WARSAW, Poland -- Just 60 miles from Ukraine, President Joe 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 also visited with some of the thousands of U.S. troops who have been sent near Poland's border to assist with the humanitarian emergency and to bolster the U.S. 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.
"This is the name we want to apply to them," Duda said."We do not want to call them refugees. They are our guests, our brothers, our neighbors from Ukraine, who today are in a very difficult situation." "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 an oligarch."
Biden, who spent Thursday lobbying U.S. allies to stay united against Russia, speculated that what he sees in Poland"will reinforce my commitment to have the United States make sure we are a major piece of dealing with the relocation of all those folks, as well as humanitarian assistance needed both inside Ukraine and outside Ukraine."