[Source: Reuters]

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been sparring verbally, presenting starkly different views of the world and the Ukraine war, Biden promising to defend democracies and Putin asserting the West was a threat to Russia.

In speeches just hours apart on Tuesday, Putin in Moscow delivered a warning to the West over Ukraine by suspending its last major nuclear arms control treaty with the United States and Biden in Warsaw proclaimed untiring support for Ukraine, which was invaded by Russian forces nearly a year ago on Feb. 24.

“When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just Ukraine being tested. The whole world faced a test for the ages,” Biden said in the Royal Castle of Warsaw, the day after he made a secretive surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Challenged to respond to the invasion, Biden said the United States and its NATO allies replied: “Yes, we would stand up for sovereignty. And we did. Yes, we would stand up for the right of people to live free from aggression. And we did.”