Biden meets with Ukraine’s foreign, defense ministers in Poland
Warsaw, Mar 26 (EFE).- US president Joe Biden met with Ukraine’s foreign and defense ministers in Warsaw on Saturday as part of his tour of Europe to address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a brief statement, the White House announced that Biden was scheduled to “participate in part of a meeting” in the Polish capital with Dmytro Kuleba and Oleksii Reznikov and the US Secretaries of State, Antony Blinken, and Defense, Lloyd Austin, who have joined the president on his trip that also featured a two-day visit to Brussels for a series of international summit.
During a brief press opportunity before the meeting was closed to reporters, Kuleba told Biden that since the war began, he has learned to “sleep under any circumstances,” and that he had rested during the train journey from Ukraine to Warsaw.
Biden replied that he had plenty of his own experience sleeping on trains, having commuted from Washington DC to his home in Delaware while serving for years as a senator.
In a Twitter post, Kuleba said the meeting with the US delegation would allow “to seek practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine’s ability to fight back Russian aggression.”
Reznikov, meanwhile, said on his official Twitter account that both ministers would be present for Biden’s speech on the war in Ukraine scheduled for Saturday evening at the Royal Palace in Warsaw.
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian delegations lasted more than an hour and a half, and Biden was present at it for about 40 minutes, according to the White House.
After the meeting, Biden was scheduled to meet with Polish president Andrzej Duda before visiting the PGE Narodowy soccer stadium, which has been converted into a refugee center to provide assistance to some of the more than 2.17 million refugees who have fled to Poland since the war began on February 24.
In addition to meeting with refugees, Biden will meet with Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and organizations engaged in the humanitarian response, including the anti-hunger organization World Central Kitchen, founded by Spanish chef José Andrés.
Biden’s speech before flying back to Washington will focus on “the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine,” according to the White House.
During his European tour, which began Wednesday, Biden has visited US military personnel near the Ukrainian border and participated in Nato, G7 and European Union summits in Brussels addressing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. EFE
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