President Biden apologized on Friday to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for the months-long delay in approving military aid, blaming the conservative Republican opposition. But he promised to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.
“I apologize for the weeks where we didn’t know what was going to be passed, in terms of funding, because we had trouble passing the bill that we had to pass, that had the money,” Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart before the meeting. a private meeting in Paris. “Some of our very conservative members were delaying it.”
But Biden said his administration “finally” got the funding approved and pledged to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
“You are the bulwark against the aggression that is taking place,” he stated. “We are still in. Completely. Thoroughly.”
Biden’s meeting and pledge of support come at a critical moment in the war with Russia, as the two allies look for ways to reverse battlefield momentum that has helped President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces.
Zelensky thanked Biden for what he called “significant support” from the United States as its forces fight Russia, and compared the American effort to the fight against Hitler 80 years ago.
“During World War II, the United States helped save human lives, saved Europe,” Zelensky said. “And we count on your continued support and support, shoulder to shoulder. Thank you so much.”
The two men are taking part in ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which helped turn the tide against Nazi Germany in World War II. Biden will travel later in the day back to Normandy to deliver a speech honoring American soldiers and linking that long-ago war to the current conflict in Ukraine.
The meeting was the first between U.S. and Ukrainian leaders since December, and follows Biden’s decision last week to give Ukraine permission to fire U.S.-supplied weapons into Russian territory. It was a policy change after more than two years of limits aimed at avoiding escalation with a nuclear-powered adversary.
But Biden loosened restrictions only enough to authorize strikes on military targets just across the border in the northeast to defend Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Long-range strikes into Russia remain prohibited.
Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials remain frustrated by the restraint and are seeking more flexibility from Biden. Ukrainians are also disappointed that Biden will not attend a peace summit in Switzerland on June 15 hosted by Zelensky. Instead, Vice President Kamala Harris and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, will attend.
Although it did not fulfill all of Zelensky’s wishes, Biden’s reversal of the use of American weapons against targets inside Russia (a tactic also supported by other NATO countries) provoked a predictably testy response from Putin, who suggested an eye-catching retaliation. per eye
Speaking to reporters in St. Petersburg, Putin suggested this week that such a move meant Russia had “the right to send our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where attacks can be carried out against sensitive facilities of countries.” “They do this against Russia.”
The United States has been the largest arms supplier to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. But Biden has at times been slow to provide more sophisticated weaponry for fear of provoking an escalation with Moscow and Republican leaders of the Camera. He blocked additional military aid for six months, leaving Ukrainian defenders searching for ammunition and weapons just as Russia advanced with ferocious attacks.
Congress finally passed a $61 billion relief package in April and now the guns are flowing again. On Friday, Biden announced a $225 million package that he told Zelensky was designed to “help rebuild the power grid.” U.S. officials said the funding included money for air defenses that could, among other things, defend an energy grid that has been severely degraded by relentless Russian attacks.
The session with Zelensky was the first of two in the coming days for Biden, who also plans to see his Ukrainian counterpart at the Group of 7 meeting late next week in Italy.
“It is a sign of the depth of our commitment to Ukraine at this vital time,” Sullivan told reporters this week. “And this opportunity for the president and Zelensky to sit down twice will really allow them to delve deeper into all aspects and issues of the war.”
Biden’s speech Friday afternoon in Normandy aims to further link the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny with the effort to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression eight decades later, expanding on a theme he articulated at a ceremony Thursday.
He will speak from Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled 100-foot cliffs on D-Day to destroy a suspected German weapons emplacement, one of the most daring moments of the June 6, 1944, invasion of Europe.
In doing so, Biden will follow in the footsteps of President Ronald Reagan, who delivered one of the most memorable speeches of his presidency at Pointe du Hoc in 1984, and similarly defend American leadership and democracy on the world stage in a time of tensions. isolationists at home.