Polish President Andrzej Duda announced a “diplomatic offensive” on Monday to “make allies’ support for Ukraine better and more effective,” prior to the visit to his country by his US counterpart, Joe Biden.
Duda spoke in Warsaw, shortly before visiting a military base in Swietoszów (west), where Ukrainian soldiers receive training on German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks.
According to the Polish president, the next two weeks will be “very intense”, with meetings planned with several European leaders to “try to strengthen the security of Poland and also adopt new provisions to support Ukraine” – a country invaded by Russia in February of the s. last year – “in an even better and more effective way.
Duda’s round of contacts begins on Tuesday, with a videoconference with Zuzana Czaputova, president of Slovakia, the country that will host the next meeting of the nine countries of the former communist bloc that joined NATO.
On the same day, Duda meets his Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, who in turn will host the next NATO summit in July, which the Polish statesman called “the most important political event this year in terms of security.”
On Thursday, Duda will travel to Brussels to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, before heading to London to be received by King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
After this visit, Duda will continue traveling to Munich to participate in a security conference, where the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, the newly elected President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, and the Prime Minister are expected. . Norwegian, Jonas Gahr Stoer.
Last week, the White House announced Joe Biden’s visit to Poland from February 20 to 22, “a key event at a decisive moment to build security” in Poland, Duda said.
The Polish president stressed that “there are two ways to build resilience and deterrence”: through “purely military means, building infrastructure and modernizing the Army” and “through political means, where Poland’s activity is of fundamental importance.”
The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than eight million to European countries-, according to the latest data. recent reports from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
Right now, at least 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian aid and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
Source: TSF
