Biden receives Polish leaders, sends new military aid to kyiv

Despite a blockage in Congress, the administration of American President Joe Biden has posted Tuesday his support à Ukraine by announcing new military aid & kyiv and receiving Polish leaders, warning of the Russian threat to Eastern Europe.

“We must act before it is literally too late. Because as Poland remembers, Russia will not stop at Ukraine,” declared the American president while receiving his counterpart at the White House Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“We must not let Russian imperialism disrupt the stability and peaceful existence of Europe,” said after the meeting, President Duda.

Washington, at the same time, approved an arms contract with its NATO ally. The US executive branch notified Congress of a contract for the sale to Warsaw of long-range air-to-ground missiles and medium-range air-to-air missiles, for a total of $3.5 billion.

And earlier today, Washington announced new military aid of $300 million to Ukraine, an amount far removed from the large package requested by President Biden for months.

This aid includes anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition and artillery shells and responds to “certain urgent needs of Ukraine”, underlined Jake Sullivan, advisor to American President Joe Biden. “This is relatively modest aid, intended to give Ukraine the minimum necessary for a short period of time,” said a senior US official.

It is funded thanks to an accounting revaluation by the Pentagon.

“We have made savings which will allow us to finance this new aid,” explained the official, specifying that the situation was “rather exceptional”, and did not replace the validation of funds by the American Congress.

– NATO –

The Ukrainian question was at the center of the meeting between Joe Biden and Polish leaders on Tuesday, the 25th anniversary of Poland's entry into NATO.

Polish President Andrzej Duda in Washington, March 12, 2024 © AFP – Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Because on the Polish side, if the conservative president and the pro-European Prime Minister are adversaries in domestic politics, they displayed before this trip a desire for cohesion on international issues.

President Duda on Monday called on other NATO countries to strengthen their military budgets in order to send a “clear and bold response to Russian aggression”.

There is great concern: US intelligence warned Monday that “the dynamic is shifting increasingly in favor of Moscow” in the war against Ukraine.

“Ukraine is not short of courage and tenacity, it is short of ammunition. And we are starting to run out of time to help them,” warned the director of the CIA, Bill Burns.

– Standoff between Biden and Trump –

In subtext: the blocking, by Republican parliamentarians in Washington, of the continuation of massive military support from the United States in Kiev, Joe Biden having requested a new envelope of 60 billion dollars.

The text requested by the Democrat, which also includes funds for Israel and Taiwan, was approved in mid-February by the Senate.

But its final adoption is still dependent on the goodwill of Donald Trump's supporters in the House — who refuse as it stands 'examine the text.

“I hope that the voice of Poland will change the attitude” of the Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, declared the Prime Minister on Tuesday Minister Donald Tusk. “He must know that the future of millions of people and thousands of lives in Ukraine depend on his decision.”

President Duda met Tuesday with Mike Johnson and the leader of the Democratic minority in the House, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the middle of an election year in the United States, the issue has turned into a standoff between Joe Biden and his predecessor.

Former President Donald Trump, candidate in the November election, is opposed to the validation of new funds for Kiev, believing that the States -United States had to “stop giving money without expecting to be reimbursed”. He claims that if he were re-elected in November, he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours” — without really explaining how.

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