The White House announced on Sunday that Biden would travel to Poland following meetings with NATO allies, G7 leaders and European Union politicians in Brussels this week to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine amid Russia's invasion of the country and "impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia for its invasion."
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan said that Poland "has taken the brunt of the humanitarian impact outside of Ukraine in terms of the refugee flows."
Poland is also where the United States "has surged a significant number of forces to be able to help defend and shore up the eastern flank," he added.
"Poland has to contend not just with the war in Ukraine but with Russia’s military deployments to Belarus, which have fundamentally changed the security equation there," Sullivan told reporters.
"And so, for all of those reasons, we feel that it is the right place for him to go to be able to see troops, to be able to see humanitarian experts, and to be able to meet with a frontline and very vulnerable ally," Sullivan said.
'Adjustments to NATO force posture on eastern flank'
Sullivan also told reporters that, while in Europe this week, Biden "will join our partners in imposing further sanctions on Russia and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement."
Biden will also "work with Allies on longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture on the eastern flank," according to Sullivan.
"He will announce joint action on enhancing European energy security and reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas at long last," Sullivan also said.
Earlier White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Biden would thank Poland for welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn Ukraine when he visits Warsaw this week.
Poland on Tuesday evening said it had taken in more than 2.15 million refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Polish president this month signed into law a measure to offer wide-ranging support to Ukrainians escaping the Russian invasion of their country, which began on February 24.
The measure grants them legal residence in Poland and ensures access to education, healthcare and social benefits.
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Source: IAR, PAP, whitehouse.gov