By Simon Lewis
RZESZOW, Poland (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Poland’s prime minister and foreign minister on Saturday in the Polish city of Rzeszow, near to the Ukrainian border that hundreds of thousands of people have crossed since Russia began invading Ukraine.
Speaking before a visit to a border crossing, Blinken praised Poland for its response to Russia’s actions. Poland, a NATO member state, is hosting roughly 10,000 U.S. troops, with more than half arriving in recent weeks.
“Poland is doing vital work to respond to this crisis… It has done a great deal to facilitate security assistance to Ukraine,” he said at a joint news conference with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau.
The State Department said Blinken would discuss security and humanitarian assistance in response to the invasion and thank Poland for welcoming those displaced by the fighting in Ukraine.
The number of refugees could rise to 1.5 million by the end of the weekend from a current 1.3 million, the head of the United Nations refugee agency said on Saturday.
‘ILLEGAL AGGRESSION’
Rau said Poland would continue to welcome refugees regardless of nationality, race and religion: “The attack on Ukraine already transformed Europe and its sense of security.”
He also said Poland would not accept any territorial changes brought about by “unprovoked, illegal aggression”.
Russia describes its actions as “a special military operation”, not an invasion, and says its aim is to disarm Ukraine, counter what it views as NATO aggression and capture Ukrainian leaders it calls neo-Nazis.
Blinken arrived in Poland from Brussels, where he met foreign ministers from the NATO alliance, the G7 grouping and the European Union on Friday to discuss the West’s efforts to deter Russia through a programme of harsh sanctions.
In Poland, he will also meet a bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation led by Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Gregory Meeks, a Democrat, and including the committee’s ranking Republican Michael McCaul.
NATO members are providing military aid to Ukraine’s government forces for their fight against Russia’s military, much of it passing through Poland.
But the alliance has declined Ukrainian demands to enforce a no-fly zone over the country, saying this could provoke a much broader and even more dangerous conflict.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Catherine Evans and Gareth Jones)
