'Dark forces these heroes fought against 80 years ago never fade'

Joe Biden honoured the "noble Band of Brothers" at the American cemetery Normandy yesterday - and vowed Nato will never walk away from the fight against Russian "tyrant" Vladimir Putin.

- Robert Kellaway

The US leader described D-Day the greatest Allied operation in history as a battle between "freedom and tyranny" and urged the world to stand firm again now in the face of "dark forces".

He said: "Hitler thought that democracy was weak and the future belonged to dictators.

"Here on the coast of Normandy, the battle between freedom and tyranny would be joined." The President added: "Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today.

"We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago, they never fade.

"Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force, these are perennial.

"The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending.

Here in Europe, we see one stark example. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination. Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage suffering great losses but never backing down." Mr Biden said democracy is "more at risk now than at any point since World War II and vowed the US and its European partners "will not bow down".