White House clarifies that 'it was not a call for regime change.'
Notably, Biden towards the conclusion of his speech said, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
A White House official while clarifying the remarks made by Biden said, "The President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change,"
Biden's line that Putin "cannot remain in power" was not in his prepared remarks, the official said.
Moreover, as Russia tries to gain a stronghold in Ukraine, Biden in his address, said Russia has "strangled democracy" adding that its President Vladimir Putin is lying in a bid to justify the war. Biden slammed Putin for condemning the NATO alliance.
He chided Russia's actions saying, "It's nothing less than a direct challenge to the rules-based international order established since the end of World War II, and it threatens to return to decades of war that ravaged Europe before the international rule-based order was put in place. We cannot go back to that. We cannot."
Furthermore, Biden talked of the sanctions and other economic steps that are taken in order to pressurize Russia and target the Russian economy.
Russia launched its invasion last month after recognizing the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as "independent republics." Russia has since continued to maintain that the aim of its operations has been to "demilitarize" and "de-nazify" the country.
( With inputs from ANI )
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