INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Joe Biden on Saturday met in Warsaw with two Ukrainian ministers in the first face-to-face talks between the United States president and
top Kyiv officials since Russia's invasion began.Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov made a rare trip out
of Ukraine in 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.Biden could be seen seated at a long white table between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and United States Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin, facing Kuleba and Reznikov, an AFP reporter said.There were Ukrainian and US flags in the background.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.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.On Friday, he met with United States soldiers stationed in Poland near the Ukrainian border and with aid workers
helping refugees fleeing the conflict.He praised Ukrainians for showing "backbone" against the Russian invasion and compared their
resistance to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in China in 1989."This is Tiananmen Square squared," he said.He also referred to
Russian President Vladimir Putin as "a man who, quite frankly, I think is a war criminal"."And I think we'll meet the legal definition of
that as well," he said.Biden said he would have liked to see the devastation caused by the conflict "first-hand"."They won't let me,
understandably I guess, cross the border," he said.Speaking to the troops, he said: "You're in the midst of a fight between democracies and
What you're doing is consequential, really consequential."Later on Saturday, he is due to meet with Polish leaders, visit a reception centre
for refugees and give a major speech on the conflict.
