After a protracted trip to Europe, Joe Biden was spotted stumbling on the stairs of Air Force One as he returned to the US.
After a gruelling three-day visit that included trips to Poland and Ukraine, the 80-year-old president was forced to gather himself as he boarded the aircraft.
Prior to the one-year anniversary of the Russian war, Biden paid a covert visit to Ukraine on Monday to support Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of that country.
He boarded a covert aircraft at Joint Base Andrews and travelled to Poland via Germany.
Then, the president took a lengthy, covert 10-hour train ride across the border to Ukraine.
The 80-year-old has previously had trouble climbing the stairs of Air Force One after he appeared to miss a step in March 2021.
And in June, while spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden lost control of his bike.
Following two days in Warsaw and a meeting with the Bucharest Nine, who represent NATO’s eastern flank, the president was on his way back to the US.
In the meeting, Biden criticised Putin’s decision to withdraw from the New START nuclear arms treaty and vowed to “defend every inch” of NATO amid escalating hostilities between the United States and Russia.
The president mockingly referred to Putin as a “friend” during the meeting.
He joked: “‘The irony is that – one of the last conversations I had with our friend in Russia, was I said, you keep asking for the Finlandization of NATO, you’re going to get the NATOization of Finland.”
JUST IN: Biden falls again while walking up Air Force One. pic.twitter.com/ZpSKTgN4bb
— Remarks (@Remarks) February 22, 2023
“Not just free Ukraine, but freedom of democracies throughout Europe and around the world.”
The president added he would defend “literally every inch, every inch of NATO” as long as he was in power.
He stated: “‘What literally is at stake is not just Ukraine, it’s freedom. The idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country. Since World War II nothing like that has happened.”
However, Biden did say that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, things have changed “radically.”
He admitted: “We have to make sure we change them back.”
