Joe Biden pledges more weapons for Ukraine on surprise Kyiv visit
- The US president visited the Ukrainian capital as air raid sirens blared across the city
- He also told President Zelensky that Washington would provide Kyiv with a new military aid package worth US$500 million
Sirens blared across the Ukrainian capital as he was there, but there were no reports of Russian missile or air strikes.
“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong,” Biden said, praising Ukrainians for their bravery in resisting Russia’s invasion.
“The cost that Ukraine has had to pay is extraordinarily high. Sacrifices have been far too great … We know that there will be difficult days and weeks and years ahead.”
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US president Joe Biden pledges more weapons for Ukraine on surprise visit to Kyiv
Biden promised a further US$500 million worth of weaponry, including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems and air defence radars, plus tighter sanctions on Russia.
He appeared to make no mention of fighter jets, which Ukraine has been seeking from Western allies to help it push back Russian forces.
Zelensky told Biden his visit was “an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians.”
“This visit of the US president to Ukraine, the first for fifteen years, is the most important visit in the entire history of Ukraine-US relations,” Zelensky said.
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The air raid sirens wailed while Zelensky and Biden were inside the St Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral on a square in central Kyiv where burnt-out Russian tanks have been placed.
Several main roads in central Kyiv were closed off to traffic on Monday morning. Drivers stood waiting in traffic as gathering crowds of pedestrians peered over barricades to get a glimpse of who had come to the capital.
In a statement, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the visit was “historic” and that both Biden and Zelensky were pleased with their talks on Monday.
“This visit is the victory of the Ukrainian people and President Zelensky. It has been conducted in spite of everything for the sake of Ukraine’s victory and all the free world. It is a clear signal to the swamp – no one is afraid of you!” he said.
“Of course for the Kremlin this will be seen as further proof that the United States has bet on Russia’s strategic defeat in the war and that the war itself has turned irrevocably into a war between Russia and the West,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst.
“Tomorrow’s address was expected to be very hawkish, targeted at a demonstrative rupture of relations with the West. Now additional edits could be introduced to make it even tougher.”
The anniversary has taken on more than symbolic significance, becoming what the West views as motivation for the war’s deadliest phase as Moscow hurls thousands of conscripts and mercenaries into a winter offensive.
Russia has secured only scant gains so far in assaults in frozen trenches up and down the eastern front in recent weeks. Kyiv and the West see it as a push to give Putin victories to tout a year after he launched Europe’s biggest war since World War II.
Time for the West to rethink goal of total defeat for Russia in Ukraine
Moscow received its own apparent signal of diplomatic support, with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi expected in the Russian capital for talks. In public, China has so far remained neutral over the conflict despite signing a “no limits” friendship pact with Russia weeks before the invasion.
Washington has said in recent days it is concerned Beijing could begin supplying Moscow with arms. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the United States was “in no position to make demands of China”, and China’s “comprehensive collaborative partnership with Russia” was a matter for two independent states.
Russia is trying to secure full control of two eastern provinces that form Ukraine’s Donbas mining and industrial region. It has launched assaults at locations running from Kreminna in the north down to Vuhledar in the south, securing most of its recent gains around the mining city of Bakhmut.
Kyiv, which is absorbing a major influx of Western weaponry in coming months for a planned counteroffensive, has lately stuck mainly to defence on the battlefield, claiming to be inflicting huge casualties on the assaulting Russian forces.
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Ukraine’s Zelensky presses UK and France for fighter jets on Europe trip
“The situation is very complicated. And we are fighting. We are breaking down the invaders and inflicting extraordinarily significant losses on Russia,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
“The more losses Russia suffers there, in Donbas – in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna – the faster we will be able to end this war with Ukraine’s victory.”
Britain’s ministry of defence said Russia was taking huge casualties, including two elite brigades of thousands of marines probably rendered “combat ineffective” by high losses in failed attempts to storm Vuhledar, a heavily fortified Ukrainian bastion.
“The Russian forces are likely under increasing political pressure as the anniversary of the invasion draws near,” it said, predicting Moscow would claim to have captured Bakhmut regardless of the situation on the ground.
“If Russia’s spring offensive fails to achieve anything, then tension within the Russian leadership is likely to increase.”
