Joe Biden ends his European tour with a speech on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

President Biden on Saturday called for the ouster of Vladimir Putin to conclude three days of diplomacy in Europe as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second month.

“For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power,” Biden thundered in his most dramatic attack on the Russian leader — the same day he called Putin the “butcher” for his attack on Ukraine.

“A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never quench a people’s love of freedom,” he said. “Free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.”

Biden opened the 27-minute speech on a reassuring note.

“Don’t be afraid,” Biden said, quoting Pope John Paul II when Poland’s first pope was elected pope in 1978.

“It was a message about the power of faith, the power of resilience, the power of people,” he said – “a message that will overcome this unjust war.”

But he soon resorted to harsher rhetoric, saying that the world’s democracies must use violence to defeat autocratic regimes like Putin’s.

“We must commit now to fighting this fight over the long term for years and decades to come,” Biden said. “There will be costs, but it’s a price we have to pay.”

Biden spoke outside the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, which was dramatically illuminated by blue floodlights for the occasion. Huge American and Polish flags hung above the building’s red stone facade.

Biden’s high-level speech followed emergency summits in Brussels with NATO allies and the European Commission, where he announced a plan to punish Moscow by curbing Europe’s use of Russian energy – an idea rejected by Germany and others.

The president spoke just hours after conferring with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who had secretly traveled to Warsaw to meet with Biden in person.

“We have received additional commitments from the United States on how our defense cooperation will develop,” Kuleba told reporters.

They also discussed possible new sanctions, Kuleba said – including the possibility of barring Russian ships and goods from all American and European ports.

Kuleba and his colleagues stayed in Warsaw to attend Biden’s speech on Saturday.