Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban SNUBS Biden and Bucharest Nine

Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban is scorning Wednesday’s meeting in Warsaw with President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Bucharest Nine.

Orban has been an outlier in the war in Ukraine, chiding the European Union for prolonging the conflict and saying in October that only former US President Donald Trump could broker a deal between the Ukrainians and Russians.

“This is going to sound brutal, but the hope for peace goes by the name of Donald Trump,” Orban said at the time, arguing that Biden was not the man for the job because he “has gone too far” in calling out the Russian president. Vladimir. Putin a ‘war criminal’.

During the meeting on Wednesday afternoon at the Presidential Palace, Hungary will be represented by the country’s president, Katalin Novák, who is also a member of Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party.

Biden kicked off his third day abroad, which began with a secret trip to Kiev to be with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion, by meeting with American staff at the Warsaw embassy. and then he addressed the meeting with the countries representing the eastern flank of NATO.

When he arrived, Biden called Russia’s withdrawal from the New START treaty a “big mistake,” an announcement Russian President Vladimir Putin made in his state of the nation address on Tuesday, ahead of Biden’s own Warsaw speech. about the war in Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the US president spoke in Warsaw’s Royal Castle Gardens to a crowd of 30,000, according to the Warsaw mayor’s office, proclaiming that “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, never.”

The event had a campaign rally feel, with attendees waving a mix of Polish, Ukrainian and American flags, and upbeat pop music blaring from the outdoor venue ahead of Biden’s arrival.

Biden used the speech to counter comments Russian President Vladimir Putin had made earlier in the day, during his long-delayed state of the nation address.

He criticized Putin’s claim that the United States wanted to “destroy Russia” and said the war in Ukraine was entirely the work of the Russian president.

The result was a showdown that could stem from the height of the Cold War when East and West delivered dueling speeches. Putin accused Washington of unleashing the war, before Biden responded.

“The United States and the nations of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia,” Biden said to cheers.

‘The West was not conspiring to attack Russia, as Putin said today and millions of Russian citizens just want to live in peace with their neighbors, they are not the enemy.

This war was never a necessity. It’s a tragedy.

Biden accused the Russian leader of war crimes on a colossal scale. But after the dark days of a year ago, it sometimes sounded like a victory rally.

“A year ago, the world was preparing for the fall of kyiv,” Biden told the packed crowd. ‘Well, I’ve just come back from a visit to Kyiv, and I can report that Kyiv is holding its own.

‘kyiv stands proud, stands tall and most importantly stands free.’

The speech offered an opportunity to address one of Biden’s key ideological themes: that authoritarian regimes are fragile in the face of democracy.

“Autocrats only understand one word no, no, no,” he said.

‘No, you will not take my country. No, you will not take away my freedom.

‘No, you will not take my future.

And I will repeat tonight what I said last year, in the same place. A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never be able to assuage the people’s love of freedom.

Brutality will never crush the will of the free.

‘And Ukraine… Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, never.’

His speech reflected how much the region has changed since Biden visited just under a year ago. So Kyiv seemed to be on the brink of disaster, as Russian troops advanced in a lightning assault.

The city is now safe enough for a sitting US president to visit, allowing for a highly visual show of support.

However, on Tuesday night he warned of “hard and very bitter days, victories and tragedies” ahead, but vowed that the United States would not waver in its support for Ukraine.

“There must be no doubt that our support for Ukraine will not waver, NATO will not split. And we won’t get tired,’ she said.

‘President Putin’s yearning, thirst for land and power will fail.’

Earlier Tuesday, Biden met with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace and discussed how important Poland has been during the Ukraine war, calling the endorsement “truly extraordinary.”

Poland has accepted around 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees into their communities since the invasion began on February 24, 2022.

Biden also applauded the great NATO alliance.

“The truth of the matter is: the United States needs Poland and NATO just as much as NATO needs the United States,” Biden said.

The folksy president also spoke about how many Polish-Americans he grew up outside of Wilmington, Delaware, telling Duda he wanted to add a “ski” to his name.

“I grew up feeling self-conscious that my name didn’t end in ‘ski’ or ‘o’,” he said, recalling Delaware’s strong Polish and Italian communities.

“I was telling the president the pride, the overwhelming and demonstrable pride that Polish Americans feel for Poland and the role it is now playing. We were talking about it. It’s extreme,” Biden added.