Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk told public broadcaster Polish Radio that “President Biden’s declarations in the past days and weeks have been truly firm and unequivocal.”
He remarked that “the US president is much more powerful in his rhetoric than some European leaders.”
In addition to making declarations, “President Biden is also making quick decisions to deploy and move American troops to the whole region,” Szynkowski vel Sęk said.
He added: “In the face of demands by Russian President Vladimir Putin to limit NATO’s military presence in the region, which are unrealistic, the US president won’t take a step back, but a step forward.”
Referring to a statement Biden made about the Ukraine crisis on Tuesday, Szynkowski vel Sęk said it showed that “the lessons from 2014 have been learned.”
“It’s a good sign,” he told Polish Radio.
In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and then fomented a separatist conflict in that country's eastern Donbas region, leading to a wave of EU and US sanctions against Moscow and Russian officials.
In recent days, multiple planes carrying US troops and army equipment have landed in Poland as part of efforts to bolster NATO's eastern flank and reinforce allies in Eastern Europe amid a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.
The Pentagon announced at the start of this month that the United States would send 1,700 extra troops to Poland and around 1,000 to Romania to reassure its Eastern European NATO allies in the face of the Russian buildup.
Last Friday, Poland’s Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said that the United States would send 3,000 more troops to Poland to reinforce NATO's eastern flank amid heightened concerns over a possible new Russian invasion of Ukraine.
US 'will defend every inch of NATO territory': Biden
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Biden said that "the Russian Defense Ministry reported today that some military units are leaving their positions near Ukraine.”
He added: “That would be good, but we have not yet verified that. We have not yet verified that Russian military units are returning to their home bases.”
“The fact remains: Right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine in Belarus and along Ukraine’s border,” the president said.
“An invasion remains distinctly possible,” he told reporters.
“This weekend I spoke again with President Putin to make clear that we are ready to keep pursuing high-level diplomacy to reach written understandings among Russia, the United States, and the nations of Europe to address legitimate security concerns if that’s his wish,” Biden also said.
He added: “We will not sacrifice basic principles, though. Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.”
Biden warned that “if Russia attacks Ukraine, it’ll be met with overwhelming international condemnation."
He told the news conference that "the world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction" and that "invading Ukraine will prove to be a self-inflicted wound."
Biden declared: “The United States and our Allies and partners will respond decisively. The West is united and galvanized."
He also stated: “The United States and our Allies and partners around the world are ready to impose powerful sanctions and export controls, including actions that we did not pursue when Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014. We will put intense pressure on their largest and most significant financial institutions and key industries.”
The US president added: “And make no mistake: The United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power. An attack against one NATO country is an attack against all of us. And the United States' commitment to Article 5 is sacrosanct.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, whitehouse.gov