U.S. President Joe Biden continued his visit to Poland on Friday (March 25) with a briefing from aid agencies about the refugee crisis unfolding in the region.
Staff from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) briefed the president on the humanitarian response to help civilians sheltering from Russian attacks inside Ukraine and to respond to the growing flow of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
Poland has taken in more than 2.23 million people fleeing violence in Ukraine, out of some 3.7 million all together who have poured over borders across central Europe during the last four weeks.
Speaking alongside his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, Biden used the opportunity to call for unity amongst democracies.
“The single most important thing that we can do from the outset is keep the democracies united in our opposition and our effort to curtail the devastation that is occurring at the hands of a man whom I quite frankly think is a war criminal – and I think he’ll meet the legal definition of that as well,” he said.
Biden was also joined by USAID Administrator Samantha Powers and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
Later on Friday evening, Biden travelled to the capital Warsaw for talks with Duda.
(Production: Lewis Macdonald, Thomas Holdstock)