Biden to visit Poland this week

President Joe Biden will travel to Poland on Friday as part of his diplomatic efforts surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war, according to a White House statement late Sunday.

"He will hold a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda," the statement from press secretary Jen Psaki indicated. "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."

Poland shares a border with Ukraine and has been flooded with refugees since the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last month.

Biden is set to travel to Europe on Wednesday and then to meet in Brussels, Belgium, with members of NATO and the European Union. He is not scheduled to visit Ukraine itself.

"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," Psaki tweeted earlier Sunday.

Poland was conquered in 1939 by Germany and the former Soviet Union. After World War II, the victorious Soviets dominated Poland until the conclusion of the Cold War in 1989. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Poland joined NATO in 1999.