US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power.” Therefore, it is the first time that Washington has called for a change of government in Russia due to the war in Ukraine.

“For the love of God, this man cannot remain in power”, Biden said as he finished a speech on Ukraine in Warsaw.

Joe Biden warned that the world must prepare for a “long fight” between “democracy and autocracy”, alluding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In that sense, he reaffirmed his support for the Ukrainians.

Russia “has strangled democracy [on its territory] and tried to do it elsewhere,” Biden said at the royal palace in the Polish capital Warsaw.

The US president considered Ukraine’s resistance against Russian forces as part of a “great battle for freedom” and wanted to reassure the Ukrainian people: “We are with you”.

Speaking outdoors in the cobblestone courtyard of Warsaw’s Royal Castle, Biden accused Putin of “using brute force and disinformation” to govern. “It is nothing less than a direct challenge to the rules-based system of international order,” Biden said.

The US president mentioned his own talks with Putin before Russia’s invasion late last month. He“repeatedly stated that he had no interest in the war, guaranteed that he would not budge”.

“There is simply no justification or provocation for Russia’s choice of war. But Putin and Russia greeted each of the proposals with disinterest. Russia was bent on violence from the beginning,” Biden said.