President Joe Biden will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday as the United States clashes with its ally and the Kremlin over the decision to allow Kiev to attack inside Russia using American weapons.
The meeting in the French capital comes at a time when Kiev’s military is under pressure from a new Russian offensive in the north and intense attacks in the east, a dangerous time that has seen its leaders press for allies to loosen restrictions on Western weapons. .
It also follows the events of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, which Zelenskyy participated in and where Biden drew parallels between that crucial battle to free Europe from Nazi domination and Ukraine’s current struggle against Russia.
Biden and Zelenzkyy met at the White House in December when the Ukrainian leader came to lobby Congress to approve new military aid for his struggling frontline troops. But Kiev has grown frustrated with the pace of military assistance.
Biden is expected to announce a $225 million arms package when he meets Zelenskyy in Paris, after French President Emmanuel Macron, who is hosting both leaders, gave Kiev its own boost on Thursday.
France will supply its Mirage fighter plane and train a brigade of Ukrainian soldiers, Macron announced, although details were not immediately clear.
Tensions between Kiev and Moscow’s allies are at an all-time high following the decision to allow Ukraine limited use of Western-supplied weapons to attack military targets inside Russian border regions.
Despite this change, Kiev’s troops remain outnumbered and outgunned, and Zelenskyy is pushing for more.
He has already said limited easing of restrictions is not enough, and Ukraine is believed to be eager to use other long-range Western weapons to reach deeper into enemy territory.
However, the new support for Ukraine has infuriated the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday that he could send weapons to countries that could attack the West in response, and said Washington and its partners were wrong to assume he would never use nuclear weapons.
Putin is scheduled to speak at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, where he will likely address the same topics.
Its troops were trapped in the Kharkiv border region after launching a new attack last month, further straining the Ukrainian army’s limited resources. Although Russia claimed several villages in the first weeks of the offensive, it appears that Kiev was successful in halting the advance.
Biden signaled in an interview on Thursday that Washington remains cautious, emphasizing that Kiev cannot yet use American weapons to go deep into Russia to, for example, hit Moscow or the Kremlin itself.
Even so, he offered his rhetorical support to Kiev’s cause, drawing a direct link to the Allied struggle against Adolf Hitler.
Speaking at the D-Day ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery on Thursday, Biden called Putin “a tyrant bent on domination.”
“We will not give up,” he said, speaking of US support for Europe’s current fight against World War II veterans. “Because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated.”
Biden will continue participating in D-Day celebrations on Friday, traveling to the Pointe du Hoc site near Omaha Beach, where he is expected to give a speech.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
