“Your presence, Mr. President, here today in the city of Rzeszow is also a great sign of support to us,” Duda told Biden. “Support in terms of humanitarian assistance, which today is provided to the refugees from Ukraine but also it is provided to us, Poles, who are receiving guests because this is the name we want to apply to them. We do not call them refugees. They’re our guests. Our brothers, our neighbors.”
Duda spoke before Biden and other top U.S. officials received a briefing on the humanitarian efforts to address the suffering of civilians inside Ukraine and respond to the growing flow of refugees leaving the country.
In his own remarks, Biden lauded the Polish efforts in playing a leading role in the humanitarian response, just a day after the U.S. significantly stepped up its commitments. Biden pledged Thursday to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide $1 billion in new humanitarian aid.
“What you and the humanitarian community are doing is of such an enormous consequence,” he said to Duda. “Brother, this is what we say we’re about. This is what we say that our obligations are, but you’re living it up. You’re doing it every day, all of you that are sitting at this table.”
Still, Biden acknowledged that despite Western allies putting together a crippling sanctions package against Moscow, there has been widespread human suffering. He spoke about the devastation that Ukrainian parents, in particular, are feeling as they see their children in pain. Biden was adamant that the West must stay united as the war slogs on and Russia continues to attack civilians.
“The single most important thing that we can do from the outset is keep the democracies united in our opposition, and our effort to curtail devastation that is occurring at the hands of a man who quite frankly I think is a war criminal,” Biden said.
For Poland, analysts say Biden’s visit is a tremendous vote of confidence in the significant role the country has played in responding to the conflict.
“Poland’s contribution and role is quite genuine,” said Ian Lesser, the vice president of the German Marshall Fund. “It is very real when we’re talking about refugees or its role as a provider of arms to Ukraine or a logistical conduit for arms being sent by others — and that, of course, exposes Poland to retribution by Russia.”
Lesser added that because Poland feels particularly vulnerable to Russian aggression, its leaders understand the importance of NATO, and the U.S., as “their ultimate security guarantors.”
“This is an extraordinarily high stakes relationship for Warsaw,” he said.
Before the humanitarian briefing, Biden met with U.S. service members from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Poland who are working with allies on deterrence efforts on NATO’s eastern flank. The United States has 10,500 troops in Poland, according to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, who briefed reporters Friday aboard Air Force One.
The president’s first stop was at a barber shop next to the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, where about a dozen U.S. service members were sitting in folding chairs awaiting haircuts. Biden greeted each member individually before approaching a barber chair where one service member suggested that maybe the president should finish the haircut. Biden laughed and said that was the last thing the soldier would want.
He then visited paratroopers who had just finished a pizza lunch, hailing them as “the finest fighting force in the history of the world” and sharing a story of visiting Baghdad to see his late son, Beau, who deployed to Iraq in 2009 with the Delaware National Guard. The president joined the troops for lunch, taking a slice of pizza while service members took selfies with the commander in chief.
“Well, if you’re starting to eat, I’m going to sit down and have something to eat,” Biden told the troops before taking a seat and biting into a slice of pepperoni and jalapeño pizza.
In brief remarks to the service members, Biden reiterated his outlook on the foreign policy challenges the U.S. faces today as a battle between democracies and autocracies, portraying the U.S. effort to back Ukraine as a crucial part of that fight.
“What you’re engaged in is much more than just whether or not you can alleviate the pain and suffering of the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.
He added: “Who is going to prevail? Are democracies going to prevail and the values we share? Or are autocracies going to prevail? And that’s really what’s at stake. So what you’re doing is consequential.”
The president was initially supposed to receive the humanitarian briefing on the refugee crisis before meeting with the troops, but Duda was delayed in traveling to Rzeszow because his plane had to make an emergency landing in Warsaw for mechanical difficulties.
After the briefing, Biden flew to Warsaw ahead of a bilateral meeting with Duda on Saturday. Biden is also expected to meet with Ukrainian refugees in the country’s capital before delivering an address, which Sullivan billed as a “significant speech” on “the stakes of this moment.”
Sullivan told reporters that Biden will address “the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression.”
The Poland visit, which was finalized only days ago, followed Biden’s meetings in Brussels on Thursday, where he attended a trio of summits with NATO, the Group of Seven and European Union allies. The Western allies announced new sanctions on Moscow and issued a stern warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
And before leaving Brussels on Friday morning, Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new joint task force to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels, as the West looks to further punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
“We’re going to have to make sure the families in Europe can get through this winter and the next while we’re building the infrastructure for a diversified, resilient and clean energy future,” Biden said.
The United States will work with other nations to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe by at least 15 billion cubic meters this year with the aim of providing larger shipments in the future, the leaders said, though U.S. officials would not say which other countries will provide the additional gas shipments this year.
Pager reported from Warsaw.
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