Joe Biden is flexing his foreign policy (while pointedly avoiding some pretty bad domestic problems) while visiting Kyiv and Warsaw as the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches.

In Kyiv, Biden got to look big and bad while strolling the streets with Volodymyr Zelensky while an air raid siren sounded overhead. This was completely staged. How do we know that? Because if it was real, the Secret Service would have literally tackled Biden and dragged him off the street. And if it was real, then the Secret Service are complete failures at their ONE JOB and all need to be fired. Has anyone heard of any disciplinary action against the Secret Service?

Then Biden and his team were off to Poland, where he met with Polish President Andrzej Duda and dropped this little gem.

Biden in Poland: "I was born in a coal town of Scranton … When coal died, we moved down to Del., to a town called Claymont, which was a working class town, but everybody in town was either Polish or Italian. I grew up feeling self-conscious my name didn’t end in an S-K-I or O" pic.twitter.com/1f8XiRHwok

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 21, 2023

For those of you keeping score at home, Joe Biden apparently lived on the border street right between the Puerto Rican, Italian, and Polish communities of Claymont, Delaware, where he was raised in the black church and went to synagogue more than the Jews did. Can’t wait for the media to pick this one apart with same kind of laser focus that they’ve been giving Nikki Haley for growing up using her middle name.

But back to the whole point of the trip to Poland. Vladimir Putin just gave a speech where he declared he was still all in on annexing Ukraine back into a new version of Soviet Russia, and “suspended” involvement in the last nuclear agreement between Russia and the United States.

Putin emphasized, however, that Russia isn’t withdrawing from the pact yet, and hours after his address the Foreign Ministry said Moscow would respect the caps on nuclear weapons under the treaty. The ministry also said Russia will continue to exchange information about test launches of ballistic missiles per earlier agreements with the United States.”

In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast his country — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said it was Russia, not Ukraine, fighting for its very existence.”

“We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said ahead of the war’s first anniversary Friday. “The Ukrainian people have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.”

Obviously, the nuclear pact references are the headline-grabbers, but it’s more of a “take notice” moment than anything else. It still isn’t a GOOD thing to have Putin threatening withdrawl. Is anyone confident that Team Biden is vigorously working the back channels to lower the temperature between the United States and Russia? Well, Joe Biden’s speech isn’t likely to help in that case.

“One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Well, I’ve just come from a visit to Kyiv, and I can report, Kyiv stands strong. Kyiv stands proud. It stands tall. And most important, it stands free,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday to applause from 30,000 onlookers waving Polish, U.S. and Ukrainian flags in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. His remarks came one day after he made a secret visit by train to Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

In Warsaw, the president framed the ongoing conflict as a test of the ability of the world’s democracies to counter the rise of autocratic strongmen, a theme that has colored of his approach to foreign policy throughout his time in the White House. He said Western allies “will not waver” in their support for Kyiv.”

“When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just Ukraine being tested,” he continued. “The whole world faced the test for the ages. Europe was being tested. America was being tested. NATO was being tested. All democracies were being tested. And the questions we faced were as simple as they were profound. Would we respond or would we look the other way? Would we be strong or would we be weak? Would we, all of our allies, be united or divided? One year later, we know the answer. We did respond, we would be strong, we would be united, and the world would not look the other way.”

CBS is doing some transcription clean-up work for Biden here. In case you don’t feel like watching the whole speech, here is how that last line quoted came out.

Joe Biden in Warsaw, Poland:

"Would we respond? Or would we look the other way? Would we be strong? Or would we be weak? Would be, you, we would be, would we the, all of our allies would be united, or divided?" pic.twitter.com/8VlMNK2j8b

— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) February 21, 2023

So, Biden is admitting that this really has become a proxy war between NATO and Russia, with Ukraine serving as the target, the army, and the battlefield. This invasion that became an actual war is essentially at a stalemate, with neither side willing to concede. Where is the exit ramp to END this? Biden openly said during the speech that Putin is the only one who can stop the war.

The president railed against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said was solely responsible for the continued fighting in Ukraine.”

“President Putin is confronted with something today that he didn’t think was possible a year ago. The democracies of the world have grown stronger, not weaker. But the autocrats in the world have gotten weaker, not stronger,” he said. “This war was never a necessity. It’s a tragedy. President Putin chose this war. Every day this war continues is his choice.”

The speech came just hours after Putin announced Russia was suspending its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the U.S. and falsely claimed the West “started the war” in Ukraine.”

Mr. Biden addressed those comments directly and said Western allies “do not seek to control or destroy Russia — the West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today.” He said the war in Ukraine “will never be a victory for Russia — never.”

And Putin will never stop, because he is looking to save face within Russia. Nothing short of assassination or revolution is going to stop Putin, and given the way that Russian oligarchs keep meeting mysterious deaths, it’s highly unlikely that either will happen. The way this ends will have to come through negotiation. And that means the United States, who obviously is controlling Ukraine’s purse strings, will have to tell Zelensky point-blank what realities he needs to accept in order to bring about an end to the war.

But the real problem is that Biden and his team don’t WANT an end to the war. They like spending money in Ukraine because it makes them look good, it gives the impression that they are standing up to Putin, and allows them to focus on a foreign policy issue that doesn’t involve American troops. Afghanistan looms like a shadow over Biden’s foreign policy, and Ukraine is their way of trying to look like the “good guys” again. And if that means shoveling stacks of cash into Ukraine to buy foreign policy PR and a stalemate in the war, then they’ll do it. This war could literally go on forever because no one in the West is willing to engage in some realpolitik and offer both sides a way out. And it sounds like Joe Biden is perfectly okay with that.

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