Biden to visit Poland after Ukraine trip

United States (U.S.) President Joe Biden planned to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Poland on Tuesday.

The visit is coming days before the anniversary of the start of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.

Biden is due to give a speech in front of Warsaw’s Royal Castle in the early evening, the White House said.

On Wednesday, Biden plans to meet with representatives of other Eastern European NATO countries.

He reached Poland on Monday evening, after travelling to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv under tight security precautions to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

There, Biden promised Ukraine further support in its struggle to repel the invading Russian forces.

For Biden, it was the first visit to Ukraine since the war began and according to the White House, the first visit by a U.S. president to a war zone without the U.S. military on the ground.

Biden last visited neighbouring Poland at the end of March 2022, about a month after the war began.

Then too he gave a speech against the backdrop of the Royal Castle, in which he assured Ukraine of his support and sharply condemned the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This year, Biden’s appearance in Warsaw on Tuesday would coincide with Putin’s annual state of the nation speech.

Kremlin officials said his address would be largely about the “special military operation” in Ukraine and its effects.

The term war is still avoided in Russia.