State of the Union: Joe Biden pledges to make Putin pay for Ukraine invasion

President condemns attack and seeks to reassure Americans exhausted by pandemic and its economic fallout

Joe Biden vowed in his first State of the Union address to defend democracy threatened by war in Europe, pledging to punish Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, while also promising to tame rising inflation and return the nation to a more normal" state as the coronavirus pandemic appears to wane.

Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, at a perilous moment for his presidency and the world, Biden accused the Russian president of trying to shake the foundations of the free world" with a premeditated and unprovoked" invasion of its Democratic neighbor.