WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has forced President Joe Biden to elevate his attention from domestic concerns to foreign policy, as seen in his State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday.

Biden quickly pivoted from the initial theme of his “Build Back Better” infrastructure plan to tackling Russia’s shocking and unprovoked assault on its neighbor Ukraine, a sovereign nation that was once part of the USSR, from which Putin has already stripped the region of Crimea by military force.

“We are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine,” Biden said in Tuesday’s address to Congress. “Putin is now isolated from the world more than ever. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.”

Putin’s invasion has given new importance to Biden’s long experience in foreign policy. As a seasoned member and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden lent diplomatic expertise to the administration of President Barack Obama, and indeed it was this quality that prompted Obama to choose him as his running mate in 2008.

Biden, breaking off from a riff on his domestic agenda, picked up on the challenge in Ukraine. “Now is the hour,” he said. “Our moment of responsibility. Our test of resolve and conscience, of history itself. It is in this moment that our character is formed, our purpose is found. Our future is formed. We will save democracy.”

He said of the sanctions he would impose on Russia: “I’m taking robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at Russia’s economy. And I will use every tool at our disposal to protect American businesses and consumers.”

Biden took note of the growing challenge to democracy from authoritarian leaders. In the battle between them, he said, “democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security.”

“This is a real test,” he said, “It’s going to take time. So let us continue to draw inspiration from the iron will of the Ukrainian people. … When the history of this era is written, Putin’s war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger.”

This prediction is already coming to pass in the West. In a matter of days, members of NATO and the European Union acted in unison, in a way that would have been scarcely believable a month ago, to impose sanctions on Russia and to provide humanitarian and military support to Ukraine.

The clear-eyed resolve of President Biden and of our allies around the world could not have found a starker contrast than in the words of our disgraced ex-president, Donald Trump. The day after Putin ordered his armed forces to attack Ukraine, Trump praised him effusively in an appearance on a national talk-radio show.

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump gushed.

“I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper,” Trump continued. “Here’s a guy who’s very savvy.”

Trump, along with various Fox News personalities who previously had praised Putin and mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were forced to change their tunes abruptly when the Russian strongman’s invasion faltered in the face of Ukrainian bravery.

That’s a good sign. As Biden made clear Tuesday, American support for Ukraine must not be a partisan issue. At stake is the survival of the democratic ideal in a country that desires to share the freedoms and prosperity of Europe. Russia, now falling backward into the totalitarian abyss, is determined to deny those aspirations in its bid to reassemble its lost empire.

The solidarity of all Americans across the board is needed in this perilous moment if our cherished democratic ideals are to survive and thrive around the world.

Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcover@comcast.net.

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