US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday an “increase” in military aid to kyiv with an envelope of nearly 8 billion dollars and new long-range munitions, before receiving his Ukrainian counterpart at the White House as the Kremlin raises the nuclear threat.
“I am announcing increased security assistance to Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war,” Biden said in a statement, which did not mention kyiv’s hoped-for green light to fire long-range U.S.-made missiles at Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the new aid, which he said would help his country achieve “victory” in the war against Russia.
In addition, President Biden called for a high-level summit in Germany with 50 countries allied with Ukraine “to coordinate the efforts” of these countries in defending Ukraine “against Russian aggression.”
The Ukrainian head of state is to be received later today by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, while the war in Ukraine is once again making its way into the American presidential campaign, with violent criticism from Donald Trump against President Zelensky. Washington had announced the day before $375 million in military aid to Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky will outline in Washington his “victory plan” aimed at ending the Russian invasion launched on February 24, 2022.
As kyiv tirelessly seeks to convince the West to let it use long-range missiles against Russian territory, President Putin announced on Wednesday a proposal to change Moscow’s doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons.
This would be a response to “the aggression of Russia by a non-nuclear country but with the participation or support of a nuclear country,” the Russian president said.
“Specific signal” for Westerners-
In a new Russian warning on Thursday, the Kremlin stressed that this change in Russian doctrine should be seen as a “specific signal” to the West.
“This is a signal warning these countries about the consequences of participating in an attack on our country with various means, not necessarily nuclear,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
In this diplomatic standoff, Mr Zelensky warned that the Ukrainians would “never” accept a possible peace agreement with Moscow that would be “imposed” on them by the major powers.
On Tuesday, before the Security Council, he had urged that Moscow be “forced” to make peace, provoking a scathing response from the Kremlin: it is “impossible to force Russia to peace”, according to Dmitri Peskov.
Moscow, whose troops have been advancing in recent months against kyiv’s forces, claimed Thursday the capture of Ukrainsk, a city in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The conquest of Donbass, the Ukrainian industrial basin that includes the Donetsk region, is President Putin’s “number one priority.”
“Best Salesperson”
Volodymyr Zelensky is well aware that support for his country is largely suspended following the US presidential election on November 5.
The race is expected to be extremely tight between Kamala Harris, who has promised to continue helping kyiv if she wins, and former Republican President Donald Trump.
While Joe Biden has announced measures to “accelerate support for the Ukrainian armed forces,” his predecessor recently made a particularly harsh criticism of the Ukrainian president.
“We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelensky,” the Republican candidate denounced Wednesday during a campaign rally.
“Every time he came to our country, he left with $60 billion, I think he’s the best salesman on the planet,” the former president joked in North Carolina.
A meeting between Donald Trump, who is very critical of the amounts spent by Washington for kyiv, and the Ukrainian leader had been discussed. But this interview risks falling through, according to the American press.