U.S. President Joe Biden landed in Poland on Friday to meet with U.S. troops, Ukrainian refugees, and President Andrzej Duda to show Western Unity against Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine.
The news of President Biden’s visit comes shortly after the UK’s Defense Ministry revealed that Ukraine was offering strong resistance to the Russian military and was regaining ground near Kyiv. On March 25, The Guardian reported that Ukrainians’ counterattacks on the outskirts of Kyiv had pushed Russian forces more than 20 miles away from the capital.
“NATO has never, never been more united than it is today,” Biden said. “Putin is getting exactly the opposite of what he intended.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked one month since the start of the war by thanking his troops. He said that Putin would not have launched the attack if he knew the kind of resistance he would get from Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy has received praise worldwide for leading his country in resisting Russian aggression. During the early days of the war, the United States asked the Ukrainian president to leave the country, but he refused the offer, CNN reports. Zelenskyy instead requested the U.S. provide him with more weapons to fight Russian troops.
Thousands of troops and civilians have lost their lives since the war started. Ukraine claims that it has killed more than 15,000 Russian troops, but Moscow said it had only lost about 1,000 soldiers. The number of soldiers injured during the special military operation exceeded the loss of life for the Russian army invaders. Between 30,000 and 40,000 members of the Russian military have been wounded on the battlefield, The Associated Press reports.
Some saw President Biden’s visit as a strategic move to demonstrate the unity of western allies. Biden stopped near Rzeszow, Poland, to visit the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division before meeting Poland’s President.
“We are in the middle of a war between democracy and oligarchs,” said President Biden, Infobae reports. “Thank you very, very much for everything you are doing. You are the best fighting force in the history of the world.”
“There’s a lot at stake here other than what we are currently trying to do in Ukraine to help the innocent civilians. Above that is what your children and grandchildren will perceive the world in terms of freedom”, said Biden.
President Biden continued to say that the world will not be the same in the next 10 or 15 years, and the question is: who will win — democracy or autocracy.
“You are the most special force in the world’s history,” President Biden told the U.S. soldiers.
In his address to the troops, Biden invoked the name of his son Beau Biden, who served in Iraq and Kosovo, in addition to working as a lawyer and officer in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
“There are a lot of people like my son, all of you here, who are putting their lives on the line to ensure that we have a safer world,” said Biden. “So, I want to thank and appreciate each of you for that sacrifice.”
President Biden is set to meet with Polish President Duda and later with NATO leaders to strategize on the subsequent sanctions imposed on Russia. The meeting also aims to strengthen ties between NATO allies and propose mitigation measures against effects likely to be caused by the sanctions.
Zelenskyy continues to urge NATO to take quick action to save his country from Russian attacks. His efforts to have a physical meeting with Putin have not yielded any fruit.