Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Saturday (March 26) during his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Warsaw he had asked about the possibility of speeding up military purchases. Duda said he was referring to purchases of Patriot missile systems, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), F-35 aircrafts and Abrams tanks.
"We reminded the president (U.S. President Joe Biden) about the possible acceleration of these programmes of (weapons) purchases which have been made. I repeat that we will receive the first Patriot anti-missile systems within this year, we will soon receive HIMARS artillery systems, we will receive F-35 aircrafts, the newest generation of fighter planes, and the last purchase finalised from the side of the United States is 250 Abrams tanks, also of the new generation, so these are very extensive purchases," President Andrzej Duda said after meeting with Joe Biden on Saturday.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who met Biden during a tour of a refugee reception centre, said Poland was talking to various leaders about help for Poland to meet the needs of Ukrainian refugees who had fled, including relocating those who wished to leave Poland.
"Possibly there will be a further wave of refugees, and that's why we are talking to different leaders, today of course with President Joe Biden, about the ways (he) can also help the Poles to help other people. The United States has declared it would take 100,000 people," Morawiecki said on Saturday.
"It is necessary to say that we are not talking about (forced) relocation, simply if someone wishes to stay, then they can stay. If someone wishes to travel on further, they can. There are also those who go back (to Ukraine) such as men who go back to fight for Ukraine. And so this process will also rely on the U.S. authorities, on their decision about who they will take," he added.
While visiting the refugee reception centre, U.S. President Joe Biden lifted up and took a selfie with a Ukrainian refugee girl.
"I don't speak Ukrainian but tell her I want to take her home," Biden told onlookers while holding her.
He then went on to say that he himself has four granddaughters at home "who love their grandpop very much".
Biden is in Poland to show support for the NATO alliance's eastern flank in the face of the Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
More than 2 million people have fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine to Poland, out of the roughly 3.8 million who have left Ukraine all together.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters