“I spoke to Zelensky this afternoon to let him know that I am confident that we are going to have this money,” Joe Biden told reporters as the Ukrainian president launched an appeal in Munich urging the West to deliver more weapons after Russia claimed “full control” of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka.
If the leader was stunned by the forced withdrawal of the army, announced overnight, from the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, he did not let anything show during his speech on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, in Germany.
But his message is clear: “our actions are limited only by the quantity and scope of the range of our forces – which does not depend on us,” he told the officials gathered for this high mass. of world diplomacy, as Ukraine enters its third year of war.
“We can get our land back.
And Putin can lose.
This has already happened more than once on the battlefield,” he argued.
However, he deplored that Ukraine was “kept in an artificial deficit of weapons, in particular artillery and long-range capabilities”.
This lack “allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war.”
kyiv has been asking its allies for months for long-range weapons capable of hitting Russian troops more deeply.
“Political games”
But the situation is still blocked in the United States: kyiv has been hoping for months for the vote on crucial aid of some 60 billion dollars decided by the government of Joe Biden and hampered by a Republican opposition under the influence of Donald Trump.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he had discussed the situation on the front with Joe Biden on the phone and said he believed with the American president in a “wise decision” by the American Congress.
“I am happy to be able to count on the full support of the American president.
We also believe in the wise decision of the US Congress,” he wrote on Telegram messaging.
The United States must deliver “what it promised” to Ukraine, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg demanded.
If the European and Canadian efforts are welcome, "the most important decision is that of the United States to agree on an aid package, due to the scale and military capabilities" of the pillar country of the Alliance, he insisted.
American Vice-President Kamala Harris tried to reassure Volodymyr Zelensky during interviews in Munich, where she had already met him two years ago, "five days before the Russian invasion", she said. -she reminded.
On aid to Ukraine, “there is bipartisan support.
(…) We are unshakeable.
And it has nothing to do with an electoral cycle,” said Kamala Harris, who warned against “political games” in the middle of the campaign for the November presidential election in the United States.
The Ukrainian president described the pending American aid as “vital”.