Biden meets troops and humanitarian workers in shadow of Russia's war on Ukraine

WARSAW, Poland — President Joe Biden departed Europe’s diplomatic-bureaucratic capital for a town on the edge of NATO’s eastern flank. It was as close to the war in Ukraine that he said he could go.

“Part of my disappointment is that I can’t see it firsthand like I have in other places,” Biden said before a room of humanitarian workers charged with easing the passage of refugees across the border. “They will not let me, understandably, I guess, cross the border and take a look at what’s going on.”

Biden spent his time in Europe navigating a string of meetings with trans-Atlantic allies and other leaders to discuss the bloc’s response to the crisis.  

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Still under heavy Russian bombardment, Ukraine has resisted Russia’s military assault for 30 days. But as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion meets new setbacks, there are fears that the leader may resort to stronger tactics or that the conflict could spill out of Ukraine’s borders.

“It’s not stopping,” Biden said Friday. “It’s like something out of a science fiction movie, to turn on the television, see what these towns look like.”

In the city of Mariupol, besieged for weeks by Russian forces, residents face indiscriminate shelling at all hours of the night and day. The City Council said a Russian strike on the city’s theater earlier this month killed some 300 civilians who had taken shelter there.

Russia has also struck targets within spitting distance of Poland. Two weeks ago, a deadly missile strike hit a Ukrainian military training base in Yavoriv, 15 miles from Poland’s border and 75 miles from where the president ate pizza with members of the 82nd Airborne Division on Friday. Some 10,500 U.S. troops are positioned inside Poland to deter Russia.

“Ukrainian people have a lot of backbone. They have a lot of guts. And I’m sure you’re observing it,” Biden said.

Seated alongside the president in a meeting that Lenten Friday afternoon, Biden’s Aid and International Development administrator put the crisis in biblical terms.

“An Exodus not seen since World War II” is what Samantha Power called the nearly 4 million Ukrainians who have fled their country.

“It took a little over four years for 4 million refugees to flee the Syrian war. Ukraine could reach that number four days from now,” Power said.

About half that total has temporarily settled in Poland, while 6 million more are displaced inside Ukraine.

“The suffering that is taking place now is at your doorstep,” Biden said to President Andrzej Duda when the Polish leader greeted him later that day.

Duda thanked Biden for visiting the area, which he said had the highest influx of refugees.

“Your presence here … This is a huge sign of support and Euro-Atlantic unity — unity with my country, with Poland,” he said, referring to a “great friendship” between Poland and the U.S. and “a very profound alliance.”

Biden has pressed for unity among trans-Atlantic allies, saying Thursday that the group had “never, never been more united” than on that day.

But Biden’s quest for NATO unity has encountered minor practical setbacks as some alliance members continue to resist calls to move beyond rhetoric and into action.

Late Thursday night, a Ukrainian heavy cargo plane could be seen departing Leipzig, Germany, en route to Turkey, which an open-source intelligence tracker speculated was picking up aid for Ukraine, stopping in Rzeszow on the way as it carved out a path around Hungarian airspace about 12 hours before Biden’s arrival.

A NATO member, Hungary has refused to allow weapons transfers to Ukraine to cross its airspace.

In Warsaw, where Biden arrived to throngs of eager locals, some fear the conflict escalating, pointing to a fervor of long-simmering anti-Russia sentiment.

Marcin Dylewski, a Warsaw resident with a Ukrainian ribbon pinned to the driver's seat in his cab, said he worried that actions by his government risked the conflict spilling out into Poland. His country's leaders have led calls for the U.S. and other allies to surge support to Ukraine, including sending fighter planes, which Washington pushed back against fearing it could be viewed as a direct confrontation by Russia.

He said Poland “doesn’t like Russia” going back more than 100 years and called it a chance to reprise that fight.

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“I don’t know what to think about the future,” Dylewski said. He explained that he was not alone in feeling adrift by his country’s posture toward Russia: “I check Facebook every day, and many agree.”

But he said welcoming refugees from Ukraine, his country’s “close neighbors, the closest neighbors,” was paramount as Russia’s war continues.