New Delhi: US President Joe Biden has added a stop in Poland for urgent talks with NATO and European allies, as Russian forces concentrate their fire upon cities and trapped civilians in a nearly month-old invasion of Ukraine.
Biden will first travel to Brussels and then to Poland on Friday to meet with leaders there, press secretary Jen Psaki informed in a statement, as reported by The Associated Press (AP).
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"Biden will travel on Friday to Warsaw for a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda. Biden will discuss how the U.S., along with its allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia's unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created," Psaki said, as reported by AP.
Notably, White House officials have informed that the US President has no plans to travel to Ukraine.
While in Poland this month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly crossed into neighboring Ukraine in a show of solidarity alongside the Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Poland has been one of the most vocal allies of Ukraine asking fellow NATO members to consider getting more involved to rein in the bloodshed.
The country is also hosting thousands of American troops while taking in more people fleeing the conflict-ridden region than any other nation as Europe witnesses its largest refugee crisis in decades.
Joe Biden and NATO have repeatedly stressed that they are determined to avoid any escalation on behalf of non-NATO member Ukraine that risks a direct war with Russia, while they assure to provide weapons and other defensive support to Kyiv.
The United States and NATO have also rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's appeals to establish a no-fly zone over the country to suppress Russian airpower, contending that it would put Western forces in direct conflict with Moscow.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden's trip includes a summit of NATO leaders on Thursday. The meeting will address concerns regarding strengthening own deterrence and defense, immediately and in the long term, to deal with the now openly confrontational Vladimir Putin.
According to US press secretary Jen Psaki's statement last week, Biden also will participate in a European Council summit to discuss the allies' sanctions on Russia and humanitarian efforts for the millions of Ukraine's people displaced by the Russian offensive.
"His agenda includes a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven countries to discuss the punishing financial and economic penalties that the West and its allies have leveled on Russia over its invasion," she said, as reported by the AP.