During the visit, which the White House had kept secret until shortly before his arrival, the US leader took a first-hand look at international efforts to help the more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees who have been temporarily sheltered by him. war in their country in Poland. , and met with US troops reinforcing NATO’s east side. Air Force One landed at Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland shortly after 2 p.m. local time. Rzeszów is about 105 miles (170 km) from Lviv, the city that could become the de facto capital of Ukraine if Kyiv falls to Russian forces. Wearing a black mask, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak welcomed Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak and a number of military generals – though not President Andrzej Duda, whose plane crashed in Warsaw. . An official in his office said Duda was in no danger. With the visit schedule reversed, Biden first visited a barber shop at the G2A Arena next to the airport, where 14 U.S. soldiers were sitting in folding chairs waiting for their crew to be cut. In the cafeteria next door, an American president without a tie joined the members of the service who ate a pizza lunch at six large tables. Over a slice of pepperoni and jalapeño pizza, Biden served paratroopers with stories about Bo’s late son growing up in Iraq and his family in Ireland. He later addressed a group of soldiers with more formal remarks, quoting the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, to emphasize their importance for NATO’s role in the current crisis. “The foreign minister had an expression. He said, “We are the basic nation,” Biden told soldiers. “I do not want to sound philosophical here, but you are in the middle of a battle between democracy and an oligarch.” The first 5,000-strong corps of the select 82nd Airborne Division of the United States, which specializes in parachute operations, has been based in Poland since February 6 this year. The presence of US troops in the area was low-key, as they visited orphanages and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp instead of demonstrations of military force visible to the local population. Following his meeting with the military, Biden was briefed on the humanitarian situation on the border with Ukraine by Samantha Power, director of the United States Agency for International Development. Poland has received more refugees from Ukraine than any other country in Europe, with the United Nations estimating at least 2.2 million. On Friday night, Biden was scheduled to fly to Warsaw, where he was to meet with Duda on Saturday, to deliver a “keynote address” on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the press on the way to Poland that Biden’s speech would “speak to the current situation, to the urgency of the challenge before us, what the conflict in “Ukraine for the world and why it is so important for the free world to remain united and to decide against Russian aggression.” Biden and Duda are expected to discuss Warsaw’s desire for more US troops to bolster NATO’s east side, as well as the idea of an international peacekeeping mission proposed by Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. US diplomats have expressed skepticism about the idea, which Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov described as “very reckless”. Biden told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that his visit to Eastern Europe was designed to “strengthen my commitment to making sure the United States is an important part of addressing the displacement of all these people, as well as the humanitarian assistance required both inside Ukraine and outside Ukraine “.
