US President Joe Biden will meet - today, Wednesday - in Warsaw with 9 leaders of Eastern and Central Europe, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to confirm Washington's "steadfast" support for them, in the wake of Vladimir Putin's fiery speech on Tuesday.
And the White House stated - in a statement - that Biden "will meet with the leaders of Bucharest 9 (B9), in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, to reaffirm the firm support of the United States for the security of the alliance."
These nine countries - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - are all former Soviet republics or members of the Cold War-led Warsaw Pact, located on NATO's eastern flank.
The meeting, which is being held at the presidential palace in Warsaw, aims to reassure these nine countries, following a stern attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he pledged to continue the war he launched nearly a year ago against Ukraine, and also announced Russia's suspension of the Russian-American "New START" treaty. Nuclear disarmament, recalling the darkest stages of the Cold War.
But the Russian Foreign Ministry toned down Putin's announcement, stressing - in a statement - that "Russia intends to adhere to a responsible approach, and will continue to strictly comply with the quantitative restrictions on strategic offensive weapons stipulated in the treaty."
Putin called on Russian forces to be "ready to test nuclear weapons" if the United States did so first.
The Russian president stressed that the West wants to "inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, that is, to eliminate us completely," blaming Washington and its European allies for "the responsibility for fueling the Ukrainian conflict and (falling) its victims."
"NATO will not weaken and will not be divided"
On the other hand, Biden responded on the same day in a speech he delivered in Warsaw - the day after his unannounced visit to Kiev - that "the West is not conspiring to attack Russia as Putin said" and "millions of Russian citizens all they want is to live in peace with their neighbors, not the enemy."
The US President affirmed that their support for Ukraine "will not weaken, and NATO will not be divided or tired," stressing that "Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia... never (...) Ukraine will remain free."
He also said that "when Putin ordered his forces to invade Kiev a year ago, he thought that we would stand idly by, but he misunderstood," stressing that the United States' commitment to the Ukrainian people and Ukraine's sovereignty is unwavering, and that "democracy will inevitably triumph," and he believed that "delusions." Putin has dissipated after a year of war.