PARIS — President Joe Biden apologized to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Friday for the months-long delay in approving military aid, blaming conservative Republican opposition. But he promised to support Ukraine against Russian aggression.
“I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what was going to be approved, in terms of funding, because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass, which had money in it,” Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart before a private meeting. in Paris. “Some of our very conservative members were stopping it.”
But Biden said his administration “finally” got the funding approved and pledged to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
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“You are the bulwark against the aggression that is taking place,” he said. “We’re still inside. Completely. Completely.”
The meeting and pledge of support from Biden come at a critical moment in the war with Russia, as the two allies look for ways to reverse the battlefield momentum that has helped President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Zelenskyy thanked Biden for what he called “significant support” from the United States as his forces fight Russia and compared the U.S. effort to the fight against Hitler 80 years ago.
“During World War II, the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe,” Zelenskyy said. “And we count on your continued support and with us, shoulder to shoulder. Thank you very much.”
The two men take part in ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which helped turn the tide against Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Biden will travel later in the day back to Normandy to give a speech honoring American soldiers and linking that ancient war to today’s conflict in Ukraine.
The meeting was the first between American and Ukrainian leaders since December, and follows a decision by Biden last week to give Ukraine permission to fire U.S.-supplied weapons on Russian territory. This was a policy reversal after more than two years of limits designed to prevent escalation with a nuclear-powered adversary.
But Biden loosened restrictions just enough to authorize strikes against military targets just across the border in the northeast to defend Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Long-range attacks deeper into Russia are still prohibited.
Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials remain frustrated by the restriction and seek more freedom from Biden. Ukrainians are also disappointed that Biden will not attend a June 15 peace summit in Switzerland hosted by Zelenskyy. Instead, Vice President Kamala Harris and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, will attend.
While not fulfilling all of Zelenskyy’s wishes, Biden’s reversal on the use of US weapons against targets inside Russia – a tactic also endorsed by other NATO countries – provoked a predictably prickly response from Putin, who suggested retaliation in same currency. .
Speaking to reporters in St. Petersburg, Russia, 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 made on sensitive installations of the countries that do this against the Russia.”
The United States has been Ukraine’s most important arms supplier since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. But Biden has sometimes been slow to provide more sophisticated weaponry for fear of provoking an escalation with Moscow, and leaders House Republicans blocked additional weapons. military aid for six months, leaving Ukrainian defenders searching for ammunition and weapons at a time when Russia advanced with ferocious attacks.
Congress finally approved a $61 billion aid package in April and the guns are now flowing again. On Friday, Biden announced a $225 million package that he said Zelenskyy was designed to “help you 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 Zelenskyy was the first of two in the coming days for Biden, who also plans to see his Ukrainian counterpart at next week’s Group of 7 meeting in Italy.
“It’s 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 Zelenskyy to meet twice will really allow them to delve deeper into all aspects and issues of the war.”
Biden’s Friday afternoon speech in Normandy aims to further link the fight to free 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 on Thursday -fair.
He will speak from Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled 100-foot-high cliffs on D-Day to destroy a suspected German weapons installation, one of the most daring moments of the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944.
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 will similarly defend American leadership and democracy on the world stage at a time of isolationist tensions at home.
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