Biden visits U.S. troops in Poland

STORY: U.S. President Joe Biden landed in Poland on Friday to get a first hand look at American troop readiness and the humanitarian toll from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We're in the midst of, and I don't want to sound too philosophical, but you're in the midst of a fight between democracies and oligarchs."

His first visit was to U.S. soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division at a base in eastern Poland.

Several thousand American forces reinforced NATO allies here and in Romania ahead of the Russian assault.

And Biden repeatedly pledged to defend every square inch of territory under the transatlantic treaty.

He shared pizza with soldiers and snapped selfies, before meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda and receiving an humanitarian briefing on the wave of Ukrainian refugees now sheltering in this country.

Poland has taken in nearly two-and-a-quarter million people fleeing violence in Ukraine... out of an estimated 3.7 million who have fled across borders over the last four weeks.

Biden again accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes in Ukraine.

"The single most important thing that we can do from the outset is keep the democracies united in our opposition in our effort to curtail the devastation that is occurring at the hands of a man who, I quite frankly think is a war criminal."

Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" to disarm its neighbor, and denies its soldiers target civilians.

Kyiv and its Western allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression and say Russia's true aim was to overthrow the government of what President Vladimir Putin regards as an illegitimate state.