Claudia CiobanuWarsawBIRNFebruary 20, 202315:52The US president showed up in Kyiv early this morning for a five-hour visit to the Ukrainian capital, before heading to Poland to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C-R) and US President Joe Biden (C-L) walk past the St Mikhailovsky Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, 20 February 2023. EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
US President Joe Biden spent five hours in the Ukrainian capital on Monday, meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and even taking a stroll through the streets of Kyiv – despite the sound of air sirens – to visit The Wall of Remembrance, which displays portraits of the approximately 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers who have died since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
The trip was kept under a media blackout until a few hours after Biden’s arrival, with the president’s official schedule only saying he would fly in the evening to Warsaw for a planned visit. The New York Times reported, quoting an anonymous official source, that Biden arrived in Kyiv early this morning after making the same 10-hour long journey from Poland that every world leader visiting Ukraine since the start of the war has.
“One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared in Mariinsky Palace, the ceremonial home of the Ukrainian head of state. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands.”
“It’s presumptuous of me to say this, but I thought it was important that the president of the United States be here the day that the attack began,” Biden said. “I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war.”
Biden reportedly promised an additional half a billion dollars in military aid for Ukraine, including artillery ammunition, Javelins and howitzers, but making no public mention of the F-16 fighter jets and long-range assault weapons requested by Kyiv. Zelensky went on to say that the two spoke about further weapons deliveries.
By Monday afternoon, Biden was said to be already on his way to the Polish capital Warsaw, where he is expected to address the Polish people in an afternoon speech on Tuesday at the Royal Palace. On Wednesday, he plans to take part in a meeting of the “Bucharest 9” structure – a defence alliance of countries in Central and Eastern Europe created in 2015 at the initiative of Polish President Andrzej Duda and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
Biden’s trip is designed to show the US and NATO’s strong support for Ukraine and the region at a crucial time, just before a major new stage of fighting is expected to start in the spring.
“The visit of the US President Joe Biden at such a key moment is a chance for Poland and the region to demonstrate leadership,” Paula Dobriansky, a former US undersecretary of state and foreign policy expert, told the PAP news agency on Monday.
Biden’s visit to Poland is his second since the war started. The US president first came to Poland in March 2022, meeting President Duda, addressing Poles and – controversially – exclaiming, “For God’s sake, this man can’t stay in power”, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This time around, Biden is expected to thank the Polish people for the support they have given to Ukraine since the war started. Poland has been on the front lines of support for Ukraine, taking in the largest number of refugees, but also becoming a hub for the transport of weapons into Ukraine, and a major advocate of Kyiv in mobilising military and other types of aid for the country.
Poland itself has been beefing up its army since the war started, expecting to spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence this year at the same time as doubling its number of troops. Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak declared Poland’s aim to have “the most powerful land forces in Europe”.
Last summer, the US confirmed it would create a permanent headquarters for its Army V Corps in Poland. Over the weekend, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland was in talks with the Biden administration to further increase the number of US troops in the country; there are currently 11,000 US troops stationed in Poland on a rotating basis.
Biden’s visit is seen as confirmation that Poland has become NATO’s major military outpost in the eastern end of Europe.
“One lesson Poland has learned from the Ukraine war is on the political level: the more efficient you are in defending yourself against the aggressor, the more likely it is that you will get help,” Marcin Terlikowski, an international security expert at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, told BIRN. “Basically, we need a strong military ourselves, in order to create the political and military space for NATO and the US to react. If Poland falls in three days, then it would be very hard to implement NATO plans for defending the eastern flank.”
Source link: balkaninsight.com
