US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is a normally rational actor who misjudged his prospects of occupying Ukraine.
The president opened up in a rare televised interview as his administration searches for what he called an “exit” for Putin to de-escalate his invasion of Ukraine before he resorts to weapons of mass destruction.
“I think he’s a rational actor who’s miscalculated significantly,” Biden told CNN after Moscow’s shelling of civilian targets in his neighbor marked an escalation in the seven-month conflict.
Biden warned last week that the world was risking “Armageddon,” in unusually direct statements about the dangers of Putin’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons to aid Russia’s faltering attempt to take over parts of Ukraine.
Putin’s state of mind has been the subject of much debate after the Russian president recently suffered a series of military setbacks in the invasion he launched in February.
In a remark released by CNN before the interview aired later Tuesday, Biden said that while he believed Putin to be rational, he underestimated the ferocity of the Ukrainian resistance.
“I think … he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was Mother Russia’s home in Kyiv and that that’s where he would be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated,” Biden said.
Kiev’s armed forces have been pushing back Russian soldiers across front lines in the south and east in recent weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday his forces had retaken nearly 965 square miles (2,500 square kilometers) in the counteroffensive that began late last month.
– “Further escalation” –
But Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Monday Russia had hit back with a massive bombing attack on its neighbor, hitting Ukraine’s capital Kyiv for the first time in months, as well as other cities across the country.
Biden spoke to CNN hours after virtually meeting with members of the Group of 7 industrialized nations, who heard from Zelenskyy of the need for increased efforts to create an “air shield for Ukraine” amid the barrage of Russian cruise missile and drone strikes.
Zelenskyy told the G7 that “millions of people would be grateful” for help in repelling aerial attacks, and he warned Russia “there is still room for further escalation”.
Washington pledged to increase anti-aircraft supplies to Ukraine after Monday’s bloody salvoes, while Germany promised “in the coming days” to supply the first Iris-T missile shield, reportedly capable of protecting a city.
In the CNN interview, Biden’s first interview with the cable news network since taking office, he criticized Putin’s goal of being “the leader of Russia that unites all Russian-speaking people.”
“I mean…I just think it’s irrational,” Biden said.
The President frequently answers media questions, but has held few press conferences or one-on-one television interviews.
He’s been more visible lately, as he made his way in the final weeks of the midterm campaign to speak about achievements in Democratic legislation and “MAGA Republicans” — supporters of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda – to beat up .
He also sat on CBS in September and made headlines for declaring the end of the Covid-19 pandemic and reaffirming the US commitment to defending Taiwan from a Chinese attack.
