The US President paid a visit to a refugee reception centre at Warsaw’s national stadium. Out of the approximately 3.8 million people who have fled Ukraine, more than 2 million have fled to Poland. “Putin?” said Joe Biden to reporters. He works as a butcher. That’s all I’ve got.”
However, while waiting for her mother to be registered for a Polish national ID number, Hanna Kharkovetz, a 27-year-old from the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, expressed disappointment that the world was not doing enough to help.
“I’m not sure what he wants to ask us here,” she explained.
“It would be preferable if Biden went to Kyiv rather than speaking here with me.”
Mr. Biden attended a meeting with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, as well as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Kuleba told reporters that Ukraine had received additional security pledges from the US on developing defence cooperation, while Reznikov expressed “cautious optimism” following the meeting with Biden.
“President Biden said what is happening in Ukraine will change the history of the twenty-first century, and we will work together to ensure that this change is in our favour, in Ukraine’s favour, in the favour of the democratic world,” Kuleba said shortly after.
Following a separate meeting with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, Biden called for “constant contact” between the US and Poland, and reaffirmed Washington’s “sacred” commitment to security guarantees within NATO, which Poland is a member of.
Ukraine is not a NATO member, and the US is wary of being drawn into a direct confrontation with Russia, but with the war at NATO’s borders, Washington has pledged to defend every inch of NATO territory.
According to the White House, Biden will “deliver remarks on the free world’s united efforts to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democracy” in a speech in Warsaw later on Saturday.
Putin’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which Russia describes as a “special operation,” has put NATO and the West’s ability to work together to the test.
