Vladimir Putin delivered a deeply anti-Western speech during his annual address to the nation in Moscow on Tuesday. Washington was quick to respond. A senior US official denounced the “absurdity” of the Russian president’s accusations, which claimed that the Western threat against Russia justified the invasion of Ukraine. “No one is attacking Russia. There is a kind of absurdity in the idea that Russia was under some form of military threat from Ukraine or anyone else,” the House national security adviser told reporters. -Blanche, Jake Sullivan.

Previewing Joe Biden’s speech, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. GMT (5:30 p.m. Paris) on Tuesday, from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Sullivan said he “wouldn’t outline any kind of plan to end to war, through the diplomatic channel”. Rather, he will focus on the broader lesson to be learned from the war in Ukraine in what he sees as an “inflection point” in a global struggle between democracies and autocratic regimes.

“So his remarks will speak specifically to the conflict in Ukraine, but of course they will also speak to the broader ongoing struggle between (on the one side) the aggressors trying to destroy the fundamentals and (on the other side) the democracies that unite to try to enforce them. »

For his part, Andriï Yermak, the chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, affirmed on Tuesday, after the address to the nation of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, that Ukraine will “hunt and punish” Russia. “To put it briefly, (the Russians) are strategically at an impasse. Our task is to drive them out of Ukraine and punish them for everything,” Andriy Iermak said in Telegram messaging.

Consult our file: War in Ukraine