This story tells everything that happened on Saturday in the war in Ukraine. For the latest news, check out our latest update.
In a radical and forceful speech that concluded a four-day trip to Europe, President Joe Biden on Saturday presented the war in Ukraine as a component of an ongoing war for freedom and ended with a brutal call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop.
“For God’s sake, this guy can’t stay in power,” Biden said on a layover in Warsaw, Poland, in his most powerful comments to date about his preference for Putin’s departure.
Shortly after the speech, a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Biden was not calling for Putin’s removal.
“The president’s point is that Putin cannot be allowed to exert force on his neighbors or the region,” the official said. “He’s not talking about Putin’s strength in Russia, or about regime change. “
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that “it is not up to the president of the United States or the Americans who will remain in force in Russia. “
“Only Russians, who vote for their president, can do it,” Peskov said.
Biden’s speech came hours after he met Saturday with Polish President Andrzej Duda on a historic scale where allies presented a united front against Russian aggression and reaffirmed their commitment to the NATO alliance.
Biden then met with Ukrainian refugees and added young people who asked him to “say a prayer for my father, grandfather or brother. “He’s fighting there.
Biden’s scale comes as Moscow appears to be recalibrating its military methods in Ukraine, even as several media outlets reported that a Russian missile hit a fuel depot in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which largely escaped the devastation suffered elsewhere. of the country.
Russia’s military’s objectives in Ukraine have been unclear since it began its invasion more than a month ago, and the new statements recommend that Moscow possibly claim victory without absolutely overthrowing the Ukrainian government or capturing Kiev.
Western analysts and leaders were skeptical of Friday’s remarks, in which Russia’s deputy chief of staff said his forces had largely achieved the “main objectives” of an initial phase of the conflict. The strength of the Ukrainian army has been “significantly reduced. “, freeing up troops to “concentrate on major efforts to achieve the main goal, the liberation of Donbass,” Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi said.
The implications of this are difficult to determine, according to Stephen Biddle, a professor of foreign and public affairs at Columbia University who has studied the U. S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Special Subscription Offers
“It is credible that they are necessarily looking to bring their perceived war objectives back to anything they have already achieved,” he said.
Before the invasion, parts of Donbass in southeastern Ukraine were already controlled by Russian-backed forces. Equally skeptical, French President Emmanuel Macron said “it’s too early to say” that the Russians have replaced his approach.
But what is clear: in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, the advance of Russian forces is largely stalled. Kiev, defeated, remains under the control of the Ukrainian government.
LATEST MOVES: Mapping and Monitoring the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
NEWS COMES TO YOU: The latest updates in Ukraine. Register here.
THE IMPACT OF WAR ON FOOD: How Russia’s War on Ukraine Can Make Our Food Costs, From Bread to Beer, More Expensive
Latest developments
In comments from Warsaw, President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and said the West “has never been stronger. “2 million Ukrainians fleeing war.
Several media outlets reported that the western city of Lviv, largely safe from shelling in other parts of the country, was hit by a Russian missile on Saturday. The city’s mayor says one of the targets is a fuel tank.
The U. N. human rights office said it was difficult to verify deaths in Mariupol given the organization’s strict method of counting the number of civilian deaths in the conflict. The office says at least 1,035 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,650 injured, but acknowledges this is a cover-up.
► The governor of the Kiev region claims that Russian forces entered the city of Slavutych in northern Ukraine and took a hospital there.
Britain seized two planes belonging to Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler as Western governments singled out Russian President Vladimir Putin through the sumptuous lifestyles of his closest followers. The Times of London described the plane as a $45 million Bombardier Global 6500 and a $13 million Cessna Citation Latitude.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — The governor of the Lviv region said a man suspected of spying was arrested at the scene of one of two rocket attacks that rocked the city Saturday.
Maksym Kozytskyy said police discovered the guy recorded a rocket flying toward the target and hit it. Police also discovered images of checkpoints in the domain on his phone, which Kozytskyy said he had sent to two Russian phone numbers.
