BIDEN CALLS PUTIN ‘A BUTCHER’ WHILE MEETING REFUGEES

Sat 26 March 2022:

Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “butcher” while meeting Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw.

Asked what he thought of Putin after meeting refugees, Biden said: “He’s a butcher.”

Biden also said he was not sure that Russia had changed its strategy in its invasion of Ukraine, after Moscow said its focus was now to completely “liberate” the breakaway eastern Donbas region.

“I am not sure they have,” Biden said when asked by a reporter if Russia had changed its strategy.

NATO Article 5 is ‘sacred’ for US

The US has a “sacred commitment” to the NATO military alliance’s collective defence, Biden told his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda on Saturday during a visit to Warsaw.

“You can count on that… For your freedom and ours,” he told Duda, who said that Poles were feeling a “great sense of threat” as a result of the conflict across the border in Ukraine.

Military purchases

Polish President Andrzej Duda said that during his meeting with Joe Biden in Warsaw he had asked about the possibility of speeding up military purchases.

Duda said he was referring to purchases of Patriot missile systems, High Mo

Poland is taking a “significant” responsibility in the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, Joe Biden said, adding that the world should help lessen the burden.

Biden also told his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda he views NATO’s Article 5 guarantee of mutual defence between member-states as a “sacred” commitment.

Ukraine’s defence, foreign ministers meet with US counterparts

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Saturday that he and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had held a joint meeting with their US counterparts for the first time.

“We discuss current issues & cooperation in political and defense directions between Ukraine and the United States,” Reznikov said on Twitter, posting a photograph of the meeting in Warsaw with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

For the 1st time, meeting in 2+2 format. With @DmytroKuleba we discuss current issues & cooperation in political & defense directions between 🇺🇦-🇺🇸 with @SecDef & @SecBlinken.
In the evening we’ll also be present at @POTUS speech on the russian war against Ukraine.
Details later. pic.twitter.com/APFcVMxUz1

— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) March 26, 2022