While in Poland in order to meet with a group of foreign leaders concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris busted out into laughter in the middle of a press conference after being questioned about whether or not the U.S. will create a space for Ukrainian refugees to flee to America.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and Harris were questioned about the U.S. taking on Ukrainian refugees which prompted a very awkward stint of giggling from the vice president before Duda glanced over and started to issue a genuine answer to the serious questions, with more than 2 million refugees trying to flee Ukraine, a good chunk of them headed to Poland.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” stated Harris between giggles with a smile on her face just slightly before a far more somber Duda stated that he had asked the U.S. vice president to assist in the speeding up of the process for Ukrainian refugees. that had family already in the U.S., to be able more rapidly head directly to America.
.@VP Harris awkwardly starts laughing when asked about the Ukrainian refugee crisis pic.twitter.com/SIHhiLbK6X
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 10, 2022
“We are looking for international support because indeed the vast majority of Ukrainian refugees are coming to our country,” stated Duda. Harris feel just short of stating that the U.S. will make the commitment of taking in a number of Ukrainian refugees seeking to flee the war.
Instead, she ended up stating that Ukrainians who were already inside the U.S. who have visas about to expire soon are going to be allowed to stay in the country. “We will not send them back to what is a war zone,” claimed Harris.
She went on to state that the U.S. will issue aid to Poland, stating: “As we have said many times through our work collectively in the UN through NATO, we will support Poland in terms of the burden it is facing and our collective responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of these refugees.”
“During her trip to Warsaw, Poland, today, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced nearly $53 million in new humanitarian assistance from the United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to support innocent civilians affected by Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine. This additional assistance includes support to the UN World Food Program (WFP) to provide lifesaving emergency food assistance to meet immediate needs of hundreds of thousands affected by the invasion, including people who are displaced from their homes and who are crossing the border out of Ukraine. In addition, it will support WFP’s logistics operations to move assistance into Ukraine, including to people in Kyiv,” stated White House officials as part of a release.
“The United States is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has provided $159 million in overall humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since October 2020, including nearly $107 million in the past two weeks in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This includes food, safe drinking water, shelter, emergency health care, and winterization services to communities affected by ongoing fighting. To date, two million people have been forced to flee Ukraine due to the conflict, and an estimated one million are displaced inside Ukraine. At least 12 million people are in need of humanitarian aid across Ukraine. The United States continues to stand with the people of Ukraine and will continue to work to meet immediate needs and save lives,” concluded the statement from the White House.