US President Joe Biden at the Royal Warsaw Castle Gardens in Poland. Photo: AFP.
US President Joe Biden met with NATO and Eastern European leaders in Warsaw, where they pledged to strengthen Ukraine’s defense one year after the Russian invasion.
Source: AFP
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a special session of the General Assembly of the organization on the war.
Biden met in Warsaw with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and leaders of nine NATO countries that belonged to the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War (Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania , Poland, Czech Republic and Romania).
In a statement after the meeting, the participants vowed to “strengthen our deterrence and defense posture along the entire eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.”
Stoltenberg called to “break the cycle of Russian aggression” and “give Ukraine what it needs to win” the war, on the eve of the first anniversary of the start of the invasion on February 24.
“We cannot let Russia continue to undermine European security,” Stoltenberg stressed.
It may interest you: Venice canals almost dry due to unusual and prolonged low tides
Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly held a special session on Wednesday to discuss a motion supported by kyiv and its allies calling for a “just and lasting peace.”
“The first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents a grim milestone for the Ukrainian people and for the international community. This invasion is an affront to our collective conscience,” Antonio Guterres declared at the session, warning of his fear of a resurgence of the conflict.
For his part, Putin defended the Russian operation in Ukraine, during a patriotic concert at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.
“Today, the hierarchy [militar] He has told me that we are fighting in our historical lands for our people,” Putin told tens of thousands of attendees.
Putin on Tuesday accused Western countries of using the conflict in Ukraine to “finish off” Russia and charged them with “the responsibility for fueling the Ukrainian conflict and its victims.”
CHINA MEDIATION
Hours later, Biden responded that “the West is not conspiring to attack Russia” and assured that US support for Ukraine “will never waver.”
“Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, never,” he proclaimed upon arriving in Warsaw.
Since the start of the war, Russian bombing has demolished entire cities and destroyed Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
But Russia has experienced numerous setbacks in the east in recent months, which it tries to compensate by taking the city of Bakhmut, besieged and crushed by bombs for weeks.
Also read: Bridge with hundreds of people collapsed during Carnival in Brazil
Putin was betting on a quick war, but was met with fierce resistance, backed by arms deliveries and financial aid from Western powers.
According to a survey by the Ukrainian Rating Group institute, 95% of Ukrainians believe in victory against Russia.
Putin had previously met with the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, whose country offered to mediate the conflict with Ukraine the day before.
“The Chinese interlocutors communicated their reflections on the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis, as well as their proposals for a political solution,” but “no ‘plan’ was discussed.” [de paz] separately,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday expressed cautious interest in such an initiative, but warned that it must respect “the principle of territorial integrity” of his country.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and at the start of the war proclaimed territories of the Donbas mining basin in eastern Ukraine under its sovereignty.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Wednesday that the Asian powerhouse drew up its initiative “without consulting” Ukraine.
Wang Yi also rejected Western suspicions that China could supply Russia with weapons to continue the war in Ukraine.
“We will not be submerged by threats or pressure from third parties,” Wang said.
