President BidenVerified account

A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people’s love for liberty. Brutality will never grind down their will to be free. Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia.

Rather than breaking Ukrainian resolve, Russia’s brutal tactics have only strengthened it. Rather than driving NATO apart, the West is now stronger and more united than it has ever been.

Let there be no doubt that this war has already been a strategic failure for Russia. Putin thought Ukrainians would roll over and not fight. Instead, Russian forces have met their match with brave and stiff Ukrainian resistance.

Helping Ukrainian refugees is not something Poland or any nation should carry alone. All the world’s democracies have a responsibility to help. And the people of Ukraine can count on the United States to meet its responsibility. We will welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

In the year before the invasion, America had sent $650 million in weapons to Ukraine — and since, we have committed to another $1.35 billion. Thanks to the courage and bravery of the Ukrainian people, the equipment we have sent them has been used to devastating effect.

As a result of our unprecedented sanctions, the ruble was almost immediately reduced to rubble. The Russian economy is on track to be cut in half. It was ranked the 11th biggest economy in the world before this invasion — and soon, it will not even rank among the top 20.

Putin has the gall to say he is “de-Nazifying” Ukraine. This lie isn’t just cynical. It is obscene. President Zelenskyy was democratically elected. He is Jewish — his father’s family was wiped out in the Nazi Holocaust.

Putin — like all autocrats before him — believes that might makes right. President Abraham Lincoln voiced an opposing spirit to save our Union: “Let us have faith that right makes might.” Today, let us have that faith again.

My message to the people of Ukraine is the message I delivered today to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister and Defense Minister: We stand with you.

The brave Ukrainian resistance is a front in a larger fight: for the essential democratic principles that unite all free people. These principles are essential for a free society, but have always been embattled. Every generation has had to defeat democracy’s mortal foes.

We are engaged anew in a great battle for freedom. A battle between democracy and autocracy. Between liberty and repression. This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead.