By Deutsche Welle
05 Jun 2024, 00:28 AM EDT
US President Joe Biden will meet in the coming days with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky, both in Normandy, France and at the G7 summit in Italy to discuss kyiv’s fight against Russia, the White House reported.
During his stay this week in Normandy on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the “D-Day” landings of World War II, Biden “will have the opportunity to sit down with President Zelensky,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan assured the journalists who left with the president for France.
“You will have an engagement with him to talk about the situation in Ukraine and how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine,” he added.
Sullivan also said the United States does not plan to send American military instructors to Ukraine.
“For our part, we are not planning a training mission in Ukraine,” he explained. “They need more air defenses and we are working on it and they need a continuous flow of weapons that we will supply them,” he said.
They will meet again at the G7 meeting
Biden is also scheduled to meet Zelensky again at the Group of Seven meeting in Bari, Italy, June 13-15, which will focus on the use of frozen Russian funds to support Ukraine’s military effort.
“So, over the course of a little more than a week, the president will have two substantial engagements” with Zelensky, Sullivan said.
The double show of support comes after Biden faced criticism for reporting that he will skip an upcoming summit on Ukraine in Switzerland to go to a November presidential fundraiser with Hollywood stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
Zelensky has said that his absence would favor Russian President Vladimir Putin. US Vice President Kamala Harris and Sullivan will attend the Swiss summit on behalf of Biden.
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