BIDEN ANNOUNCES $500M IN MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE IN AN UNANNOUNCED VISIT TO KYIV

Mon 20 February 2023:

United States President Joe Biden has arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Biden’s visit on Monday was the first to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into the neighbouring country on February 24, 2022.

Biden said he was in Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy “and reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”, according to a White House statement.“When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided.

He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong,” the statement quoted Biden as saying.“Later this week, we will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine,” the statement added.Biden said the US would provide Ukraine with additional assistance worth $500m that will include artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems and air surveillance radars.

‘Important sign’

Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that Biden’s visit was an “extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians”.The Ukraine leader said he and Biden spoke about “long range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.” However, he did not detail any new commitments.Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reporting from Kyiv said the news of the US president arriving in Kyiv will be “very well received” by Ukrainians.“This is a very difficult time. It seems from the news lines things maybe a bit quieter overall in the country with the battle more or less confined in the Donbass region. But people are anxious,” she said.

The visit gives Biden an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the devastation the Russian invasion has caused on Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian troops and civilians have been killed, millions of refugees have fled the war, and Ukraine has suffered tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure damage.The visit came as a nationwide air raid alert was sounded in Ukraine, including Kyiv.In December 2022, Zelenskyy travelled to Washington, DC and address the US Congress, in his first trip abroad since the war began.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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