Joe Biden meeting soldiers from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Rzesnow today

Biden in Poland to see refugee efforts, meet US troops

· RTE.ie

US President Joe Biden landed in Rzeszow, Poland, today to get a first hand look at international efforts to help some of the millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing war in their country.

He also spoke to American troops bolstering NATO's eastern flank.

His first stop was to meet soldiers from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division stationed in the area of Rzeszow airport as part of NATO's protection of the alliance's eastern flank.

TV footage showed him sharing pizza and chatting with several military personnel.

President Biden's schedule was delayed after the plane carrying Polish President Andrzej Duda was turned back on route to Rzeszow and made an emergency landing in Warsaw.

Mr Duda later boarded a different aircraft and headed back to eastern Poland. An official in his office said the president had not been in any danger.

President Biden was due to receive a briefing on the humanitarian response to help civilians sheltering from Russian attacks inside Ukraine and to respond to the growing flow of refugees from the war-torn country.

Poland hopes that the US leader's visit will underline the security assurances already made by the United States that it will defend "every inch" of NATO territory.

Warsaw is keen to see even more US troops stationed on NATO's eastern flank.

Poland is also likely to raise the idea of an international peacekeeping mission involving troops being stationed in Ukraine, an idea first proposed by ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski during a trip to Kyiv.

En route to Poland on Air Force One, national security adviser Jake Sullivan briefed reporters.

Asked whether Russia would try to bomb convoys carrying supplies to Ukraine over land through NATO countries, he said: "We are doing contingency planning for the possibility that Russia chooses to strike NATO territory in that context or in any other context.

"And the president has been about as clear as one can be about his absolute determination to respond decisively, alongside the other members of our alliance if Russia attacks NATO," Mr Sullivan said.

President Biden's visit to Poland comes after he forged a new set of measures with Europe designed to place a tighter squeeze on Russia's tottering, energy-rich economy.

The EU has already announced plans to slash its imports of Russian gas by two-thirds this year and eliminate imports entirely before the end of the decade.

However, the EU has stopped short of demands by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to impose a total embargo and so deprive Russian leader Vladimir Putin of billions to fund his war machine.

Meanwhile, Mr Putin has accused the West of discriminating against Russian culture, likening it to the ceremonial burning of books by Nazi supporters in the 1930s.

"Today they are trying to cancel a thousand-year-old country - I am talking about the progressive discrimination against everything connected with Russia," he said in televised remarks.

After the Kremlin imposed an information blackout on its "special military operation" in Ukraine, most Russians are unaware of the true picture of what is happening there.