The rockets hit an oil garage facility and an unspecified commercial facility, injuring at least five people. A thick plume of smoke and towering flames can be noticed on the outskirts of Lviv a few hours after the attacks.
– Associated Press
After 4 days of alliance building, emotional interactions with refugees, and poignant words about the desire to fight for democracy, a word that President Joe Biden upped up at the end of his last speech in Poland threatened to overshadow everything he had done in his dealings with the maximum significant foreign policy crisis of his presidency.
“For God’s sake,” Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “this guy remains in power. “
The White House tried to back down temporarily.
Biden does not sell regime change, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The point the president seeks to make in his remarks is that Putin “cannot be allowed to exert force on his neighbors or on the region. “
Biden would possibly have said what he believes, but it wasn’t smart policy to say it out loud, said Tom Schwartz, a U. S. foreign relations historian. Learn more here.
A Kremlin spokesman said Saturday that President Joe Biden’s statement that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” was “extremely negative” for U. S. relations with Russia.
“Only the Russians, who vote for their president, can decide,” Dmitry Peskov told The Associated Press. “And, of course, it makes no sense for the president of the United States to make such statements. “
The White House reversed Biden’s initial statements in Poland, saying the president did not approve of regime change but meant that “Putin would be allowed to exert force on his neighbors or the region. “
Peskov said that with Biden’s remarks, he is “narrowing the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations under the current administration. “
The United States will provide Ukraine with another $100 million in emergency preparedness assistance, the State Department announced Saturday.
The investment will pay for cash devices, medical supplies, armored cars and other apparatus for Ukraine’s police and border guards.
Ukrainian law enforcement plays a key role in rescuing civilians, protecting convoys of fleeing refugees and securing civilian spaces destroyed by the Russian invasion, according to the State Department.
Management has repeated beyond warnings that it is helping to document war crimes so that the culprits are held accountable.
– Maureen Groppe
President Joe Biden said he came to Europe with a message for NATO, the European Union and all freedom-loving nations: “We will have to dedicate ourselves now to being in this long-term fight. “
“We will have to remain united today and the day after tomorrow and for years and decades to come,” he said.
“Possibly it wouldn’t be easy. There will be a cost, but it is a value that we will have to pay, because the darkness that animates the autocracy is ultimately not up to the flame of freedom.
–Michael Collins
Biden appealed to the Russians, telling them first, “if you can hear,” that “you . . . they are not our enemy. “
The president said that what they experienced at the hands of the invaders of World War II is precisely what happens to the Ukrainians through the Russian military.
“These are the movements of a wonderful nation,” Biden said of the bombing of hospitals, schools and maternity wards. “This war is worthy of you, Russian people. “
Biden said Putin’s aggressions isolated his other friends from the rest of the world and brought Russia back into the nineteenth century.
But Biden vowed that the United States “would be with you and with the brave Ukrainians who need peace. “
“For God’s sake,” Biden said at the end of his speech, Putin “cannot be in power. “
– Maureen Groppe
President Joe Biden said Saturday that the war in Ukraine is “a strategic failure” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s idea that Ukrainians would “turn around and fight,” Biden said.
“Instead, Russian forces met with courageous and supportive Ukrainian resistance,” he said.
Russia’s moves have also strengthened NATO rather than separating the alliance, Biden said.
“The West is now stronger and more united than ever,” he said.
–Michael Collins
Biden said the sanctions imposed on Russia have an impact.
“The ruble is almost reduced to rubble,” he said.
Also: “It will be much more complicated for people. “What will the sanctions on ordinary Russians look like?
The Russian economy is about to halve in the coming years and will no longer be among the 20 most sensible, he predicted.
This undermines Russia’s strength and ability to reject power, Biden continued.
“Vladimir Putin is to blame. Period,” he said.
-Maureen Groppe
President Joe Biden warned Saturday that the war for democracy ended the Cold War.
“For more than 30 years, the forces of autocracy have lived all over the world,” Biden said from the steps of the royal castle in Warsaw, Poland.
