Just 60 miles from Ukraine, President Biden saluted Poland on Friday for welcoming more than 2 million refugees who have fled Russia's invasion. Then he met with humanitarian experts on the ground about what will be needed to mitigate the growing suffering. Biden said he had hoped to get even closer to the border but was prevented because of security concerns, the AP reports. Still, he said he wanted to visit Poland to underscore that the assistance it is providing is of "enormous consequence" as Europe experiences the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
“It's not stopping," Biden said of the devastation in Ukraine. The president visited with some of the thousands of US troops who have been sent near Poland's border to assist with the humanitarian emergency and to bolster the US military presence on the eastern flank of NATO. More than 3.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the Feb. 24 invasion, including about 2.2 million to Poland, according to the United Nations. Polish President Andrzej Duda joined Biden for a briefing with humanitarian experts. Duda, through an interpreter, thanked Biden for his support. He said the Poles don't want to apply the word "refugees" to the arriving Ukrainians. "They are our guests, our brothers, our neighbors from Ukraine, who today are in a very difficult situation."
Biden's first stop was with 82nd Airborne troops, at a barber shop and dining facility where he invited himself to sit down for pizza. The Americans are serving alongside Polish troops. He later addressed a group of soldiers in more formal remarks, borrowing the words of the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. "The secretary of state used to have an expression. She said, ‘We are the essential nation,’" Biden told the troops. “I don't want to sound philosophical here, but you are in midst of a fight between democracy and an oligarch." Biden will be in Warsaw on Saturday for further talks with Duda and others.
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