Biden meets Ukraine ministers and Polish president

WARSAW • President Joe Biden has met Ukraine's defence and foreign ministers, and Poland's President, whom he assured saying the US vow to defend the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's territory is a "sacred commitment".

Yesterday's surprise meeting in Warsaw with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov was Mr Biden's first face-to-face talks with top Kyiv officials since Russia's invasion began on Feb 24.

The Ukrainian ministers' rare trip out of their country is a possible sign of growing confidence in the fight back against Russian forces. The meeting took place at the Marriott Hotel in the city centre - opposite a Warsaw train station where there has been a constant flow of Ukrainian refugees since the conflict started.

Mr Biden updated the Ukrainian officials "on US efforts to rally the world in support of Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression" and the two sides "discussed further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory", the White House said in a statement.

The President was on the final leg of a trip aimed at showing the United States and allied resolve to counter Russia's invasion when he dropped in on the meeting between the two Ukrainian ministers and their US counterparts - Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Yesterday, Mr Biden also met Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian refugees at a processing centre in Warsaw, when he called Russian President Vladimir Putin who ordered the attack on Ukraine "a butcher".

More than 10 million people in Ukraine have been forced from their homes and more than 3.4 million have fled the country, including more than two million who have arrived in Poland.

Mr Biden told Mr Duda that the US regards its Nato obligation to defend Poland in the event of attack as a "sacred commitment".

Mr Duda told him that the Poles felt a "great sense of threat" from the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.

He also said Poland is interested in purchasing more US weaponry, and raised the prospect of cooperating further to produce US military hardware in his nation.

"We are a serious partner, we are a credible ally," Mr Duda told Mr Biden in translated remarks.

Ukraine is not a member of Nato, and the US is wary of getting dragged into direct confrontation with Russia, but with the war at the borders of the defence alliance, Washington has pledged to defend every inch of Nato territory.

On Friday, the US President spoke to US soldiers stationed in Poland near the Ukrainian border and aid workers helping refugees fleeing the conflict. He praised the Ukrainians for showing "backbone" against the Russian invasion and compared their resistance to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in China in 1989.

"This is Tiananmen Square squared," he said.

Yesterday, the US President was scheduled to deliver what National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has billed as a "major address" on efforts to aid Ukraine and counter Russian aggression.

Mr Biden "will speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression," Mr Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One on Friday en route to Poland.

The US and European Union on Friday unveiled an agreement to help Europe wean itself off Russian fuel imports. The pact came a day after Mr Biden held meetings in Brussels with Nato, and the Group of Seven and EU allies.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky pressed on with his relentless diplomatic efforts to rally world leaders to his side, this time taking his message to the Doha Forum meeting in Qatar's capital.

He accused Russia of fuelling a dangerous arms race by "bragging" about its nuclear stocks, and urged Qatar to help by preventing Moscow from deploying energy as a weapon.

"I ask you to increase the output of energy to ensure that everyone in Russia understands that no one can use energy as a weapon to blackmail the world," Mr Zelensky said.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS