Poland[/B] will be visited by Joe Biden later today, after his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen. The US president will visit the neighbouring country of Ukraine, which has received the most refugees who have fled the country since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
In an analysis by CNN, it explains the reasons for Biden's visit to Poland. Among other things, the article points out that if there is one nation that understands the martyrdom of Ukraine, it is Poland, which is welcoming the US president as part of his extraordinary mission to strengthen NATO's defense in the wake of Russia's invasion.
In the United States, Biden's warnings that democracy is under siege by threatening authoritarian leaders may seem distant, even after former President Donald Trump's revolt on the US Capitol and attempt to steal the 2020 election, CNN notes.
But in Poland, which neighbors Ukraine, freedom is "fresh" enough to still be a novelty. In a tortured 20th century history, the country - torn between East and West - has been repeatedly conquered, ruled by foreign tyrants and seen millions of its people purged or driven as refugees from war-ravaged homes, it points out.
On the front lines of conflict[BR]
Poland is once again on the front lines of conflict. It is on the dividing line between the states of the NATO alliance, to which it now belongs, and President Vladimir Putin's Russian influence, which includes another Polish neighbour, Belarus.[/P]Poland has opened its borders to more than 2 million of the nearly 3.7 million Ukrainians who have fled Putin's assault, and the war came close to its borders with a Russian strike on a base in western Ukraine earlier this month.
Like Ukraine, Poland lived for decades under the iron fist of communist Moscow, CNN reports. Like Ukrainians, Poles are often cruel, deeply suspicious of Russians, and have the fight for freedom and sovereignty deeply ingrained in their DNA.
Under the umbrella of the Warsaw Pact
Unlike Ukraine, one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union, Poland arrived in the West after decades under the umbrella of the Warsaw Pact. And in addition to being a member of NATO, it is also a member of the European Union, though it has recently had tensions with Brussels over its own flirtations with populist nationalism, the article notes.
A frightening prospect[/B][BR]
As Putin's threat has grown in recent years, Poland has hosted both U.S. troops and aircraft. In February, before Putin invaded Ukraine, Poland was one of the states to which Biden ordered 3,000 troops to be deployed to bolster the eastern side of the coalition.[/P]If the war in Ukraine turns into a wider conflict between Russia and the West, a frightening prospect, there is a strong possibility that this could happen in Poland, CNN explains.
Source: cnn/in.gr
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