Biden Taunts Putin for Thinking He’d Easily Conquer Kyiv
President Joe Biden took a parting shot at Vladimir Putin as he bragged about beating the Russian president to the center of Kyiv.
In his final foreign policy speech before stepping down, Biden mocked Putin for thinking he could easily take the Ukrainian capital.
Biden: "When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he'd conquer Kyiv in a matter of days. But the truth is, since that war began, I'm the only one that stood in the center of Kyiv, not him. Putin never has." pic.twitter.com/27QArHnbxe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 13, 2025
“When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he’d conquer Kyiv in a matter of days,” Biden said. “The truth is, since that war began, I’m the only one that’s stood in the center of Kyiv, not him. Putin never has.”
As the crowd broke into applause, Biden added: “Think about it! It was a long train ride but I’m the only commander-in-chief to visit a war zone not controlled by U.S. forces.”
Nearly three years since Russia first invaded Ukraine, Putin is still grappling with losses in equipment, fighters, and a weakening Ruble, Biden said.
“As I saw it, when Putin launched his invasion, I had two jobs: One to rally the world to defend Ukraine, and the other is to avoid war between two nuclear powers,” he said. “We did both those things. We laid the foundation for the next administration so they can protect the bright future of the Ukrainian people.”
Donald Trump, who is set to be inaugurated next week, has repeatedly vowed to end Russia’s war in Ukraine in just 24 hours.
Trump said his grand strategy was to threaten to give Ukraine more money if Russia refuses to accept a deal.
“I know Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well,” the president-elect said in a previous interview. “I would tell Zelenskyy, ‘No more. You gotta make a deal.’ I would tell Putin, ‘If you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give them a lot, more than they ever got if we have to.’”
But Russia has already shot down this plan.
Though Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said they haven’t received any official communication from the incoming Trump administration about a deal, they wouldn’t agree to one anyway.
“Judging from numerous leaks and Donald Trump’s interview with Time magazine on December 12, their idea is to suspend hostilities along the line of contact and transfer responsibility for confrontation with Russia to the Europeans,” Lavrov told reporters. “We are not happy, of course, with the proposals made by members of the Trump team to postpone Ukraine’s admission to NATO for 20 years and to station British and European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.”