New Delhi: US President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address on Wednesday. His address came amid a Russian invasion in Ukraine that is still advancing despite sanctions by the US and its allies.
In his address, he announced that the US is joining its allies and blocking American airspace to Russia.
“Tonight I'm announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American air space to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding additional squeeze on their economy,” he said.
He emphasised that American forces are not engaged and "will not engage in fighting Russian armies" in Ukraine, but they will defend every single inch of NATO allies.
"For that purpose, we have mobilized American ground forces, air squadrons, ship deployments to protect NATO countries including Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia,” he added.
He further added that when the history of this era is written, Putin's war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger.
While delivering his address, and showing America's support for Ukraine, he quoted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from his speech in European Parliament. He said, "In this struggle, President Zelensky said in his speech to the European Parliament, ‘Light will win over darkness.'
Further talking about the Russian invasion he said that it was “premeditated and totally unprovoked” and as a result, Russia is not more isolated than ever.
“We countered Russia's lies with the truth, and now, now that he's acted, the free world is holding him accountable. Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been,” Biden said.
It has been six days that Russian aggression in Ukraine is continuing. Russia and Ukraine will engage in another round of peace talks today. The previous peace talk concluded with no concrete agreeement.