NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- After a trio of emergency war summits in Brussels, President Biden arrived in Poland Friday for a two-day visit as he continues to rally European allies with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now in its second month. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on his people to keep up their resistance to Russia’s forces, saying “every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live.” Russia confirmed more than 1,300 of its soldiers have died in the war so far. And Kyiv and Moscow gave conflicting accounts of whether hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens are being moved to Russia willingly or whether they’re being forcibly funneled there through “filtration camps” in Ukraine's separatist-controlled east.
Friday, March 25, 2022
10:20 a.m. - Biden arrives in Poland for 2-day visit, eats pizza with US soldiers
President Joe Biden arrived in Poland on Friday with a stop in the eastern Polish city of Rzeszow.
The president touched down at Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport after 2 p.m. local time.
Polish President Andrzej Duda was unable to welcome Biden on his arrival in Rzeszow due a technical problem with the Polish presidential plane taking him from Warsaw.
Jakub Kumoch, a top adviser to Duda, said Friday that the Polish presidential plane had to make an emergency landing in Warsaw. The plane landed safely and Duda was waiting for a replacement plane.
Biden's first stop was with members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, visiting a barber shop and dining facility set up for the troops, where he invited himself to sit down and share some pizza. The Americans are serving alongside Polish troops.
"Well, if you're starting to eat, I'm gonna sit down and have something to eat," Biden said before eating pizza with soldiers.
With the troops, Biden shared an anecdote about visiting his late son, Beau Biden, while he was deployed in Baghdad and going by his mother’s maiden name so as not to draw attention to himself. The president jokingly razzed one service member about his standard-issue short haircut and seriously praised the troops, too.
“You are the finest fighting force in the world and that's not hyperbole,” Biden said before sitting down on a folding chair to eat with the group.
Biden will depart Rzeszów for Warsaw around 5:45 p.m. local time. He’ll arrive in the Polish capital about an hour later, landing at the Warsaw Chopin Airport.
On Saturday, Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Duda in Warsaw. He’s also scheduled to deliver remarks “on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.”
10 a.m. - Russia confirms over 1,300 of its soldiers have died in Ukraine
The deputy head of Russia’s military general staff says that 1,351 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine.
Col.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi also said Friday that 3,825 have been wounded.
NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine.
The Russian figure did not appear to include the Moscow-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine, and it was not clear whether the toll encompassed Russian forces not part of the Defense Ministry, such as the National Guard.
7:30 a.m. - Biden headed to Poland as Europe trip continues
President Biden’s visit to Poland as his final stop in Europe this week offers a chance to underscore the U.S. commitment to protect a key NATO member on Ukraine’s doorstep, and thank Poles for their generous welcome to refugees fleeing Russia's invasion.
The two-day visit starting Friday follows a trio of emergency war summits in Brussels. It brings Biden to a country that has accepted the lion’s share of the more than 3.5 million Ukrainians who have fled the month-old war. More than 2.2 million have entered Poland and many propose to stay there.
Poland also hosts thousands of additional U.S. troops, beyond the thousands deployed on a rotational basis since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014.
President Andrzej Duda, who is allied with a right-wing political party accused of eroding democratic norms, and who clearly preferred former President Trump to Biden, is set to welcome his American counterpart to Rzeszow, a city some 45 miles from the border with Ukraine.
Biden plans to be briefed there on the humanitarian efforts to help Ukrainians and to meet with U.S. troops.
Before Biden returns to Washington on Saturday, he is expected to address the Polish people.
The White House said he would “deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.”
7:15 a.m. - Russia is facing 'total war' from West: Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia is facing total war declared by the West.
Lavrov said at a meeting on Friday that “a real hybrid war, total war was declared on us.” He said the goal was “to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole.”
During the first month of what Russia describes as a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the West imposed tough measures targeting Russia’s economy and financial system as well as President Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs.
Despite that, Lavrov said Russia was not isolated.
“We have many friends, allies, partners in the world, a huge number of associations in which Russia is working with countries of all continents, and we will continue to do so,” Lavrov said. He added that the vast majority of states won’t join the Western sanctions policy against Russia.
7 a.m. - 300 people were killed in Russian strike on Mariupol theater-turned-bomb-shelter
The government of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol says 300 people died in a Russian airstrike on March 16 on a theater being used as a bomb shelter.
The post Friday on the city government Telegram channel cited eyewitnesses for the toll of “about 300.” It was not immediately clear whether emergency workers had finished excavating the site or how the eyewitnesses arrived at the horrific death toll.
When the theater was struck, an enormous inscription reading “CHILDREN” was posted outside in Russian, intended to be visible from the skies above.
Soon after the airstrike, Ludmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament’s human rights commissioner, said more than 1,300 people had been sheltering in the building.
Meanwhile, Mariupol’s city government said the Kremlin's main political party has opened a political office in a shopping mall on the outskirts of the besieged city. According to the post on the city’s Telegram channel, the United Russia office is distributing promotional materials as well as mobile phone cards for an operator that functions in the nearby Russia-backed separatist regions.
6:30 a.m. - US, EU announce new partnership to undercut Russian energy
The United States and the European Union have announced a new partnership to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian energy. Top officials characterized the step as the start of a years-long initiative to further isolate Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden asserted Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin uses energy to “coerce and manipulate his neighbors” and uses the profits from its sale to “drive his war machine.”
Biden said the partnership he announced jointly with a top European Union official will turn that dynamic on its head by reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian energy sources, as well as the continent’s demand for gas overall.
Under the plan, the U.S. and other nations will increase liquified natural gas exports to Europe by 15 billion cubic meters this year. Even larger shipments would be delivered in the future.
At the same time, they will try to keep their climate goals on track by powering gas infrastructure with clean energy and reducing methane leaks that can worsen global warming.
6:30 a.m. - Zelenskyy tells Ukraine ‘we can’t stop’ as war enters 2nd month
With the war headed into its second month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of hope and determination in his nighttime video address to the nation late Thursday.
“It is already night. But we are working,” he said in a quiet voice. “The country must move toward peace, move forward. With every day of our defense, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We are getting closer to victory. … We can’t stop even for a minute. For every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live.”
He reported on his conversations that day with leaders of NATO and European Union countries gathered in Brussels, and their promises of even more sanctions on Russia.
“We need to look for peace,” he said. “Russia also needs to look for peace.”
Zelenskyy also thanked EU leaders for working together to support Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia, including Germany’s decision to block Russia from delivering natural gas to Europe through the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But he lamented that these steps weren’t taken earlier, saying there was a chance Russia would have thought twice about invading.
6 a.m. - Ukraine says more than 400,000 of its citizens have been forcibly taken to Russia
Kyiv and Moscow gave conflicting accounts about whether people were being moved to Russia willingly or whether they were being coerced or manipulated.
Ukraine officials say Russian troops are confiscating passports from Ukrainian citizens then moving them to “filtration camps” in Ukraine’s separatist-controlled east before sending them to various distant, economically depressed areas in Russia.
Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, were moved against their will. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said 6,000 of those forced to Russia were from the devastated port city of Mariupol, and 15,000 more people in a section of Mariupol under Russian control have had their identifying documents confiscated.
But Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said the roughly 400,000 people evacuated to Russia since the start of the war were from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting for control for nearly eight years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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