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Polish president, NATO chief to discuss Ukraine

07.02.2022 08:00
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda is set to meet with NATO's chief in Brussels on Monday to discuss ways to defuse the West's standoff with Russia over Ukraine, according to officials.
Polish President Andrzej Duda
Polish President Andrzej DudaPhoto: PAP/Andrzej Lange

The talks will focus on "the current security situation related to the escalation of Russia's actions at Ukraine's borders," Duda's national security advisor, Paweł Soloch, told reporters ahead of the meeting.

"The president will raise the issue of further strengthening NATO on the eastern flank in response to aggressive Russian policies," Soloch said.

Planes carrying US troops and army equipment landed in Poland over the weekend as part of efforts to bolster NATO's eastern flank and reinforce allies in Eastern Europe amid a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.

During his visit to Brussels on Monday, the Polish president is also scheduled to hold talks with senior EU officials, including European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel.

On Tuesday, Duda will discuss the situation around Ukraine at a meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron as part of the Weimar Triangle group, officials told reporters.

The Weimar Triangle was set up by Poland, Germany and France in the early 1990s. 

Russia's military buildup near Ukraine has in recent weeks raised fears in the West that Moscow may be preparing for a new invasion of the country.

Moscow has denied plans for an assault but says it could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met, the Reuters news agency has reported.

Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 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.

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Source: PAP