President Biden will travel to Belgium and Poland on Wednesday to meet with members of NATO and European allies to maintain a united front against The Russian war in Ukraine.
He is scheduled to arrive in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday, where he will meet with NATO allies, G7 partners and European Union leaders. He will then travel to Warsaw, Poland, to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would address world leaders in Brussels on Thursday for an extraordinary alliance meeting.
Mr Biden will join international partners to impose more sanctions on Russia while he is abroad, said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. The stop in Poland was added in part to thank Duda for his assistance to the refugees and their cooperation in general, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Poland has welcomed more Ukrainians than any surrounding country: some 2 million Ukrainians have flooded Poland since the war began in late February. Although some have left for other countries, most are still believed to be in Poland, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
“This is an opportunity for him to thank President Duda for hosting the refugees, as they have done in recent weeks, and for being an important partner in providing a series of assistance to the Ukrainians, to the Ukrainian people. and the Ukrainian government, “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said of the president’s trip on Monday. “And they’re an important partner like us, as we work to stay together for the next few weeks and months.”
Psaki was supposed to go to Europe with the president, but on Tuesday he tested positive for COVID-19.
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When he left the White House on Wednesday morning, Biden said the possibility that Russia could resort to chemical warfare was a “real threat.”
Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that Russia “must stop its nuclear sword noise.”
“This is dangerous and irresponsible,” Stoltenberg said. “Any use of nuclear weapons will fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. And Russia must understand that a nuclear war must never be waged.”
The president’s trip comes when Russian forces have met with strong resistance from the Ukrainians and have yet to take Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. is beginning to see signs that Ukrainians can now reclaim Russian-occupied territory and that Ukrainians are fighting to retake the cities of Izyum and Kherson.
The Russians have just under 90% of the fighting power they gathered around Ukraine before the invasion, the defense official said. The Pentagon is seeing indications that the Russians are worried about keeping their ships fed, and some of the Russian soldiers are suffering from frostbite because they do not have the right equipment.
– Olivia Gazis contributed to this report.
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