Today, Russia has “strangled” democracy, and Vladimir Putin has tried to do so, not only in his homeland but also through crippling neighboring nations, Biden said.
“Let’s put into action the strength of democracies to thwart the designs of autocracy,” he said. “Let’s not forget that the test of this moment is the test of all time. “
–Michael Collins
Biden praised the brave resistance of the Ukrainians and said he was there to deliver a message.
“We are by his side. Period,” Biden said.
Biden spoke in the crowded courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, where American and Polish flags flew in the background. When the president said he suspected there were Ukrainians in the audience, there were cheers.
Biden said the Ukrainian resistance was part of a broader struggle for essential democratic principles. These principles, he said, have been under siege and each and every generation will have to fight the mortal enemies of democracy.
– Maureen Groppe
Speaking at the end of his four-day trip to Europe, President Joe Biden stood Saturday on the steps of Warsaw’s royal castle and recalled the words of Pope John Paul II: “Do not be afraid. “
The White House presented Biden’s speech as a keynote address in which he would address the free world’s efforts to hold Russia accountable for the war in Ukraine.
“In this war, we have to have a clear mind,” Biden said. “This war will not be won in days or months either. We will have to arm ourselves for the long war that lies ahead.
– Michael Collins and Maureen Groppe
LVIV, Ukraine – Air raid sirens sounded Saturday afternoon in the western city of Lviv, and the region’s governor, Maxym Kozytsky, reported “three harsh explosions near Lviv” without giving the main points of what it hit. columns of smoke rising over the city.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy tweeted that one of the missiles hit a commercial domain that includes a fuel depot, but that there is no indication the apartments have been hit.
“All emergencies are working on the site,” he tweeted. Stay in the shelters until the air alarm goes off. “
Lviv, a city of more than 700,000 people about 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of the Ukraine-Poland border, has largely been spared major Russian attacks in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, Russian forces fired missiles at an army education center. half near Lviv, which at the time was the westernmost target, and killed another 35 people.
Since the beginning of the invasion, Lviv has a safe haven for some 200,000 displaced Ukrainians.
Saturday’s blasts came as U. S. President Joe Biden ended a stopover in neighboring NATO ally Poland and told the Polish president that “your freedom is ours. “
– Associated Press
President Joe Biden was able to glimpse the human cost of the war in Ukraine on Saturday when he visited a Ukrainian refugee organization whose resilience, he said, demonstrated “the intensity and strength of the human spirit. “
“They’re an organization of people,” he said.
Biden mingled for several minutes with refugees and humanitarian officials who provided assistance at a national stadium in Warsaw. The stadium serves as a processing center where refugees obtain identity documents that allow them to work, live, pass through and download social benefits.
Biden stopped in a courtyard that serves as a distribution for World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit founded by chef Jose Andres. The organization has set up a cell kitchen and supplies hot food to refugees.
Biden chatted with Andres before heading to a corner where families huddled around tables with plates of burgers, fries, sausages and other foods. Wearing a mask and accompanied by an interpreter, the president took a little woman dressed in a pink jacket and held her in his arms for several minutes.
“It’s amazing to see all those little kids,” Biden told reporters. “Just to hug them. “
Biden said each and every child he spoke to asked him to “say a prayer for my father, grandfather or brother. He’s fighting there. “
“I know what it’s like when you have someone in a war zone,” said Biden, whose vanquished son, Beau, was an Iraq war veteran. “Every morning you get up and ask yourself questions. Just pray not to get that phone. “
Asked what his relationship with refugees made him think of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden replied: “He’s a butcher. “
–Michael Collins
President Joe Biden on Saturday sought to assure Poland that the United States would come to its defense if attacked through Russia in an escalation of the war in Ukraine.
The United States considers its commitment to protect other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “a sacred obligation,” Biden told Polish President Andrzej Duda at an assembly at the presidential palace in Warsaw.
“You can do it,” Biden said.
The United States sent thousands of troops to Poland to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank in reaction to russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden on Friday visited members of the 82nd Airborne Division on a stopover in Rzeszów, Poland, about 60 miles from the Border with Ukraine.
