Biden Meets Top Ukrainian Officials, Polish President in Warsaw

US President Joe Biden met with Ukraine‘s foreign and defense ministers Saturday in Poland on the final leg of a trip aimed at showing U.S. and allied resolve to counter Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

The White House earlier announced the president would “drop by” a meeting in Warsaw between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and their U.S. counterparts, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Biden joined the session about an hour after it started and stayed for about 40 minutes.

Blinken, Austin and the Ukrainian officials discussed “outcomes” of Thursday’s NATO summit in Brussels, as well as the U.S.’s “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of the Russian Federation’s increasingly brutal assault on Ukrainian cities and civilian population,” State Department Spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Blinken and Austin “pledged continued support to meet Ukraine’s humanitarian, security, and economic needs,” Price said.

The meeting marks the first time Biden and Kuleba have met face-to-face since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. In a tweet, the Ukrainian said the meeting was focused on “practical decisions in both political and defense spheres.”

The White House didn’t immediately release information about what Biden said during the discussion.

Biden also planned to meet Saturday with Polish President Andrzej Duda, as well as with Ukrainian refugees, and will in the evening deliver what National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has billed as a “major address” on efforts to aid Ukraine and counter Russian aggression.

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,” Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One on Friday while en route to Poland.

The U.S. and European Union on Friday unveiled an agreement to help Europe wean itself off Russian fuel imports. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the U.S. and EU of aiming to “destroy” Russia through “hybrid war, a total war.”

The pact came a day after Biden met in Brussels with NATO, Group of Seven and EU allies.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are meeting our U.S. counterparts <a href="https://twitter.com/SecBlinken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecBlinken</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SecDef?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecDef</a> in Warsaw together with <a href="https://twitter.com/oleksiireznikov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@oleksiireznikov</a>. This special 2+2 format allows us to seek practical decisions in both political and defense spheres in order to fortify Ukraine’s ability to fight back Russian aggression. <a href="https://t.co/5qlUXtwqXS">pic.twitter.com/5qlUXtwqXS</a></p>&mdash; Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) <a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1507655934855815168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>