Biden speaks to troops in Poland: ‘We’re at an inflection point’
Biden on Friday traveled to southeastern Poland where he met with U.S. troops before a scheduled meeting with aid workers assisting refugees in a country on the front lines of the humanitarian and military crisis unfolding in Ukraine.
“What you’re engaged in is much more than just whether or not you can alleviate the pain and suffering of the people in Ukraine. We’re in a new phase, your generation, we’re at an inflection point,” Biden told the troops.
Biden spoke with the U.S. troops in Rzeszow who began arriving at the military base there last month as part of U.S. deterrence efforts against Russia. The president made small talk and shook hands with a group of service members, whom he called the “finest fighting force in the history of the world,” at one point sitting down to join them for a slice of pizza in the mess hall.
“You are the organizing principle around which the rest of the world, the free world, is moving,” Biden said. “We’re in the midst of, and I don’t want to sound too philosophic here, but you’re in the midst of a fight between democracies and oligarchs.”
Claims of mass deportations in Ukraine evoke painful history
The reports have filtered out for days: Mass kidnappings, forced deportations, Ukrainians spirited across the border to Russia.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said Thursday that 6,000 residents of the besieged city of Mariupol had been “forcibly deported” by Russian forces — stripped of their passports and identity documents — and taken to Russia as “hostages.”
Like much in this war, the claims have been impossible to independently verify. A statement from the foreign ministry Thursday echoed allegations and details released by Mariupol’s city council in recent days, stating that “several thousand” of its residents had been taken to “filtration camps” in Russia before being “redirected to remote cities.”
Russia, in turn, has cited the “evacuations” of more than 380,000 people from Ukraine to its territory.
Communications are sporadic or down, and no foreign journalists are left in the city. That’s meant relying on the rare videos that have emerged from the city — and on the testimony of those who’ve managed to escape.
Yet the language — “filtration camps” — and the imagery of mass deportations are particularly resonant, evoking a dark chapter in Russian history.
Swiss adopt more E.U. sanctions against Russia
The Swiss government announced Friday it has decided to adopt more European Union sanctions against Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland will now prohibit the export of goods and related services for the Russian energy sector, the government said in a statement. “Also prohibited is the participation in businesses active in the energy sector and the provision of loans or other financial resources to such businesses,” the statement said.
The government will also ban iron and steel goods imports from Russia and block the export of luxury goods and maritime navigation goods to the country. In the financial sector, Swiss transactions with certain Russian state-owned firms will be barred.
Polish president’s plane makes emergency landing in Warsaw on way to meet Biden
The plane carrying Polish President Andrzej Duda to eastern Poland to meet President Joe Biden made an emergency landing in Warsaw, the Polish state-run news agency PAP reported Friday, citing an adviser to Duda.
Duda awaited the departure of a reserve plane to Rzeszow, where he was expected to welcome Biden, according to PAP.
Ukrainian mother of 2 displaced by war: ‘Pray that we win sooner’
Yulia Zhdanova, a Ukrainian mother of two, fled her home in Chernihiv amid Russian bombing. She is now trying to survive in western Ukraine, where she described her…
Read More: Biden speaks to troops in Poland, where millions have sought refuge