U.S. President Joe Biden clarified on Sunday that the United States does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, after his declaration that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, writes Reuters.

Biden’s comments in Poland on Saturday also included calling Putin a “butcher” and appeared to be a sharp escalation of the U.S. approach to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Top American diplomats on Sunday had played down his declaration, and Biden, asked by a reporter as he departed a church service in Washington if he was calling for regime change in Russia, gave a one-word reply: “No”.