Biden apologizes to Zelenskiy for congressional delays to US aid
U.S. President Joe Biden met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, apologized for congressional delays in approving the latest U.S. aid package, and announced a fresh $225 million tranche on the sidelines of D-Day events, Reuters reports.
The meeting was their first face-to-face encounter since Zelenskiy visited Washington in December, when the two pressed Republicans to overcome opposition in their party to more support for Ukraine.
They will meet again next week at a G7 summit in Italy, as rich Western nations discuss using Russian assets frozen after the Ukraine invasion to provide $50 billion for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy told Reuters last month that Western countries are taking too long to make decisions about aid. "You haven't bowed down, you haven't yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is ... just remarkable," Biden told the Ukrainian leader at the start of their meeting on Friday. "We're not going to walk away from you."
Biden apologized to Zelenskiy for the delays before the last U.S. aid package passed in Congress in April. He confirmed he was signing an additional tranche of $225 million on Friday to help Ukraine reconstruct its electric grid. "I apologize for … those weeks of not knowing" what’s going to happen in terms of funding, Biden said. “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 said.
Zelenskiy thanked Biden for U.S. military, financial and humanitarian support.
"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 said in English.
In remarks in Normandy, France, on Thursday, Biden drew a link between the World War Two battle against tyranny and Ukraine's war with Russia, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a tyrant.
Ukraine has struggled to defend the Kharkiv region after an offensive launched by Moscow on May 10 overran some villages.
