“Putin was wrong. We were prepared,” Biden will say in his State of the Union address.

US President Joe Biden will accuse his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of having misjudged the West with an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and order a ban on Russian flights in US airspace in his speech on Tuesday. on the State of the Union.

The annual address to Congress gives Biden, a Democrat, a chance to highlight his agenda, reassure Americans worried about COVID-19 and inflation, and try to boost his low poll numbers.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has dominated the White House in recent weeks, prompting Biden to reframe the speech to focus on his efforts to unite Americans around a global effort to punish Moscow and support Kiev. .

Two sources familiar with the matter said Biden would announce that the United States will ban Russian flights using US airspace.

“Throughout our history we have learned this lesson: when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And the costs and the threats to the United States and the world continue to rise,” Biden will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.

Biden will claim that Putin gave up efforts to prevent war.

“Putin’s war was premeditated and unprovoked. He rejected efforts at diplomacy. He thought that the West and NATO would not respond. And, he thought he could divide us here at home,” Biden will say. “Putin was wrong. We were prepared.”

Fighting rising inflation exacerbated by the Russian crisis and besieged by Republicans who accuse him of letting it spiral out of control, Biden will call for companies to make more cars and semiconductors in the United States.

“We have a choice. One way to fight inflation is to lower wages and make Americans poorer. I have a better plan to fight inflation,” Biden will say. “Instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s manufacture in America… My plan to fight inflation will lower your costs and reduce the deficit.”

Biden and his fellow Democrats face the possibility of losing control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections on November 8. A rebound in Biden’s approval ratings could help prevent that and bolster her chances of delivering on his agenda.

Public opinion polls have shown Biden out of favor with most Americans for months.

Americans’ approval of Biden’s response to the Russian invasion surged last week, with 43% approval in a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday, up from 34% last week. Still, 47% disapprove of Biden’s response to the crisis, and his overall popularity has hovered near the low point of his presidency in recent weeks.

Even with the unemployment rate at 4%, most voters remain pessimistic about the economy, largely due to rising consumer prices.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who will deliver the Republican response to Biden’s speech, will criticize his handling of the Ukraine crisis and the spike in inflation in the United States.

“Instead of moving America forward, it seems that President Biden and his party have taken us back in time to the late 1970s and early 1980s. When runaway inflation hit families, a wave of violent crime swept over our cities, and the Soviet military tried to redraw the map of the world,” he will claim, according to excerpts.

Republicans say the country has not moved quickly enough to ease restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic at a time when the number of cases is declining. More than 2,000 Americans are dying daily from COVID, based on the average over the past seven days, the most of any country in the world.