“For nearly three years, the United States has rallied the world to stand with the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom from Russian aggression, and it has been a top priority of my administration to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to prevail,” US President Joe Biden said after his meeting at the White House with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.
“In that time, Ukraine has won the battle of Kyiv, reclaimed more than half the territory that Russia seized at the start of the war, and safeguarded its sovereignty and independence. But there is more work to do. That is why, today, I am announcing a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war.”
He released to Ukraine all of the remaining security funding congressionally appropriated for Kyiv for the remainder of his presidential term, which ends in January. His vice president and the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, and her Republican presidential challenger, Donald Trump, are locked in a tight race before elections in November.
Western allies have voiced concern that Washington will not be a reliable partner should the Republican candidate prevail. Trump has escalated his anti-Ukraine rhetoric in recent weeks, saying in a rally Wednesday that Zelensky has made “nasty little aspersions about him” after the Ukrainian leader cast doubt on Trump’s claims to end the war in 24 hours.
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In his address, Biden officially announced that he also directed the US Department of Defense to allocate the remaining Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds by the end of this year, which amounts to $2.4 billion, in addition to the $5.5 billion already approved by US Congress.
The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding will include additional air defense, drones, and air-to-ground munitions, and support its maintenance and sustainment requirements.
The overall package, the US president said, includes:
- The Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), a long-range munition
- An additional Patriot air defense battery and additional Patriot missiles. Biden said that Ukraine will receive “hundreds of additional Patriot and AMRAAM missiles over the next year.”
- Expanded training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots, resulting in an additional 18 pilots next year
Biden also announced that the “Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, and the US Secret Service have taken action today to disrupt a global crypto-currency network, in coordination with international partners” as part of the plan to strengthen sanctions on Moscow.
“Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said, after greeting Zelensky in the Oval Office and receiving the leader’s “Victory Plan,” an outline for a negotiated end to the war.
Zelensky replied, “We deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side.”
Republicans in Washington decry Zelensky’s visit to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania and call for Ukrainian Ambassador’s removal
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives has called for removing Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, claiming that Zelensky’s visit to an ammunition factory in the electorally critical state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday amounted to election meddling.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) penned a letter to Zelensky on the topic, claiming “The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for [Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate] Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote.
“I demand that you immediately fire Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova,” he added, saying that she can no longer “fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country.”
The Republican chairman of the lower chamber’s Oversight and Accountability Committee, James Comer, on Wednesday launched an inquiry into Zelensky’s trip, also suggesting that a visit to a factory that supplies munitions to Ukraine constituted a campaign stop for Harris.
Pennsylvania, which happens to be Biden’s birthplace, is again an essential state for either candidate to win, with polls showing a dead heat in the race. It carries 19 electoral votes, the fifth-most among US states, just after New York.
Biden’s narrow electoral victory in Pennsylvania in 2020 put him past Trump in the final tally.
In a joint press conference with Zelensky, the Vice President says the US supports Ukraine “not out of charity, but national interests”
After meeting with Zelensky on Thursday, Vice President Harris reaffirmed America’s unwavering support for Ukraine and her position that the world must stand up against Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s aggression as she enters her last month of campaigning for US president.
“Putin started this war and he could end it tomorrow,” she said. “Instead… he continues to assault civilian infrastructure and terrorize the citizens of Ukraine.”
Referring to her political opponent and those in Trump’s party who have denigrated Zelensky, called for America’s withdrawal of support for Kyiv, and scoffed at Ukraine joining NATO, Harris said, “There are those in this country… who would require Ukraine to forego security relationships [with NATO]. These are proposals for surrender, which are dangerous and unacceptable.”
She said that when the rights of a country’s sovereignty “are threatened anywhere, they are threatened everywhere” and that America supports Ukraine “not out of charity, but because it is in our national interests.”
After Zelensky and Harris read their prepared speeches no question-and-answer session followed. No mention was made of Ukraine's request to use US-made long-range missiles on Russian territory.
Trump confirms that he will meet with Zelensky on Friday morning
Shortly after appearing at a press conference with Kamala Harris, former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump confirmed that he would meet with Zelensky on Friday for their first meeting since 2019.
Trump said at a news conference he plans to meet Zelensky around 9:45 a.m. at Trump Tower in New York City.
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