JOE BIDEN: WE’RE NOT LOOKING TO OVERTHROW VLADIMIR PUTIN
0Joe Biden: We’re not looking to overthrow Vladimir Putin
Updated June 1. 2022 — 11.49amfirst published at 7.06am Save Log in. register or subscribe to save articles for later. Share Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size 6 View all comments Three months after Russia drew international condemnation for invading Ukraine. triggering a wave of military support for Kyiv. US President Joe Biden has clarified that the US does not seek regime change in Moscow. In an opinion piece for The New York Times. Biden said: “As much as I disagree with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. and find his actions an outrage. the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow. US President Joe Biden said the US was “not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders”.Credit:AP “So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked. we will not be directly engaged in this conflict. either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces.” Biden also wrote that the US did not “seek a war between NATO and Russia”. While announcing plans for the US to supply Ukraine with medium range rocket launchers to push Russians back from their advances in the country’s east. Biden specified that the US was “not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders”. Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Credit:AP Biden did not rule out providing any specific weapons system. but instead appeared to be placing conditions on how they could be used. He wanted to help Ukraine defend itself but has been opposed to providing weapons that Ukraine could use to attack Russia. “We do not want to prolong the war. just to inflict pain on Russia.” A Russian air strike on Sievierodonetsk has hit a chemical plant.Credit:Internet Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine and millions more displaced since the Russian invasion on February 24. The West has been increasingly willing to give Ukraine longer range weaponry. including M777 howitzers. as its forces battle Russians with more success than intelligence officials had predicted. Biden’s reassurance comes nearly two decades after then president George W. Bush pushed for the invasion of Iraq. resulting in the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The invasion unleashed a period of regional instability and drew fierce criticism from across the world. The US plan tries to strike a balance between the desire to help Ukraine battle ferocious Russian artillery barrages and not providing arms that could allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia and trigger an escalation in the war. But US intelligence has also warned about growing risks. particularly given a mismatch between Putin’s apparent ambitions and the performance of his military. US rocket systems In Biden’s opinion piece published on Wednesday . he announced his administration would send Ukraine a few high tech. medium range rocket systems. That’s a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been begging for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. People travel in a tram in Sievierodonetsk. the Luhansk region. eastern Ukraine.Credit:AP US officials say the aid package expected to be unveiled on Wednesday would send what the US considers medium range rockets that can generally travel about 70 kilometres. The expectation is that Ukraine could use the rockets in the Donbas. where they could both intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in towns where fighting is intense. such as Sievierodonetsk in the Luhansk province. The announcement came as a regional Ukrainian governor said a Russian bombardment on Sievierodonetsk had caused a leak of toxic nitric acid from an industrial facility. Nitric acid Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said a Russian airstrike had hit a tank of nitric acid at a chemical factory in Sievierodonetsk. causing a massive leak of its fumes. He posted a picture of a huge rose coloured cloud hanging over the city and urged residents not to leave their homes and to...
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