US President Joe Biden will meet Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday with a package of $225 million in weapons on the sidelines of D-Day anniversary events.
It will be their first face-to-face talks since Zelenskiy visited Washington in December, when the two wrestled with Republican opposition to more Ukraine aid. They will meet again next week at a G7 summit in Italy, as rich nations discuss using Russian assets frozen after the Ukraine invasion to provide $50 billion for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy told Reuters last month that Western countries are taking too long to make decisions about aid.
President Biden in remarks in Normandy, France, on Thursday drew a link between the World War Two battle against tyranny and Ukraine’s war with Russia, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “dictator.”
The $225 million in new weaponry includes artillery rounds and air defense interceptors, among other items, sources said. Ukraine has struggled to defend the Kharkiv region after an offensive launched by Moscow on May 10 has overrun some villages.
Biden last week shifted his position and decided Ukraine could launch U.S.-supplied weapons at military targets inside Russia that are supporting the Kharkiv offensive.
The United States is trying to catch up with Ukraine’s weaponry needs, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said in Washington Thursday.
“If there were two things that we could provide an infinite number of to the Ukrainians to try to turn the tide in this war, it would be artillery munitions and air defense interceptors,” but the U.S. lacked supply, Finer told a forum by the Center for a New American Security.
Outside the physical battlefield, the Russia-Ukraine war is “also a competition that takes place in our factories, the factories in Europe, the factories in Ukraine,” he said.
Reaching consensus on the frozen assets has been complicated, Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, told the same group.
“We’re waist-deep in the sausage-making of trying to strike a deal,” said Singh, who said he was heading back to Italy on Friday to continue the negotiations.
