Putin gives state of nation address as Biden arrives in Poland | First Thing

Russian president criticises west as US leader plans rallying Warsaw speech. Plus, Ariana DeBose’s Bafta rap deconstructed

Good morning.

Joe Biden arrived in Warsaw late yesterday evening, where he is due to meet Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, along with other leaders of countries on Nato’s eastern flank while the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has been delivering a war update during his state of the nation address.

Is Biden’s speech going to be a response to Putin’s? The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan said it was not and that Putin appeared to have brought his speech forward to coincide with Biden’s visit to eastern Europe. He said: “We did not set this speech up as some kind of head-to-head. This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else.”

How many people have died since the invasion began? There have been at least 18,955 civilian casualties since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights. The agency released the report citing the number of casualties as being 7,199 killed and 11,756 injured, but believes the actual figures are considerably higher.

What did the US secretary of state say during his visit to Turkey? Antony Blinken said Washington would help “for as long as it takes” as rescue operations wound down and the focus turned towards urgent shelter and reconstruction work. “It’s hard to put into words,” Blinken said, trying to describe what he saw. “Countless buildings, communities, streets, damaged or fully destroyed.”