President Joe Biden visited U.S. troops stationed near Poland's border with Ukraine on Friday and was getting a first hand look at the growing humanitarian response to the millions of Ukrainians who are fleeing to Poland to escape Russia's assault on their homeland.
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.
He arrived Friday afternoon at the airport in Rzeszow, the largest city in southeastern Poland, where some U.S. troops are based.
With the troops, he 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.
He later addressed a group of soldiers in more formal remarks, telling them the nation "owes you big." Biden also borrowed the words of the late Secretary of State Madeline Albright to underscore their place in a fragile moment for the U.S. and its European allies.
"The secretary of state used to have an expression. She said, 'We are the essential nation,’” Biden told the troops. "I don't want to sound philosophical here, but you are in midst of a fight between democracy and an an oligarch.”
He will be in Warsaw on Saturday for talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda and others. The Polish leader was to welcome Biden at the airport on Friday, but his plane was delayed by a technical problem.
The European Union says some 3.5 million Ukrainians, half of them children have fled the country, with more than 2.2 million ending up in Poland.
The U.S. Congress this month approved spending more than $13 billion on humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine. The administration has begun allocating those funds.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will hear directly from the American troops and humanitarian experts about the situation on the ground and "what further steps need to be taken to make sure that we're investing" U.S. dollars in the right place.