Biden meets Ukrainian ministers in first face-to-face meeting since Russia's invasion

US President Joe Biden met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov on Saturday in Warsaw, in his first face-to-face meeting with top Ukrainian officials since the start of the war.

Kuleba and Reznikov have made a rare trip out of Ukraine as a possible sign of growing confidence in the fightback against Russian forces.

The meeting took place at the Marriott Hotel in the city centre,opposite a Warsaw train station where there has been a constant flow of Ukrainian refugees since the conflict started.

Moresecurity assurances

''We did receive additional promises from the United States on how our defence co-operation will evolve,"Kulebatold reporters.

Kulebasaid they were working with international organisations to get information on Ukrainians that have been evacuated to Russia “by force”, and also to prevent companies providing elements use in weapons to Russia.

"(When) our defenders capture enemy soldiers and their equipment, we discover especially vulnerable instruments they use in fighting against us... And we see which companies produce this or that detail or element, we inform our partners and prepare the next wave of sanctions against those foreign companies that deliver to Russia."

Biden last met Kuleba in Washington on February 22,two days before Russia began its assault. Since then, Kuleba has also met with Blinken in Poland next to the border with Ukraine on March 5.

Warsaw, the backdrop for the remarks, was until the collapse of communist rule in 1989 behind the Iron Curtain for four decades, under Soviet influence and a member of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact security alliance.

Now, Poland is the biggest formerly communist member of the European Union and NATO, the security alliance founded to counter the Soviet Union.

The rise of rightwing populism in Poland in recent years has put it in conflict with the European Union and Washington, but the threat of Russia pressing beyond its borders has drawn Poland closer to its Western neighbours.

Labels Putin a 'butcher'

Bidenbranded Russian President Vladimir Putin a "butcher" during a meeting with refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine to the Polish capital.

He added that Putin could not remain in power, and his war against Ukraine has been a strategic failure for Moscow.

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden told a crowd in Warsaw. Biden also said the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its second month, had united the West, adding that NATO was a defensive alliance that never sought Russia's demise.

"The West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been," Biden told hundreds of Polish elected officials, students and U.S. embassy staff, many holding U.S., Polish and Ukrainian flags.

"We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead."

Biden, who took office last year after a violently contested election, vowed to restore democracy at home and unite democracies abroad to confront autocrats including the Russian president and China's leader Xi Jinping.

Putin's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a "special operation", has tested that promise and threatened to inaugurate a new Cold War three decades after the Soviet Union unravelled.

Biden is on the second and final day of a visit to Poland after he met with EU and NATO leaders in Brussels earlier in the week.

Washington, seeking to avoid a direct conflict with Russia, rejected a surprise offer by Poland to transfer Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to a US base in Germany to be used to replenish Ukraine's air force.

Now, Poland wants to accelerate the purchase of US.-made Patriot missiles, F35 fighter jets and tanks for its own security, and seek reassurance on NATO commitments to defend its members.

"Above all, we want the unshakable guarantee that the United States provides within the framework of the alliance," the head of the National Security Bureau, Pawel Soloch, said on Friday.

"Especially here, to Poland and the countries of the region. If there was an attack on Poland, the USA would defend Poland."

The USand many of its allies have imposed multiple rounds of economic and other sanctions on Russian individuals, banks, and other entities in hopes that the cumulative effect over time will force Putin to withdraw his troops.

(With inputs from agencies)