On 7 June, US President Joe Biden apologized for congressional delays in approving the latest aid package during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris, according to Reuters. He also announced a fresh $225 million tranche on the sidelines of D-Day events.
Ukrainian officials and Zelenskyy himself, multiple times, criticized Western countries for taking too long to make decisions about assistance, especially amid a backdrop of the Russian offensive on Kharkiv Oblast, which started on 10 May.
“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,” said Biden.
The Ukrainian leader thanked the US president for American 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,” Zelenskyy stressed.
In remarks made in Normandy, France, on Thursday, Biden compared the World War Two battle against dictatorship to Ukraine’s current war with Russia, describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a tyrant.
Earlier, Biden eased restrictions on using American-supplied systems to hit targets inside Russia but only to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. According to sources, the White House allowed Kyiv to utilize HIMARS systems but has not changed its policy on using ATACMS long-range missile systems to strike inside Russia.
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