WARSAW—US President Joe Biden and European leaders in Warsaw vowed to strengthen defenses “from the Baltic to the Black Sea”, as the UN General Assembly prepared to vote Thursday for “lasting” peace on the eve of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nearly a year after Russian forces rolled into Ukraine, Biden on Wednesday attended a meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and the heads of Eastern European countries to shore up support for Kyiv.
The leaders of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia joined the talks amid widespread concern in their countries that the conflict could spill over.
The US leader had arrived in Warsaw after a surprise trip to the Ukrainian capital, during which he promised increased arms deliveries for Ukraine.
In a statement after Wednesday’s meeting, the leaders vowed to further “reinforce our deterrence and defense posture across the entire Eastern flank from the Baltic to the Black Sea.”
Stoltenberg urged allies to step up support for Ukraine, saying: “We cannot allow Russia to continue to chip away at European security”.
In New York, the UN General Assembly met for a special session that was to debate a motion backed by Kyiv and its allies calling for a “just and lasting peace”—which will be brought to a vote Thursday.
“I appeal to you: this is a decisive moment to show support, unity and solidarity,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said at the UN.
“Never in recent history has the line between good and evil been so clear. One country merely wants to live. The other wants to kill and destroy,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s UN ambassador took aim at the West, saying it was “ready to plunge the entire world into the abyss of war” to defeat Russia.
‘Historical lands’
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a patriotic rally Wednesday, telling a crowd of tens of thousands that Russia was fighting “for our historical lands, for our people”.
The day before, the Russian leader had announced the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty and promised to press on with the campaign in Ukraine during a state of the nation address.
Biden called the decision a “big mistake”, while news agency Ukrinform reported that a Ukrainian representative said Russia’s “nuclear terrorism threatens the whole world”.