the president Joe Biden will meet with the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky As in Paris on Friday The US collides with its ally and With the Kremlin On the decision to allow Kiev Strike inside Russia using American weapons.
The meeting held in the French capital coincides with the time when Kiev’s military is under pressure Russia’s new attack fierce attacks in the north and east, a dangerous moment that has seen its leaders push allies to loosen restrictions on Western arms.
It also follows the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations in Normandy, which Zelensky attended. Biden drew parallels between this primary battle Freeing Europe from Nazi rule and the Ukrainian movement The fight against Russia.
Biden and Zelensky met at the White House in December, when Ukraine’s leader came to lobby Congress to approve new military aid for his troops fighting on the frontlines. But Kyiv was disappointed with the speed of military aid.
Biden is expected to announce a $225 million arms package when he meets Zelensky in Paris after French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the two leaders on Thursday, pushed Kiev.
France will provide its Mirage fighter jet and train a brigade of Ukrainian soldiers, Macron announced, but details were not immediately clear.
After this decision, the tension between Kiev’s allies and Moscow reached its highest level Allow Ukraine limited use of Western-supplied weapons Attacking military facilities in the border regions of Russia.
Despite this change, Kiev’s troops remain outnumbered and outgunned, and Zelensky is eager for more.
He said that the limited easing of restrictions was not enough, and that he was ready to use other long-range Western weapons to push Ukraine deep into enemy territory.
The new support for Ukraine has angered the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday It could deploy weapons to countries that could attack the West in response, he said that Washington and its partners were wrong to assume that it would never use nuclear weapons.
Biden signaled Washington’s caution in an interview Thursday, stressing that Kiev still cannot use American weapons to strike deep into Russia to target Moscow or the Kremlin itself.
But he nevertheless offered his own rhetorical support for Kiev’s claim, making a direct connection 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 power.”
“We’re not going away,” he said, referring to US World War II veterans in support of Europe’s current struggle. “Because if we do that, Ukraine will submit.”