Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be received at the White House next Thursday for new discussions with American President Joe Biden on supporting Kiev against the Russian invasion, a senior American official announced on Friday.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the meeting with Mr. Zelensky, the second at the White House since the war began in February 2022, would come at a “critical time” as Ukraine seeks to progress in its counter-offensive against Russian forces.
“It comes at a critical time, when Russia is desperate for help from countries like North Korea to wage its brutal war in Ukraine,” Sullivan told reporters.
He also said he expected the United States and its allies to announce new military aid to Ukraine “sometime next week.”
The Ukraine contact group, which is responsible for coordinating aid to kyiv, is due to meet in Ramstein, Germany, next week.
The Ukrainian president is expected in New York early next week to participate in the United Nations General Assembly and meet world leaders.
Negotiations in Congress
President Zelensky’s visit to Washington also comes at a time when the US Congress is debating a new package of $24 billion in military aid for kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelensky should also go to the Capitol to meet the Republican and Democratic leadership, Mr. Sullivan stressed.
Elected officials have been negotiating this new aid for several weeks and the negotiations are particularly difficult in the House of Representatives, in the hands of the Republicans, where certain conservative parliamentarians refuse to release more funds.
This position makes the Republican leaders in the Senate jump, who mobilized with the Democrats over the last year to release more than 110 billion in aid (military, economic, humanitarian) to Kiev in Congress.
The White House has said it expectsultimatelyboth parties in Congress continue to support Ukraine.
“Frankly, both Republicans and Democrats recognize that the United States cannot, in its own interest, let alone its moral obligations, abandon Ukraine at this critical time,” Sullivan noted.
Volodymyr Zelensky had already made a surprise visit to Washington in December 2022. After meeting with President Biden at the White House, the leader declared before Congress that Ukraine “would never surrender”.
Joe Biden visited Kiev a few months later – a historic trip, the first by an American president to a territory at war not controlled by the United States.
The United States leads an international coalition in support of Ukraine, and has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to kyiv since the conflict began in February 2022.