The White House on Friday said that US President Joe Biden, who will be in Poland to discuss the Ukraine crisis with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, will visit the town of Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine. This comes a day after the Democrat arrived in Belgium on a 4-day Europe visit.

In a statement, the White House said,”President Biden will be greeted by Polish President Duda in Rzeszow, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Ukrainian border.”

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While the US President’s travel to Poland was pre-scheduled as part of his emergency visit to Europe, this is for the first time that the White House has disclosed the specifics of his planned stay in the European nation.

Poland is sheltering several refugees from Ukraine, who fled as a result of the war. The visit to Rzeszow will also make Biden the second top US official to travel to the town; secretary of state Antony Blinken was there earlier this month to meet the refugees.

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Meanwhile, Biden, in the first leg of his emergency visit, attended emergency summits of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Group of 7, in Brussels, on Thursday. 

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Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin, while announcing the offensive, described it as a ‘special military operation.’ He has repeatedly justified the invasion, saying it is necessary to ‘deNazify’ Ukraine.