US President Biden arrives in Poland to reassess Ukraine strategy

Europe, News, US March 26, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

After attending a G7 meeting and an extraordinary summit of NATO leaders in Brussels, U.S. President Joe Biden embarked on a two-day official visit to Poland to meet his Polish counterpart President Andrzej Duda and to visit the U.S. military base in the southern city of Rzeszów.

The U.S. and Poland’s leaders met in Rzeszów on March 25 to discuss the situation of the Ukrainian refugee crisis. President Duda’s meeting with Biden was briefly delayed because his plane was turned back to Warsaw for an emergency landing after facing a technical difficulty. Duda was later transferred into a different aircraft and arrived in Rzeszów to join the meeting with the U.S. President as scheduled.

Humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

President Biden and President Duda received a briefing on the humanitarian crisis and the response to help the civilians from Russian attacks inside Ukraine. With a growing number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing into Poland, the refugee crisis is becoming more and more severe with every passing day.

Poland has taken in the largest number of refugees from Ukraine which accounts for more than 2.2 million of the total 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees. “Hundreds of thousands of people are being cut off from help by Russian forces and are besieged in places like Mariupol,” President Biden stated after receiving a briefing on the refugee crisis. Biden further added that he was hoping to get closer to the Ukrainian border to better understand the ground situation, however, he was prevented due to high-security risk.

U.S. President Biden posted on his Twitter account that “The United States is prepared to provide an additional $1 billion for humanitarian assistance and welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression.”

U.S. President Joe Biden was also accompanied by the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. While en route to Poland through Air Force One, Jake Sullivan told media reporters, “We are doing contingency planning for the possibility that Russia chooses to strike NATO territory in that context or in any other context.”

Sullivan added that “the President has been about as clear as one can be about his absolute determination to respond decisively, alongside the other members of our alliance if Russia attacks NATO.” He also mentioned that the U.S. and its allies would impose even more sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Biden’s visit to the 82nd Airborne Division

The U.S. President Joe Biden also met with the members of the 82nd Airborne Division that has been stationed at Rzeszów. The U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also joined Biden along with other high-level U.S. Officials.

While addressing the U.S. military service members, President Biden stated that “I don’t want to sound philosophical here, but you are in midst of a fight between democracy and an oligarch.”

*^{President Joe Biden visits with members of the 82nd Airborne Division at the G2A Arena, in Jasionka, Poland on March 25, 2022. (Evan Vucci/AP)}*

Biden met with the troops at the military base, took a tour of the barbershop, and shared pizza slices with the U.S. and Polish troops for his lunch. He also shared the anecdotes of his late son, Beau Biden, who died in 2015 while being deployed in Baghdad.

The U.S. President would stay in Warsaw for one more day to carry out a bilateral meeting with the Polish president in order to discuss the refugee crisis and NATO’s reinforcement plans for its eastern European flank.