Biden labels Putin a ‘butcher’, pays tribute to Poles for aiding over 2m Ukrainians

over 3 years in The Irish Times

US president Joe Biden spoke with top Ukrainian government officials in Warsaw on Saturday, and branded Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” during a meeting with refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine to the Polish capital.
Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying Mr Biden’s comments on Putin narrowed the prospects for mending ties between the two countries.
On the second day of a visit to Poland, Biden dropped in on a meeting between Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and defence minister Oleksii Reznikov, and US secretary of state Antony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin.
Ukraine had received additional security pledges from the United States on developing defence co-operation, Mr Kuleba told reporters, while Mr Reznikov expressed “cautious optimism” following the meeting with Mr Biden.
After a separate meeting with Polish president Andrzej Duda, Mr Biden reiterated Washington’s “sacred” commitment to security guarantees within Nato, of which Poland is a member.
Mr Biden also saluted Poland for helping more than two million refugees who have fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as he met humanitarian experts close to the Ukraine border.
Mr Biden said he had hoped to get even closer to the border, but was prevented because of security concerns.
He said he wanted to visit Poland to underscore that the assistance it is providing to people is of “enormous consequence”, as Europe experiences the biggest refugee crisis since the second World War.
“It’s not stopping,” Mr Biden said of the devastation in Ukraine. “It’s like something out of a science fiction movie.”
Mr Biden also visited some of the thousands of US troops who have been sent to the area 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 invasion which began on February 24th, with about 2.2 million having gone to Poland, according to the United Nations.
Within a few days, the number of refugees displaced from Ukraine since last month will exceed the number of Syrians forced from their homes over the years of conflict after a 2011 uprising turned into a full-scale war, according to Samantha Power, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development.
Patriot missile batteries
The American military commitment in Poland was apparent as soon as Air Force One touched down, rolling past Patriot missile batteries.
More hardware, including heavy trucks and other equipment painted with dark green and brown camouflage, was present at the airport.
A nearby convention centre serves as a base for the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
Mr Duda, through an interpreter, thanked Mr Biden for his support. He said the Poles see the Ukrainians they are receiving as their “guests”.
“This is the name we want to apply to them,” Mr Duda said. “We do not want to call them refugees. They are our guests, our brothers, our neighbours from Ukraine, who today are in a very difficult situation.”
Mr Biden’s first stop was with the 82nd Airborne troops, at a barber’s and dining facility where he sat down and shared some pizza.
“You are the finest fighting force in the world and that’s not hyperbole,” Mr Biden said.
He later addressed a group of soldiers in more formal remarks, telling them the nation “owes you big”.
He also borrowed the words of the late secretary of state Madeline Albright to underscore their place in a fragile moment for the US and its European allies.
“The secretary of state used to have an expression. She said, ‘We are the essential nation,’ ” Mr Biden told the troops. “I don’t want to sound philosophical here, but you are in midst of a fight between democracy and an an oligarch.”
Mr Biden is in Warsaw on Saturday for further talks with Mr Duda and others. – PA

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