U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House on Wednesday, pledging ongoing support for Ukraine in fending off Russian aggression while saying that the U.S. would back Ukraine’s efforts to pursue a “just peace.”
In brief remarks before their Oval Office meeting, Biden said the United States and Ukraine would continue to project a “united defence” as Russia wages a “brutal assault on Ukraine’s right to exist as a nation.”
Zelenskyy, speaking in English, thanked Biden with “all my heart” for the support both he and “ordinary Americans” have shown.
He presented Biden with a medal that had been awarded to the Ukrainian captain of a HIMARS battery, a rocket system provided by the U.S.
“He’s very brave, and he said, ‘Give it to a very brave president,'” Zelenskyy said.
Biden called the gift “undeserved but much appreciated.”
Sitting together in the Oval Office at the White House, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as ‘ordinary Americans,’ for the support they’ve shown to the people of Ukraine. He then gave Biden a cross of military merit from a Ukrainian fighter.
The highly sensitive trip is taking place after 10 months of a brutal war that has seen tens of thousands killed and wounded on both sides of the conflict, along with devastation for Ukrainian civilians.
Zelenskyy’s visit was meant to reinvigorate support for his country in the U.S. and around the world, amid concerns that allies are growing weary of the costly war and its disruption to global food and energy supplies.
Americans need to hear directly from Zelenskyy: Biden
Zelenskyy said he wanted to visit earlier and told Biden that his visit now showed the “situation is under control, because of your support.”
“For me as a president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises,” Zelenskyy told reporters. He said the war would end once Ukraine’s sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity were restored, as well as the “payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived Wednesday at the White House and met with U.S. President Joe Biden as part of his first known trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began Feb. 24.
Just before his arrival, the U.S. announced its largest single delivery of arms to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missiles, and Congress planned to vote on a spending package that includes about $45 billion US in emergency assistance to Ukraine.
Russia, Biden said, is “trying to use winter as a weapon, but Ukrainian people continue to inspire the world.” Later, in a joint news conference, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “no intention of stopping this cruel war.”
Biden said it is “important for the American people, and for the world, to hear directly from you, Mr. President, about Ukraine’s fight, and the need to continue to stand together through 2023.”
The Ukrainian president was scheduled to give an address to Congress in the evening, which Vice-President Kamala Harris would attend.
Travelled on U.S. Air Force jet
Biden and Zelenskyy first discussed the idea of a visit to Washington during their most recent phone call, on Dec. 11, and a formal invitation followed three days later, said a senior U.S. administration official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the visit.
Zelenskyy headed abroad after making a daring and dangerous trip on Tuesday to what he called the hottest spot on the 1,300-kilometre front line of the war — the battleground city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s contested Donetsk province. He praised Ukrainian troops for their “courage, resilience and strength” as artillery boomed in the background.
Poland’s private broadcaster, TVN24, said Zelenskyy crossed into Poland early Wednesday on his way to Washington. The station showed footage of what appeared to be Zelenskyy arriving at a train station and being escorted to a motorcade of American SUVs. TVN24 said the video, partially blurred for security reasons, was shot in Przemysl, a Polish border town that has been the arrival point for many refugees fleeing the war.
Officials, citing security concerns, were cagey about Zelenskyy’s travel plans, but a U.S. official confirmed that the Ukrainian leader arrived on a U.S. Air Force jet that landed at Joint Base Andrews, just outside the capital, from the Polish city of Rzeszow.
Patriot missiles seen as escalation by Kremlin
The White House consulted with Zelenskyy on security, including the risk of Russian action while he was briefly out of the country, said a senior U.S. administration official, who declined to detail the measures taken to safeguard the Ukrainian leader. The official briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the visit.
The $1.85-billion U.S. military aid package includes $1 billion in weapons and equipment from Pentagon stocks, including the Patriot battery for the first time, and $850 million in funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Part of the USAI will be used to fund a satellite communications system, which likely will include the crucial SpaceX Starlink satellite network system owned by Elon Musk.
The aid signals an expansion by the U.S. in the kinds of advanced weaponry it will send to Ukraine to bolster its air defences against what has been an increasing barrage of Russian missiles in recent weeks.
Biden has repeated that while the U.S. will arm and train Ukraine, American forces will not be directly engaged in the conflict.
The Kremlin warned on Wednesday that increasing the supply of U.S. arms to Ukraine would aggravate the devastating war in Ukraine, where Putin vowed Russia would achieve its goals.
Speaking during a meeting with his top military brass, Putin said Russia’s military should learn lessons and modernize based on its experiences in Ukraine and that special emphasis would go to developing his country’s nuclear forces, which he described as “the main guarantee of Russia’s sovereignty.”
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu at the same meeting said Russia’s military must expand from its current size of one million personnel to 1.5 million service members, a number that should include 695,000 volunteer contract soldiers. He also said Russia would form new units in the country’s west in view of plans by Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Patriot training could take weeks
It’s not clear exactly when the Patriot missiles would arrive on the front lines in Ukraine, since U.S. troops will have to train Ukrainian forces on how to use the high-tech system. The training could take several weeks and is expected to be done in Germany.
The visit comes at an important moment as the White House braces for greater resistance when Republicans, who have been more lukewarm on the subject of aid for Ukraine, take control of the House of Representatives in January. Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy has said his party’s lawmakers will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine.
Biden and Zelenskyy have frequently talked by phone. The calls have been mostly warm, with Biden praising Ukraine for remaining steadfast against the Russians and Zelenskyy thanking the U.S. president for support.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare admission that things are not going well for the Russians in Eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met his troops in and around the city of Bakhmut, where the fighting is fierce.
The one exception was a June phone call soon after Biden notified Zelenskyy that an additional $1-billion package was headed to Ukraine. Zelenskyy didn’t miss a beat in ticking off the additional assistance he said Ukraine needed.
That irked Biden, who underscored to Zelenskyy the American people’s generosity. But the brief moment of tension hasn’t caused any lasting difficulty, according to officials familiar with the episode.
Russia’s invasion, which began Feb. 24, has lost momentum. The illegally annexed provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia remain fiercely contested.
With the fighting in the east at a stalemate, Moscow has used missiles and drones to attack Ukraine’s power equipment, hoping to leave people without electricity as freezing weather sets in.