Two days before the anniversary of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the United States and the states on NATO’s eastern flank are discussing security in the region.
During his visit to Warsaw today, US President Joe Biden will meet with heads of state and government of the so-called “Bucharest 9” format. These include Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will also attend the meeting.
A series of symbolic meetings, trips and addresses continues ahead of the anniversary this Friday. Russia on the one hand and Ukraine and their international supporters on the other want to convey certainty of victory.
Putin blames the West
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the attack on February 24, 2022. He said Tuesday the “military special operation” would continue. That’s what Moscow calls the war. “Step by step, carefully and consistently, we will solve the tasks ahead of us,” said Putin in Moscow in his address to the nation. Once again he blamed the West for the war. As a political warning to the West, Putin suspended the last major nuclear arms control agreement, the 2010 New Start treaty.
Biden responded a few hours later with a speech in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. He warned Russia against an attack on NATO and invoked the strength of the defense alliance. “Every member of NATO knows it, and Russia knows it too: an attack against one is an attack against all. It is a sacred oath to defend every inch of NATO territory,” said the US President. Support for Ukraine will not waver either. “NATO will not be divided and we will not tire,” said Biden. He announced new sanctions against Russia.
Biden drove to the war zone in Kiev under strict security precautions on Monday. There he assured the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyj the continued support of the USA.
Biden visits Kiev and Warsaw
Polish President Andrzej Duda thanked Biden for his visit to Kiev during a meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday. That boosted the morale of the Ukrainian defenders. “But it was also a remarkable gesture towards our allies in NATO and the people who are on the side of the free world,” said Duda.
The Polish President underlined the importance of the presence of US troops for the security of his country. According to the Defense Ministry in Washington, there are already around 11,000 US soldiers in the eastern NATO and EU member state, most of them on a rotation basis. The government in Warsaw is hoping for even more US military presence.
Biden thanked Poland for supporting Ukraine so actively. No other country has taken in as many war refugees from Ukraine as Poland. Not only does it provide military aid itself, a large part of the arms deliveries from other countries to Ukraine are also handled on Polish territory.
Warsaw plays a key role
This gives Warsaw a kind of leadership role on NATO’s eastern flank. Duda’s foreign policy adviser Marcin Przydacz said before the meeting on Wednesday: “The fact that eight leaders from this region and the NATO Secretary General are arriving today at the invitation of President Andrezej Duda shows that Warsaw is in a certain sense the center of the discussion about security in this region.”
NATO and the USA already strengthened the eastern flank after 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and started the war in eastern Ukraine. With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the fears of countries in Central Eastern Europe have only increased. You are among the most determined supporters of Ukraine. An exception is Hungary, which under Prime Minister Viktor Orban continues to have close ties to Moscow.
