Blinken visits Poland as Russia’s conflict in Ukraine intensifies

Blinken met Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau a day after attending a NATO international ministers’ assembly in Brussels at which the alliance pledged to step up help for jap flank members like Poland to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Though NATO has dominated out establishing a no-fly zone over non-member Ukraine, it has considerably boosted each army and humanitarian help. Rzeszow is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Ukraine border and its airport has develop into a hub for flights carrying such assist.

Blinken stated his go to to Poland was coming at “one of the pressing moments within the lengthy historical past between our two international locations” and stated current deployments of U.S. troopers to the nation would proceed.

Rau stated Poland had already taken in additional than 700,000 refugees from Ukraine and that he anticipated a whole lot of 1000’s extra within the coming weeks except Russia backs down.

“Poland won’t ever acknowledge territorial adjustments led to by unprovoked, illegal aggression,” he stated, including that his nation will demand that alleged Russian conflict crimes dedicated in Ukraine will likely be prosecuted.

Following his assembly with Blinken, Morawiecki stated they’d agreed on the necessity to additional strengthen NATO’s jap flank and strengthen Europe’s safety structure. Poland is looking for extra U.S. forces on its territory, the place there are at present greater than 10,000 American troops.

The 2 males additionally mentioned stepping up sanctions and freezes of property on Russia, which Morawiecki stated needs to be “crushing” for Russia’s economic system. No Russian banks needs to be exempted from the exclusions from the SWIFT system, he stated. At present, all however the largest Russian banks have been kicked off the monetary messaging service.