He predicted that tough negotiations with Ukraine and the West would follow that would culminate in "some kind of agreement." To push back the borders that threaten our country as far as possible, even if they are the borders of Poland," said Medvedev. Poland shares long eastern borders with Ukraine and with Russia's ally Belarus, and a frontier of some 200 km (125 miles) in its northeastern corner with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Any encroachment on Poland's borders would bring Russia for the first time into direct conflict with NATO. U.S. President Joe Biden pledged in a speech in Warsaw this week to defend "every inch" of NATO territory if it was attacked.

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