Biden Visits Missile Plant, Slams Putin and Rallies Support for Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday slammed Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, while visiting a missile plant facility to commend workers there for producing Javelin anti-tank missiles helping Ukrainians fend off the Russian military invasion.

"If you don't stand up to dictators... they keep coming. Their appetite for power continues to grow." –  Biden said of Ukraine's resistance to Russian aggression, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine just over two months ago, the U.S. has sent more than $3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. And that money is a direct investment in defending freedom and democracy itself, Biden said.

He then praised the workers at the factory, saying their hands had literally touched each missile that is being used by Ukraine to push back the Russian advance, telling them they should be proud.

“You’re allowing the Ukrainians to defend themselves, and, quite frankly, they’re making fools of the Russian military in many instances,” he added.

“A big part of the reason [Ukrainians] have been able to keep up fighting and to make this war a strategic failure for Russia is because the United States together with our allies and partners have had their back... You’re changing the nation,” he added. “You really are.”

"We see on the news every single day the atrocities and the war crimes that are being committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, directed by Vladimir Putin.  And it really is gut-wrenching," Biden said, adding that the U.S. is leading its Allies and partners around the world to "make sure that courageous Ukrainians who are fighting for the future of their nation have the weapons and the capacity and ammunition and equipment to defend themselves against Putin’s brutal war. "

"A lot of war crimes being committed," he emphasized.

According to the White House press officials, the Lockheed Martin facility in Alabama produces thousands of Javelin anti-tank missile systems each year. The U.S. government and its allies have transferred a total of 5,500 Javelins to Ukraine to fend off Russian aggression.

 Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.