Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin ‘miscalculated’ Russia’s ability to occupy Ukraine
- US president said he believes ‘rational actor’ Vladimir Putin misjudged his war against Ukraine
- On Monday, Russia unleashed one of its largest attacks on Ukraine since the beginning of the war
US President Joe Biden said he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a normally rational actor who badly misjudged his prospects of occupying Ukraine.
The president spoke out in a rare televised interview as his administration looks for what he has described as an “off-ramp” for Putin to de-escalate his invasion of Ukraine before he resorts to weapons of mass destruction.
“I think he is a rational actor who has miscalculated significantly,” Biden told CNN after Moscow’s shelling of civilian targets across its neighbour marked an escalation in the seven-month conflict.
Biden characterised the Russian leader’s decision to invade as irrational.
“He talked about the whole idea of – he was needed to be the leader of Russia that united all of Russian speakers. I mean, it’s just I just think it’s irrational,” Biden said in the interview.
He added that Putin “thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated”.