President Joe Biden opened his State of the Union speech by suggesting President Vladimir Putin is “now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.”
During Biden’s speech Tuesday evening, the president called Putin’s attack on Ukraine “premeditated and totally unprovoked,” adding, “He rejected repeated efforts at diplomacy.”
Biden suggested Putin believed “the West and NATO wouldn’t respond. And he thought he could divide us at home. … Putin was wrong. We are ready. We are united and that’s what we did. We stayed united. We prepared.”
He continued, “We prepared extensively and carefully. We spent months building a coalition of other freedom-loving nations from Europe and the Americas to Asia and Africa to confront Putin.”
Biden went on to claim he spent “countless hours unifying our European allies. We shared with the world in advance what we knew Putin was planning and precisely how he would try to falsely and justify his aggression.”
He added, “We countered Russia’s lies with truth. And now that he has acted the free world is holding him accountable.”
Watch part of Biden’s speech below:
President Biden: "Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been."#SOTU2022 #SOTU pic.twitter.com/SRb6z7yFUQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 2, 2022
The president’s speech went on, “Along with twenty-seven members of the European Union including France, Germany, Italy, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, even Switzerland. We are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine. Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.”
Additionally, Biden announced “that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding an additional squeeze on their economy.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Biden earlier on Tuesday to stress the urgency of Russia’s invasion of his country, as CNN reported.
“He is one of the leaders of the world and it is very important that the people of the United States understand (that) despite the fact that the war is in Ukraine … it is [a] war for the values of democracy, freedom,” Zelenskyy said.