US President Joe Biden on Saturday met with Ukraine’s foreign and defence ministers at the Marriott Hotel in central Warsaw in his first talks with top Kyiv officials since Russia’s invasion began.
During the meeting, Biden was seated at a long white table alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin facing Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, a White House pool report said.
Kuleba and Reznikov have made a rare trip out of Ukraine as a possible sign of growing confidence in the fightback against Russian forces.
Biden will argue in a speech in Poland on Saturday that the “free world” opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that there is unity among major economies on the need to stop Vladimir Putin, the White House said.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the speech will outline the “urgency of the challenge that lies ahead” and “what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world stay in unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression.”
Biden, who took office last year after a violently contested election, vowed to restore democracy at home and unite democracies abroad to confront autocrats including the Russian president and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
Putin’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a “special operation”, has tested that promise and threatened to inaugurate a new Cold War three decades after the Soviet Union unravelled.
In what US officials were billing as a major address in Poland, Biden “will deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles,” the White House said in a statement.
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The White House said Biden would “drop by” a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with Kuleba and Reznikov in the Polish capital.
Biden last met Kuleba in Washington on February 22, two days before Russia began its assault. Since then, Kuleba has also met with Blinken in Poland next to the border with Ukraine on March 5.
Warsaw, the backdrop for the remarks, was until the collapse of communist rule in 1989 behind the Iron Curtain for four decades, under Soviet influence and a member of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact security alliance.
Now, Poland is the biggest formerly communist member of the European Union and NATO, the security alliance founded to counter the Soviet Union.
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The rise of rightwing populism in Poland in recent years has put it in conflict with the European Union and Washington, but the threat of Russia pressing beyond its borders has drawn Poland closer to its Western neighbours.
Biden is on the second and final day of a visit to Poland after he met with EU and NATO leaders in Brussels earlier in the week.
On Friday, he met with US soldiers stationed in Poland near the Ukrainian border and with aid workers helping refugees fleeing the conflict.
He praised Ukrainians for showing “backbone” against the Russian invasion and compared their resistance to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in China in 1989.
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“This is Tiananmen Square squared,” he said.
He also referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a man who, quite frankly, I think is a war criminal”.
“And I think we’ll meet the legal definition of that as well,” he said.
Washington, seeking to avoid a direct conflict with Russia, rejected a surprise offer by Poland to transfer Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to a US base in Germany to be used to replenish Ukraine’s air force.
Now, Poland wants to accelerate the purchase of US.-made Patriot missiles, F35 fighter jets and tanks for its own security, and seek reassurance on NATO commitments to defend its members.
“Above all, we want the unshakable guarantee that the United States provides within the framework of the alliance,” the head of the National Security Bureau, Pawel Soloch, said on Friday.
“Especially here, to Poland and the countries of the region. If there was an attack on Poland, the USA would defend Poland.”
Later on Saturday, Biden is due to meet with Polish leaders and visit a reception centre for refugees and give a major speech on the conflict.
The US and many of its allies have imposed multiple rounds of economic and other sanctions on Russian individuals, banks, and other entities in hopes that the cumulative effect over time will force Putin to withdraw his troops.
(With inputs from agencies)