In Warsaw, Biden and Duda sat across from each other at a long table under a crystal chandelier as the two leaders were set to discuss the humanitarian crisis sparked by the month-long war. More than 2 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland to escape the war. war.
Speaking in Polish, Duda said Biden has strengthened the bond between the two countries.
The invasion of Russia created “a great tragedy” for other Ukrainians and “a great sense of threat” for Poles, Duda said.
“We know what Russian imperialism stands for and we know what should be attacked through the Russian armed forces,” Duda said.
Biden pressed that stability in Europe “is important to the United States” and said the ultimate vital criterion is for NATO to remain “absolutely, absolutely, absolutely united” and that “there is no separation in our views. “
–Michael Collins
During a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center, Ukraine’s development minister said Russian forces have destroyed about 4,500 houses and almost 400 education institutions since the war began last month, according to the Ukrainian news outlet Pravda.
“These figures are growing every day, and perhaps every hour,” said Oleksiy Chernyshov, Ukraine’s minister of development of communities and territories, according to the report. “At this time, when we say the bombing is going on, people are dying, infrastructure is being destroyed.”
He added that about 100 factories and enterprises and 150 health care facilities were also destroyed and noted that not all damage can be assessed until the conflict has ceased.
The price tag on the damage could reach “tens of billions” of dollars, he said.
– Ella Lee
The European Council for Nuclear Research is suspending work in Belarus and Russia in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Saturday the 23 member states of CERN Council agreed to halt all events in Russia and Belarus and all scientists in all scientific committees of institutions in Russia and Belarus.
In Friday’s announcement, the CERN Council had agreed and implemented the restrictions in an act of solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Earlier this month, the CERN Council condemned the army’s invasion and agreed to have no further interaction with Russia. At the June Council meeting, the organization said it would apply more sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
-Ana Faguy
With fanfare, President Joe Biden arrived at the presidential palace in Warsaw on Saturday for a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda about how allies are responding to the humanitarian crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.
Biden’s limousine entered the palace courtyard shortly after 12:30 p. m. local time.
Duda greeted the president when he was taken out of the car. The two men chatted briefly, shook hands with a line of dignitaries, and then participated in an official rite of arrival that included the reading of the country’s national anthem and an army procession.
–Michael Collins
The Russian invaders shot and broke Drobytsky Yar, a Holocaust memorial on the outskirts of Kharkiv.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced the attack on the monument, which was inaugurated in 2002, Twitter.
“The Nazis are back,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry tweeted. “Exactly years later. “
The monument created in honor of the other 16,000 people killed after the invasion of the city by Nazi troops in 1941.
-Ana Faguy
Women make up 15 percent of Ukraine’s military, with only about 7,000 women serving in its air force alone, a senior Ukrainian official said Saturday. The Ukrainian army has 250,000 infantrymen on active duty.
“Women are at the center of the resilience of local communities,” parliamentarian Lesia Vasylenko said in a tweet. “Heroic mothers and their inspiring daughters. This is the (Ukrainian) resistance.
This figure is comparable to that of countries in the world, many of which have much larger armies.
According to a 2020 Government Accountability Office report, about 16. 5% of the U. S. Army’s workforce is a U. S. army. Active duty U. S. Marines are mujeres. al nine percent of Marines: A 2021 Department of Defense report shows this.
According to a 2021 report, around 11% of the UK’s normal armed forces are Arrays. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that about 4% of the Russian military was in 2020. 0. 3% (Turkey) to 20% (Hungary), a NATO 2020 report shows.
-Ella Lee
Ukraine’s Information Protection Agency said Friday that between March 15 and 22, Russia carried out 60 cyberattacks against the country’s “critical infrastructure and government organizations,” but the maximum had limited impact.
“The number of attacks is increasing, but most of them are failing,” Viktor Zhora, deputy head of Ukraine’s State Service for the Protection of Information and Special Communications, said at a March 23 briefing, according to the message from news firm Telegram. those who succeed fail to get the critical data infrastructure up and running. “
Zhora added that the existing activity is less serious than the activity followed by the company earlier this year.
