President Biden And US Ambassador To The UN Deny Calling For Change In Moscow's Government, Worried About Russia's Reaction?

President Joe Biden during a speech in Poland. (Twitter/POTUS)

JAKARTA - The President of the United States clarified on Sunday that he does not have a change of government policy in Russia, after his remarks that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot stay in power."

President Biden's comments in Poland on Saturday also included calling President Putin a "butcher", a sharp escalation of the US approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The United States' top diplomats on Sunday played down his remarks. Meanwhile, President Biden, who was asked by a reporter as he left a church service in Washington if he was calling for regime change in Russia, gave a one-word answer: "No."

Meanwhile, Julianne Smith, the US ambassador to NATO, has previously sought to contextualize President Biden's remarks, saying they were following a day of speaking with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw. Russia's month-long invasion has driven a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people from their homes.

"Right now, I think that's a principled human reaction to the story he heard that day," Smith told CNN's 'State of the Union' program before adding: "The US doesn't have a regime change policy in Russia, period."

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference in Jerusalem, President Biden said President Putin could not be empowered to go to war. But Foreign Minister Blinken said any decision on Russia's future leadership "is up to the Russian people."

Responding to this, Republicans emphatically said that Biden's remarks were an unfortunate mistake, feared to cause major problems.

Senator James Risch, the top Republican on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called President Biden's remarks a "horrendous fallacy", expecting the president to stick to the script.

"Most people who don't struggle in the foreign relations track don't realize the nine words he uttered would cause an eruption like they did," he told CNN.

"This is going to cause big trouble," he said, referring to Biden's statement in Warsaw: "For God's sake, this man can't stay in power."

Senator Rob Portman, who is also a member of the committee, lamented the wartime public misstep.

"It played in the hands of Russian propagandists and played in the hands of Vladimir Putin. So it was a mistake," Portman said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' program.

The United States has sought to strike a balance during the conflict in Ukraine, to avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia, speed up arms deliveries to Kyiv to aid its military battle, but ruled out sending troops into the country or imposing a no-fly zone.

That support has strengthened the fiercer-than-expected Ukrainian resistance, and Russia has failed to capture a major Ukrainian city after more than four weeks of fighting.

The Russian invasion has devastated several Ukrainian cities, caused a major humanitarian crisis, and displaced about 10 million people, almost a quarter of Ukraine's population.

The United Nations has confirmed 1.119 civilian deaths and 1.790 injuries across Ukraine but says the real number is likely to be higher. Ukraine said on Sunday 139 children had been killed and more than 205 injured so far in the conflict.