“For us, it’s not about regime change,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS in early March. “The Russian people have to decide who they want to lead them.”

Soon after Saturday’s speech, and amid immediate backlash from Moscow and speculation of a possible shift in US policy, the White House downplayed Biden’s remarks, arguing that the word “power” referred to that wielded by Moscow beyond its borders, not within Russia.

“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region,” a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”

The Kremlin did not share that interpretation of Biden’s comments. Putin’s leadership was “not for Biden to decide,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement obtained by Reuters. “The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”

Saturday’s comments were the latest instance where Biden’s off-the-cuff deviations from his own administration’s messaging strategy has left officials scrambling to walk them back.

Biden sparks confusion with commitment to Taiwan’s defence

In October, he sparked confusion about the US long held commitment to “strategic ambiguity” on the issue of Taiwan, when he pledged that Washington would defend the island if it came under attack by Beijing.

And just this month, he called Putin a “war criminal” even as his administration had not yet completed a legal review of whether Russian forces had committed war crimes against Ukrainians.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time Biden had been “speaking from his heart.” The administration has since made an official determination that members of the Russian military had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Now in its second month, Russia’s invasion of its western neighbour has led to at least 977 civilian deaths, including dozens of children, according to a recent estimate by the United Nations Human Rights Office. Ukrainian government figures are far higher, with officials in Mariupol reporting more than 2,400 civilian deaths in that city alone.

During the onslaught, Russian strikes have hit residential flats, schools, hospitals, and shopping centres, according to the US State Department. Among the buildings hit in Mariupol was a theatre serving as a shelter, outside which the Russian word for “children” had been written in letters large enough to be visible from the air.

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Conflicting narratives: Counting the dead in Russia’s one-month-old war with Ukraine

Conflicting narratives: Counting the dead in Russia’s one-month-old war with Ukraine

“He’s a butcher,” Biden said of Putin after a meeting with Ukrainian refugees and aid workers in Poland earlier on Saturday.

In his fiery speech in front of Warsaw’s Royal Castle, Biden highlighted the unified response from the international community to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, as he evoked Poland’s resistance to the Soviet Union in the previous century.

While stressing that Nato was a “defensive alliance,” he called on members of the defence bloc as well as the G7 to dig in for a battle against authoritarianism that could stretch on for decades.

China is close to Russia, but it has looked to Ukraine for military tech

“We must commit now to be in this fight for the long haul,” he said. “We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after, and for the years and decades to come. It will not be easy. There will be a cost, but it’s a price we have to pay.”

Biden’s speech capped off a three-day tour of Europe, including summits at Nato and the G7, as well as talks with top Ukrainian officials in Poland.

Later on Saturday, Blinken announced a further US$100 million in civilian security help to the Ukrainian government to bolster border security, sustain law enforcement, and protect governmental infrastructure.