Joe Biden has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.
Meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, the US president told him: “You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.”
Biden said: “I apologise for those weeks of not knowing”, referring to the uncertainty while Congress waited six months before sending a $61bn military aid package for Ukraine in April. “Some of our very conservative members [of Congress] were holding it up. But we got it done, finally,” he added.
Biden said the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. “We’re still in. Completely. Thoroughly.”
Zelenskiy said in English: “It’s very important that … all American people stay with Ukraine, like it was during the second world war. United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe.”
Biden and Zelenskiy had attended the 80th anniversary D-day events in Normandy, in northern France, along with European leaders who have supported Kyiv’s efforts in the war. In Normandy, Biden drew a link between the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi domination to today’s fight against Russian aggression, referring to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as a tyrant.
The US is by far Kyiv’s biggest supplier of wartime support and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk but Ukrainian officials say it could spread as Russia’s bigger army seeks to expand its advantage.
The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyiv’s shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000km (620-mile) frontline.
The latest package of US military aid includes munitions for the high mobility artillery rocket system, or Himars, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, officials said.
Some Nato allies, including the US, said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia, easing their stance amid Russia’s most recent onslaught and with Ukraine’s army reeling.
That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europe’s biggest conflict since the second world war could spin out of control.
The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Friday, that with the help of newly delivered US military aid, Ukrainian forces “have been able to thwart Russian advances, particularly around Kharkiv.”
“The Russians really have stalled out. Basically their advance on Kharkiv is all but over,” Kirby said, although he warned that nothing on the battlefield could be taken for granted.
Zelenskiy told the Guardian in an exclusive interview last week that Biden’s delay in sanctioning the use of western weapons against targets in Russia had left the Kremlin’s forces laughing at Ukraine and able to “hunt” its people.
“I think it is absolutely illogical to have [western] weapons and see the murderers, terrorists, who are killing us from the Russian side. I think sometimes they are just laughing at this situation,” he said. “It’s like going hunting for them. Hunting for people. They understand that we can see them, but we cannot reach them.”
In a speech to the French lower house of parliament on Friday, Zelenskiy drew a parallel with the sacrifices made during the second world war and Ukraine’s current fight.
“This battle is a crossroads,” Zelenskiy said. “A moment where we can now write history the way we need it. Or we can become victims of history as it suits … our enemy.”
Zelenskiy, who spoke in Ukrainian, was applauded and cheered by lawmakers. He prompted a standing ovation when he said in French: “Dear France, I thank you for standing by our side as we defend life.”
He said he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland later this month on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the conflict. Zelenskiy said: “The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war. I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done.”
He warned that 80 years after the D-day landings, Europe was “unfortunately no longer a continent of peace” after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “Can Putin win this battle?” Zelenskiy asked parliament. “No. Because you and I have no right to lose.”
Zelenskiy dismissed the possibility of peace in Ukraine based on current frontlines, and with Russia sometimes deep inside Ukrainian territory. “Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No. Because there are no lines for evil: not 80 years ago, not now. And if someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war.”
President Emmanuel Macron said in a TV interview late on Thursday that Paris would transfer Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation. Macron offered to train pilots starting from this summer.
Western allies would consider a request from Ukraine to send military instructors to train its forces on its soil to meet the growing challenge of building up troop numbers, Macron said.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Macron’s comments indicated he was ready for France to take a “direct” role in the Ukraine conflict.
