US President Joe Biden will arrive in Poland on March 25 as part of his European tour to bolster the West’s unity against Russia and to show support for Ukraine, the White House said on March 20.

Biden will meet his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, the first official meeting of the two leaders. Following Russia’s attack on Ukraine on February 24, Poland has become Nato’s frontline country and a focus of the alliance’s effort to strengthen its deterrence capacity. Warsaw is also one of the EU's hawks in terms of response to the Russian aggression, advocating an embargo on Russian oil, gas, and coal, as well halting all trade with Russia and its ally Belarus.

Poland has also taken in more than 2.1mn Ukrainian war refugees, by far the most of the overall 3.5mn refugees that have sought safety in neighbouring countries. 

Biden will fly back to the US immediately after meeting Duda, which ends speculation that he might visit Ukraine.

"The trip will be focused on continuing to rally the world in support of the Ukrainian people and against President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but there are no plans to travel into Ukraine," the White House’s press secretary Jen Psaki said on Twitter.

So far, the only leaders to have gone to Ukraine to offer support were the prime ministers of Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia last week.

While in Warsaw, “the president will discuss how the United States, alongside our allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” Psaki said in a statement. 

Biden will be coming to Poland after taking part in the extraordinary summit of Nato on March 24 as well as meeting the leaders of G7 and the European Union to “discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia for its invasion,” Psaki said of Biden’s European agenda. 

Poland has proposed an international – possibly Nato-led – peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, a surprising idea that has been shunned by top EU political figures like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz or the European Council President Charles Michel. But the US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that while the US will not send its troops to Ukraine, it was up to other Nato members whether to do so. Denmark has also said it might take part.