-Ella Lee
LVIV, Ukraine — The governor of the Kiev region said Russian forces entered the city of Slavutych and seized a hospital there.
Slavutych is located north of Kiev and west of Chernihiv, outside the exclusion zone established around the Chernobyl nuclear plant after the 1986 disaster. It houses the staff of the Chernobyl site.
Gov. Oleksandr Pavlyuk said Saturday that the Russians also kidnapped the city’s mayor, but some media reported later that day that the mayor temporarily released him. None of these claims can be independently verified.
Citizens of the governor of Slavutych took to the streets with Ukrainian flags to protest the Russian invasion.
“The Russians opened fire in the air. They threw lightning grenades at the crowd. But the citizens dispersed, on the contrary, more appeared,” Pavlyuk said.
-Associated Press
In the month following the start of the Russian invasion, 136 children were killed.
Reuters reported that 64 of the youths died in the Kiev region and 50 in the Donetsk region. Another 199 young people were injured.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday that the number of Ukrainian civilian deaths has exceeded one thousand since the war began.
-Ana Faguy
Two senior Ukrainian officials will be in Warsaw on Saturday when President Joe Biden delivers a speech on Russia’s duty in its month-long war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in a Twitter post that he and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba would attend the president’s speech.
Biden began the last day of his four-day trip to Europe with a meeting between Reznikov and Kuleba and their American counterparts: Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Reznikov tweeted a photo of the meeting, without Biden, and said they were discussing “current issues and cooperation in political and defense directions. “
“In the evening, we will be in @POTUS’s speech on the Russian war against Ukraine,” Reznikov wrote.
Biden will hand over his address at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
–Michael Collins
More than 100,000 people left Ukraine on Friday, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said.
Two-thirds of those who left crossed Ukraine’s western borders with EU countries and Moldova. The National Border Guard Service estimated that another 45,000 people left Friday night alone.
Meanwhile, many men are returning to Ukraine to protect the country, the Ukrainian government said. Another 21,000 people arrived in Ukraine on Friday night. The State Border Guard Service said more than 420,000 Ukrainians have returned since Russia’s first invasion.
The United Nations estimates that another 10 million people have fled Ukraine since the fighting began last month. The number of refugees on Friday was particularly higher than in recent days. On Wednesday, some 43,000 people fled and about 62,000 fled on Thursday, according to government figures.
-Ana Faguy
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Ukraine’s president made a wonderful video appearance Saturday at the Doha Forum in Qatar, calling on the energy-rich country and others to ramp up production to counter the loss of Russia’s electricity supply.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United Nations and world powers to come to his aid, as he has done in a number of other speeches around the world since the war began on February 24. He compared Russia’s destruction of the port city of Mariupol to The Syrian and Russian destruction of the city of Aleppo and the Syrian war.
“They are destroying our ports,” he said Zelenskyy. La lack of exports from Ukraine will be a blow to the countries of the world. “
The loss of Ukrainian wheat has already worried Middle Eastern countries like Egypt, which in those exports.
Zelenskyy called on countries to increase their energy exports, especially since Qatar is a world leader in herbal fuel exports.
Zelenskyy criticized Russia for what he described as a threat to the world with its nuclear weapons, raising the option that tactical nuclear weapons could be used on the battlefield.
“Russia intentionally boasts that it can destroy with nuclear weapons, not just a safe country, but the entire planet,” Zelenskyy said.
He also noted that Muslims in Ukraine are expected to fight the upcoming fasting holy month of Ramadan.
“We will have to make sure that this holy month of Ramadan is not overshadowed by the anguish of Ukrainians,” he said.
– Associated Press
President Joe Biden will conclude his visit to Europe on Saturday by speaking to Ukrainian refugees in Poland and delivering a speech on Russia’s duty in its invasion and the maintenance of democratic values.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, presented Biden’s comments as a keynote address that will “communicate about what is at stake right now, the urgency of the challenge ahead, what the clash in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so vital for the loose global to maintain its unity and in the face of Russian aggression.
