PARIS — President Joe Biden apologized Friday to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine for the months-long delay in approving military aid, blaming the conservative Republican opposition. But he promised Ukraine he would stand behind Russian aggression.
“I apologize for the weeks that I didn’t know what was going to happen, in terms of funding, because we had trouble getting the bill that we needed to pass, that had the money in it,” Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart. in Paris. “Some of our very conservative members held out.”
But Biden said his administration “finally” got the funding approved and he vowed 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 participating. Absolutely. In-depth.”
The meeting and Biden’s pledge to provide support come at a crucial moment in the war with Russia, as the two allies seek 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 battle Russia, and he compared the American efforts to the fight against Hitler 80 years ago.
“During World War II, the United States helped save lives, saved Europe,” Zelenskyy said. “And we count on your continued support and support with us, 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 back to Normandy later in the day 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 a decision by Biden last week to allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-supplied weapons into Russian territory. That was a reversal of policy after more than two years of limits intended to prevent an escalation with a nuclear-powered opponent.
But Biden only relaxed restrictions enough to allow strikes on 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 reluctance and are seeking more leeway from Biden. Ukrainians are also disappointed that Biden will not attend a peace summit in Switzerland on June 15, organized by Zelenskyy. Vice President Kamala Harris and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, will attend instead.
Even though it didn’t meet all of Zelenskiy’s wishes, Biden’s reversal of the use of US weapons against targets in Russia — a tactic also endorsed by other NATO countries — provoked a predictably stinging response from Putin, who called a tit-for-tat -tat-retaliation suggested. .
Speaking to reporters in St. Petersburg, Russia, Putin suggested this week that such a move meant that Russia had “the right to send our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where attacks can be carried out on sensitive facilities of the countries who are doing this against Russia.”
The United States has been the main arms supplier to Ukraine since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022. But Biden has at times been slow to deliver more advanced weapons for fear of provoking an escalation with Moscow, and House Republican leaders of Deputies blocked additional weapons. military aid for six months, leaving Ukrainian defenders scrambling for ammunition and weapons just as Russia continued heavy attacks.
Congress finally passed a $61 billion aid package in April and the guns are now pouring in again. On Friday, Biden announced a $225 million package that he told Zelenskyy was intended 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 network severely compromised by brutal 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 the Group of 7 meeting in Italy next week.
“It signals the extent of our commitment to Ukraine at this crucial time,” Sullivan told reporters this week. “And this opportunity for the president and Zelenskiy to sit together twice will really allow them to delve deeply into every aspect and every issue in the war.”
Biden’s speech Friday afternoon in Normandy aims to further connect the struggle to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny with the effort to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression eight decades later, expanding a theme he articulated at a ceremony Thursday .
He will speak from Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled 100-foot cliffs to take out a suspected German gun emplacement on D-Day, 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, while making a similar case for American leadership and democracy on the world stage. of isolationist tribes in our own country.
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