PARIS — Amid signs that Americans are tired of sending weapons to Ukraine after two years of war, the president says Joe Biden This week we will gather with other world leaders to look for new ways to get help to the country as it struggles to fend off Russia’s invasion.
Biden will participate in a three-day meeting in Apulia, Italy, of the Group of Seven, or G7, the organization formed by the world’s largest industrialized nations, where a key topic will be tapping $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine to reinforce. on the battlefield, the White House said.
Biden and his colleagues largely agree on the benefits of seizing Russian assets to help support Ukraine’s efforts, though there is friction over how best to go about it, a person familiar with the matter said American plans for the summit.
The Biden administration had wanted to use both the principal and interest from the Russian assets to help pay for the war, while European countries would have preferred to use only the interest, the person said. With Ukraine in urgent need of more weapons, the Biden administration is willing to compromise and embrace the path European leaders prefer, the source added.
One option being considered is for the G7 countries – the others being France, Canada, Japan, the UK, Italy and Germany – to provide Ukraine with about $50 billion up front and then recoup that money in interest income over the next ten years .
Biden suggested he had made progress toward reaching a deal during his trip to France last week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Speaking to reporters at a World War I cemetery outside Paris, he was asked whether he had spoken to French President Emmanuel Macron about the use of frozen Russian assets and whether the two had reached an agreement.
“Yes and yes,” Biden said, without giving more details.
Biden spent much of his five-day trip to France advocating for strengthening Ukraine. Just as the US and its allies worked together to defeat the Nazis in World War II, democratic countries must be decisive in helping defend Ukraine and demonstrate to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he cannot expand his government by force. Biden argued.
If he defeats Ukraine, an emboldened Putin could well push into Poland and other NATO countries, Biden has said, potentially sparking a wider and deadlier conflict.
In Paris, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and announced a $225 million arms package that includes air defense interceptors and artillery ammunition. He is expected to meet Zelenskyy again at the G7 conference.
“We want every country to come on board with a method by which we can mobilize resources for Ukraine on a scale so that they can get what they need to succeed in this war,” said White House Chairman Jake Sullivan. national security adviser, he said at a recent news briefing.
Although Biden has repeatedly made it clear to Americans that it is in the country’s interest to help Ukraine, public support for the war is declining, polls show.
According to Pew Research Center polls, more than 40% of American adults believed in March 2022, a month after Russia invaded, that the U.S. was not providing enough aid to Ukraine. Two years later, that figure had dropped almost twenty points.
The share of American adults who endorse Biden’s argument that Russia poses a threat to other countries in the region fell from 59% to 48% over the two-year period ending in April, the Pew survey found.
While many Americans are waiting for the war to end, Biden is also under pressure to step up efforts to help Ukraine. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the U.S. should train Ukrainian troops in that country and allow Zelenskyy’s forces to attack targets in Russia.
Brett Bruen, director of Global Engagement in Barack Obama’s White House, said in an interview that he would also like Biden to send U.S. military trainers to Ukraine.
“The benefit of getting trainers on the ground in Ukraine far outweighs the risks, and it’s something we do in many less strategically important places,” Bruen said.
“I’m not suggesting that we throw tens of thousands of Americans at Ukraine, but it does require that we revise some of these restrictive rules” the Biden administration has implemented, he added.
While the war is likely to be a dominant issue, G7 leaders will also discuss the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and what they see as China’s practice of flooding global markets with its goods. A special guest will appear at the summit: Pope Francis.
Making back-to-back European trips would exhaust any president, but it could be especially tough for Biden, who is 81. He also faces a family crisis.
On Tuesday, the day before he was to leave, a jury found his son Hunter Biden guilty of all three gun-related charges he faced during a federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden and his son are extremely close, and the president will need some emotional armor to maintain his focus during the summit meeting, people who have worked with him said.
William Cohen, a Republican former senator from Maine who served with Biden on Capitol Hill, said he believed Biden “will be steeled for this” in Italy.
“You go through family structures and you’re always going to come across a problem. He needs to put that road behind him,” Cohen said.
The presidential election will undoubtedly take place during Biden’s private meetings with his colleagues. He told Time Magazine in a recent interview that foreign leaders often ask him questions about former President Donald Trump, confiding to him, he said, that they fear Trump’s possible return.
But leaders may also be making their own quiet assessment of Biden and whether he looks like someone who can win one last race.
“European leaders will be watching Biden and what he says and does,” said Keith Kellogg, a senior national security official in the Trump White House. “They will look at the footage.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
