By Jeff Mason
PARIS (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, apologized for congressional delays in approving the newest U.S. help bundle, and introduced a recent $225 million tranche on the sidelines of D-Day occasions.
The assembly was their first face-to-face encounter since Zelenskiy visited Washington in December, when the 2 pressed Republicans to beat opposition of their social gathering to extra help for Ukraine.
They are going to meet once more subsequent week at a G7 summit in Italy, as wealthy Western nations talk about utilizing Russian property frozen after the Ukraine invasion to supply $50 billion for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy advised Reuters final month that Western nations are taking too lengthy to make selections about help.
“You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable,” Biden advised the Ukrainian chief at the beginning of their assembly on Friday. “We’re not going to walk away from you.”
Biden apologised to Zelenskiy for the delays earlier than the final U.S. help bundle handed in Congress in April. He confirmed he was signing a further tranche of $225 million on Friday to assist Ukraine reconstruct its electrical grid.
“I apologize for … those weeks of not knowing” what’s going to occur by way of funding, Biden mentioned. “Some of our very conservative members (of Congress) were holding it up. But we got it done, finally.”
“We’re still in, completely, totally,” Biden mentioned.
Zelenskiy thanked Biden for U.S. navy, monetary and humanitarian help.
“It’s very important that you stay with us. This bipartisan support with the Congress, it’s very important that in this unity, United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine, like it was during World War Two, how United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe,” he mentioned in English.
In remarks in Normandy, France, on Thursday, Biden drew a hyperlink between the World Struggle Two battle towards tyranny and Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a tyrant.
The $225 million contains artillery rounds and air protection interceptors, amongst different objects, sources mentioned.
Ukraine has struggled to defend the Kharkiv area after an offensive launched by Moscow on Might 10 has overrun some villages.
Biden final week shifted his place and determined Ukraine might launch U.S.-supplied weapons at navy targets inside Russia which are supporting the Kharkiv offensive.
The US is making an attempt to meet up with Ukraine’s weaponry wants, deputy nationwide safety adviser Jon Finer mentioned in Washington on Thursday.
“If there were two things that we could provide an infinite number of to the Ukrainians to try to turn the tide in this war, it would be artillery munitions and air defense interceptors,” however the U.S. lacked provide, Finer advised a discussion board by the Heart for a New American Safety.
Exterior the bodily battlefield, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is “additionally a contest that takes place in our factories, the factories in Europe, the factories in Ukraine,” he mentioned.
Reaching consensus on the frozen property has been difficult, Daleep Singh, the U.S. administration’s deputy nationwide safety adviser for worldwide economics, advised the identical group.
“We’re waist-deep in the sausage-making of trying to strike a deal,” mentioned Singh, including that he was heading again to Italy on Friday to proceed the negotiations.
