July 6 (UPI) — A day before his scheduled bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump warned against Russian aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Speaking to a jubilant crowd in Warsaw, the Polish capital, on Thursday, Trump warned Russia to stop fomenting violence in eastern Ukraine and end its support for the government of Syria and Iran.
“We urge Russia to cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere, and its support for hostile regimes — including Syria and Iran — and to instead join the community of responsible nations in our fight against common enemies and in defense of civilization itself,” Trump said.
Trump, making his second trip abroad since taking office, spoke to a crowd in Warsaw’s Krasinski Square, near a monument to the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. At several points he was interrupted with chants of “Don-ald Trump!”
Prior to the speech, Trump laid flowers at the monument, which memorializes the fight Poles and, in particular, Polish Jews waged against their Nazis occupiers as they began emptying a massive Jewish ghetto to concentration camps constructed in the Polish countryside.
Unlike in his first trip to Europe in May for a meeting of NATO allies, this time Trump explicitly endorsed Article 5 of the NATO treaty, the all-for-one, one-for-all defense agreement, pledging U.S. support for all NATO allies who are attacked.
Though he praised the Polish government for its level of defense spending, Trump has made waves with other NATO allies who have not met the agreed upon financial commitments on their militaries. Failing to explicitly endorse Article 5 previously left some to question whether the United States would withhold military support for financial reasons.
“To those who would criticize our tough stance, I would point out that the United States has demonstrated not merely with words but with its actions that we stand firmly behind Article 5, the mutual defense commitment,” Trump said. “Words are easy, but actions are what matters. And for its own protection … Europe must do more. Europe must demonstrate that it believes in its future by investing its money to secure that future.”
