President Joe Biden plans to visit Poland as part of his trip to Europe this week amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the White House announced.
The president “will travel to Poland following his meetings in Brussels,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on March 20.
The trip to Poland is scheduled for March 25, following a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, that Biden is set to attend the day before “to discuss ongoing deterrence and defense efforts” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss the humanitarian response meant to help more than 3 million Ukrainian refugees—the majority of whom have fled to Poland, overwhelming the country’s resources.
“The United States is absolutely prepared to do what we can, and what we must, to support Poland in terms of the burden they have taken on,” Vice President Kamala Harris said during a visit to the country two weeks ago.
Biden discussed the war ahead of his trip on an hour-long call with leaders of the UK, France, Germany, and Italy on March 21.
Biden has no plan to visit Ukraine on the Europe trip, the White House said.
“The trip will be focused on continuing to rally the world in support of the Ukrainian people and against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but there are no plans to travel into Ukraine,” Psaki wrote on Twitter on March 20.
Poland is part of NATO’s eastern flank and has received additional resources from the military alliance during the war, including a Patriot missile system and thousands of additional troops from the United States, as well as the Sky Sabre missile defense system from Britain.
The United States has pledged millions in direct military and humanitarian support to Ukraine in addition to $13.6 billion approved by Congress, some of which is meant to assist those displaced from their homes and who are crossing the border out of Ukraine.
Biden and NATO have said repeatedly that while they will continue to send support to the non-NATO member Ukraine, they will not send troops to fight on the ground in Ukraine and risk a broader war with Russia.
Meanwhile, on March 21, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the U.S. ambassador in Moscow and told him that Biden’s recent comments calling Putin “a war criminal” have strained ties to “the verge of breaking.”
The United States and other countries have voiced support for an ongoing war crimes investigation into the Russian invasion and have denounced reported Russian attacks on civilian sites.
