KORCHOWA, Poland — Following a line of refugees heading for Poland, senior US and Ukrainian diplomats met at the border with Ukraine on Saturday to assess what additional support and protection the United States can provide in response to Russia’s invasion. which seemed bound to continue.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba thanked US Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken for “literally coming here to Ukraine.” The two men stood at the border, where within an hour hundreds of refugees crossed on foot into Poland in chilling temperatures.
For Mr. Blinken, this brief meeting was an opportunity to take stock of the humanitarian catastrophe — the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II — caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his invasion of Ukraine.
For Mr. Kuleba, it was a moment to remind the world once again, in harsh terms, of the possibility of prolonged conflict with a large number of deaths and the destruction of the global order if foreign aid does not meet the requirements of Ukraine.
“Ukraine will win this war,” Mr. Kuleba said after the meeting, which was kept secret for hours after it ended so he could safely return to Ukraine. “The question is the price of our victory. And if our partners continue to make bold systemic decisions to increase economic and political pressure on Russia, if they continue to supply us with the necessary weapons, the price will be lower.”
“This will save many lives in Ukraine, many houses; many children will be born, much suffering will be avoided,” he said. “That’s the only issue on the agenda.”
Mr. Blinken said the Biden administration was keen to send at least $2.75 billion in additional humanitarian aid to Ukraine and countries that have hosted more than a million refugees to date. “We are in this with Ukraine — one way or another, in the short, medium and long term,” he said, adding that he was “enthusiastic” about Ukrainian resistance to Moscow’s much larger armed forces.
But Mr Kuleba has again urged NATO forces to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect it from Russian bombing, a move that the Biden administration and its allies fear will drag them into a larger war.
The global pressure on Russia to resign — backed up by devastating economic sanctions against the government of Mr Putin and his allies and the supply of arms and military equipment to Kyiv — “will not only continue, but will intensify until this war of choice is brought to end.” the end,” said Mr. Blinken. He said the United States and its allies are “again looking at everything” to support Ukraine.
“The world is here; peace be with you,” Mr. Blinken told Mr. Kuleba.
Mr. Blinken has repeatedly noted the rise in deaths in Ukraine, sometimes describing them in graphic terms, over the past few days to highlight the war for Americans who may feel unaffected by its violence. He witnessed his despair firsthand on Saturday at the border crossing, where the sounds of babies crying and truck engines broke the stunned silence among most of the incoming refugees, who trembled as border guards led them in small groups to a processing center just inside Poland.
Updated
March 5, 2022 8:23 pm ET
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has estimated that up to a million refugees from Ukraine had fled to Poland alone by the end of this weekend. As of Saturday afternoon, the number was 700,000, and many of those who fled arrived at the Korčova-Krakovec crossing. In total, as of Friday, more than 1.3 million refugees left Ukraine for neighboring countries.
The queue of Ukrainians trudging to Poland included refugees leading children by the hand or carrying a lone backpack or suitcase full of their belongings.
“We walked to the border, I don’t know how many hours,” said 12-year-old Venera Ahmadi, whose family left Kyiv after “we heard the bombs” and stopped at a nearby refugee reception center in Korchova. .
“I was afraid that I would die,” said Venus’ older sister, Jasmine Ahmadi.
Mr. Blinken met with some of the new arrivals at the reception center, where they were given hot meals and rested on cots pushed together in what was a shopping center only a week ago. Mr Rau said there were about 3,000 Ukrainians there on Saturday, and that number, he said, was increasing every day.
The latest tranche of humanitarian aid is part of the Biden administration’s $10 billion request to Congress for additional funds for Ukraine.
Arriving Saturday morning in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow, Mr. Blinken was greeted by Democrats and Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who also came to see what else the United States could provide.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to help the Ukrainian people,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat and chairman of the committee. The top Republican in the group, Texas Representative Michael McCall, nodded in agreement.
Since the invasion, the United States has already sent more than $54 million in aid, including water, 20,000 thermal blankets and medical supplies, to 100,000 people over the next three months, Mr. Blinken said.
After meeting with Mr. Blinken in Rzeszow, Mr. Rau said that Russian attacks on civilians and nuclear power plants in Ukraine amounted to war crimes. He demanded that Russia be strongly held accountable and said he raised the issue of joint efforts by Poland and the US to do so. “The pursuit of war criminals is an element of the common memory of mankind,” he told reporters in Rzeszow. “This is our common responsibility.”
Mr. Kuleba said it was not clear what state Ukraine would be in when the fighting ceased — whenever that might happen — and noted that even limited efforts to secure a ceasefire in at least two Ukrainian cities for humanitarian access had failed. success.
“But any war ends with diplomacy and negotiations, so we must continue negotiations,” Mr. Kuleba said.
He added: “Thousands of people in Ukraine are sacrificing their lives – men, women, old people, young people – to defend the country. When we win, and I have no doubt about it, we will build a new Ukraine. And this country will be even better than the one that Russia destroyed.”