Biden will put the war in its old context and describe where he sees him leaving here, Sullivan said.
Before delivering those comments at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace.
“The suffering that’s going on right now is just around the corner,” Biden told Duda on Friday at an assembly in Rzeszów, where the influx of refugees is greatest. “You are the one who endangers, in some cases, your life and your dangers. everything you know to help. And other Americans are proud of their efforts.
On Thursday, Biden announced that the United States would house up to 100,000 Ukrainians and provide more than a billion dollars in humanitarian aid.
Poland has taken in more than 2 million refugees and their numbers continue to grow.
“We’ve never experienced anything like this in our history,” Duda told Biden.
On Saturday, Biden will meet with refugees at Warsaw’s National Stadium. The stadium is a recovery centre where refugees obtain identity documents that allow them to work, live, go to school and download social benefits.
“I’m here in Poland to see the humanitarian crisis firsthand,” Biden said Friday, expressing sadness at not being able to cross the border into Ukraine for security reasons.
Biden has been in Europe since Wednesday, meeting with NATO allies and European and world leaders.
The United States and its allies announced new sanctions against Russia, more aid to Ukraine and discussed strengthening the presence of forces in Eastern Europe in the short and long term.
– Maureen Groppe
LONDON – Britain’s Defense Ministry says Russia continues to besiege several major Ukrainian cities, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol.
An update indicates that Russian forces are reluctant to engage in large-scale urban infantry control operations, preferring instead to rely on the indiscriminate use of aerial bombardment and artillery to demoralize defense forces.
The assessment indicates that Russia will most likely continue to use its heavy firepower in urban spaces as it seeks to restrict its own losses, which are already plentiful, at the cost of more civilian casualties.
– Associated Press
Zelenskyy again called on Russia to negotiate an end to the war, but said Ukraine would agree to cede part of its territory in the call for peace.
In his nightly video off the country on Friday, Zelenskyy gave the impression of responding to Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, deputy leader of the Russian General Staff, who said Russian forces would now be in “the main objective, the liberation of Donbass. “”
Russian-backed separatists have controlled part of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine since 2014, and Russian forces are fighting in a larger part of the region from Ukraine, adding the besieged city of Mariupol.
Rudskoi was also a suggestion that Russia might stop seeking to take Kiev and other major cities where its offensive has stalled. Zelenskyy noted that Russian forces have lost thousands of troops but have not yet been able to take Kiev or Kharkiv, the largest city at the time. .
Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian sea shipment in the port city of Berdiansk that appeared to be on a mission of origin, a senior defense official said Friday.
Thursday’s attack blew up a tank landing shipment at its dock, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. The Russians have 22 war shipments in the Black Sea.
The Russian fighting force in Ukraine, which fell below 90 percent for the first time this week, now stands at between 85 percent and 90 percent, the official said. For the first time, Russia appears to be pulling reinforcements from its troops in Georgia. Combat force includes troops, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles.
Russia has also taken advantage of its stockpile of precision-guided weapons and relies more on so-called stupid bombs to bomb cities, the official said. Russia has used about 50% of its air-launched cruise missiles. release or achieve your goals.
–Tom Vanden Brook
Most Americans favor tough sanctions against Russia, but believe Biden will have to be tougher on the Kremlin after his invasion of Ukraine, according to a vote commissioned by the Associated Press and NORC published Thursday.
The poll, which surveyed 1,082 American adults Thursday through Monday, found that 56 percent of Americans believe Biden’s reaction to Russia has been quite difficult, adding a 53 percent majority of Democrats. A very small percentage, about 6%, said he Biden had been “too difficult,” according to the poll.
In general, Americans of either political party supported the hard economic blows to Russia. The vote showed that 68% were in favor of economic sanctions overall, and 70% said they supported the recent ban on importing oil from Russia, which in turn led to higher gasoline prices.
—Christal Hayes
Contribute: The Associated Press