The president of the USA, Joe Biden, considers that one year after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine "NATO is stronger than ever".
He declared this on Tuesday during a meeting with the Polish head of state, Andrzej Duda, with whom he spoke before the speech he gave in the gardens of the old royal palace in Warsaw.
With his intervention, Biden wants to remember the first anniversary of a war that has no sign of ending in the near future, but it does become even bloodier.
Poland is a key ally in this conflict for Washington.
The Government of Duda has been one of the greatest defenders within the Atlantic Alliance of sending weapons to kyiv.
Polish territory is an important piece of the logistics chains for supplying military and humanitarian assistance to the country invaded by Russia.
Nearly 1.5 million refugees have left through this territory since on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his troops the order to occupy the former Soviet republic.
Warsaw has provided 3,800 million dollars (about 3,565 million euros) in military and humanitarian assistance to its attacked neighbor, according to data from the White House.
"The truth of the matter is that the United States needs Poland and NATO as much as NATO needs the United States," the US president said at a meeting dedicated to addressing the efforts of allies to support Ukraine and the steps to be taken. to strengthen the deterrence capacity of the Atlantic Alliance.
US President Joe Biden and Polish President Andrzej Duda take part in a bilateral meeting to discuss collective efforts to support Ukraine and bolster NATO deterrence.KANCELARIA PREZYDENTA RP (via REUTERS)
And for Poland, Biden's visit - the second in less than a year - is quite an event.
"It is an important message to the world that the security of Poland is guaranteed," Duda stressed.
In the streets of Warsaw the presence of the tenant of the White House is palpable.
In the center of the city, police cars are stationed every few meters;
air traffic has registered delays;
The media, which on Monday followed the US leader's lightning surprise trip to kyiv live, hardly talk about any other matter.
The meeting between the two leaders began with a one-on-one conversation between the two, followed by a meeting between the two full delegations at the presidential palace.
Both leaders have sat in the center of a long table, flanked by the flags of the two nations.
The appointment is part of a series of contacts with the allied countries in the war to prepare the next steps in what the White House considers the entry into a new phase of the conflict, when Russia has already begun the great offensive in some parts of Ukraine expected this spring and Kiev is preparing to launch its own response.
Before returning to Washington, Biden plans to meet this Wednesday also in Warsaw with the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, and the members of the so-called Bucharest-9 group: the countries of the former Soviet sphere, now members of NATO and generally support stronger support for Ukraine than other European partners.
During his visit to Kiev, the US leader discussed with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, the material that Ukraine may need to "be able to succeed on the battlefield" in the coming months, according to the White House National Security Adviser. , Jake Sullivan, who did not want to specify if both leaders reached some kind of agreement on the matter during their conversation.
Having obtained the allied go-ahead for German Leopard tanks and American Abrams, kyiv is now pushing for its partners to supply fighter jets and long-range missile delivery systems.
Joe Biden during the welcome ceremony in Warsaw. MANDEL NGAN (AFP)
"We have to have security in Europe," Biden said during the meeting at the presidential palace in Warsaw.
"It's that basic, that simple, that important."
For his part, Duda recalled that the Russian invasion "has caused a tragedy and a catastrophe for millions of the inhabitants of Ukraine, and has caused a huge security, economic and humanitarian crisis throughout the world."
Biden, who on Monday in Kiev stressed the "unwavering" and "for as long as it takes" support for the Ukrainian government of Zelenski, will affect these same points in his speech in the royal gardens, before an audience of hundreds of people who They have been waiting hours before, in the midst of intense cold, and many of them dressed in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.
During his visit last March, he also used the framework of the royal palace to describe Putin as a "butcher".
On this occasion, according to Sullivan, Biden will explain that the actions adopted by democratic countries in the coming months and years will leave their consequences felt in the future.
The speech, according to the senior official, will be "pure Biden vintage."
The president will also underline that the invasion represented a frontal attack against the principles of international order, and will seek to galvanize allies so that they do not waver in their support for Ukraine, given the possible fatigue that may begin to emerge after 12 months of conflict.
His speech comes hours after Putin delivered his annual State of the Nation address, in which he announced his country's withdrawal from the New START treaty, signed in 2010 between then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev and the latter. still in force between the two nuclear powers to control their respective arsenals of atomic weapons.
According to Sullivan, the White House did not intend to coincide with the intervention of the Russian president, but it was this leader who chose to change the date of his message and set it for today.
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