US President Joe Biden is wrapping up his high-stakes foreign trip in Poland, where he met with Ukrainian officials and the Polish president.
Biden is meeting with Ukrainian refugees before delivering what the White House is billing as a “major address” this afternoon.
The US President, while holding talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said that peace in Europe is directly related to stability in the United States, adding that lack of some actions in two world wars “has come back to haunt us.” Biden also called NATO’s Article 5 “a sacred commitment.”
Earlier, Biden stopped into a meeting between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and their American counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Reznikov said he feels cautiously optimistic after the meeting.
The United States has made assurances that there will be additional defense support for Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Biden’s trip comes off the heels of a series of emergency summits this week in Brussels.
After those summits, Biden said he supported ejecting Russia from another summit, the Group of 20, which is scheduled to convene in November, though other members of that grouping would have to sign on. And he issued a vague warning that the United States would respond to potential chemical weapons use on the battlefield.
But he maintained his view that direct US military intervention in Ukraine would result in catastrophe and defended a sanctions regime that so far has not stopped Russian President Vladimir Putin from intensifying his assault.