President Biden used the backdrop of the Normandy beaches on Friday to argue that defending democracy in Ukraine and around the world in 2024 is as important as the day American troops converge on D-Day Allies joined to save Europe from Hitler’s tyranny.
“As we gather here today,” he said, “we are not only about honoring those who showed such remarkable courage on that day, June 6, 1944, but also about listening to the echo of their voices Listen.” To hear them. Because they are calling us.”
“You don’t ask us to climb these cliffs,” Mr. Biden added during a speech on the edge of the same cliff where Ronald Reagan gave a similar speech about democracy four decades ago. “They ask us to stay true to what America stands for.”
Mr Biden gave the speech just hours after he apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the months-long delay in approving military aid and blamed the conservative Republican opposition. But he vowed to stand with Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression, comparing the struggle in Eastern Europe to the freedom struggles of World War II.
“I apologize that for weeks we didn’t know what was going to happen in terms of funding because we had difficulty getting the bill that we needed to pass that contained the money we needed,” Mr. Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart in the A private meeting in Paris beforehand. “Some of our very conservative members stuck with it.”
But Mr. Biden said his administration had “finally” approved the funding and he pledged to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
“They are the bulwark against the aggression that is taking place,” he said. “We’re still in it. Absolutely. Thorough.”
The meeting and pledge of support from Mr. Biden come at a critical time in the war with Russia, as the two allies look for ways to reverse battlefield dynamics that have helped President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces.
Mr. Zelensky thanked Mr. Biden for what he called the United States’ “significant support” in his troops’ fight against Russia and compared the American effort to the fight against Hitler 80 years ago.
“During World War II, the United States helped save lives and save Europe,” Mr. Zelensky said. “And we count on your continued support and your standing shoulder to shoulder with us. Thank you.”
The two men are taking part in ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which helped turn the tide against Nazi Germany in World War II. Mr. Biden will travel back to Normandy later in the day to give a speech honoring U.S. soldiers and connecting that long-ago war with today’s conflict in Ukraine.
The meeting was the first between the American and Ukrainian leaders since December and follows Mr. Biden’s decision last week to give Ukraine permission to fire U.S.-provided weapons into Russian territory. That was a policy reversal after more than two years of limits meant to prevent escalation with a nuclear-powered adversary.
But Mr. Biden only eased restrictions enough to authorize attacks on military targets just across the border in the northeast to defend Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Long-range strikes deeper into Russia are still prohibited.
In his brief remarks, Mr. Zelensky indirectly referred to Mr. Biden’s policy change, noting that it had been helpful to his armed forces.
“Their decisions have had a very positive impact,” he said. “I don’t want to give everything and all the details to the press, I’m sorry, but there are some details about the battlefield that you need to hear from us.”
Mr. Zelensky’s comments appeared to betray an ongoing frustration with the reluctance and desire for leeway to use the weapons for more than the limited self-defense currently permitted in the Kharkiv area.
Ukrainians are also disappointed that Mr. Biden will not attend a peace summit in Switzerland on June 15 organized by Mr. Zelensky. Vice President Kamala Harris and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, are scheduled to attend instead.
While it did not fulfill all of Mr. Zelensky’s wishes, Mr. Biden’s about-face on the use of U.S. weapons against targets inside Russia – a tactic also supported by other NATO countries – triggered a predictably testy reaction from Mr. Putin , which is a retaliatory measure.
Speaking to reporters in St. Petersburg this week, Putin pointed out that such a move meant that Russia “has the right to send our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where attacks on sensitive facilities of the countries are carried out could be “who do that against Russia.”
The United States has been the main arms supplier to Ukraine since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022. However, Mr. Biden was at times reluctant to provide more sophisticated weapons for fear of provoking an escalation with Moscow and House Republican leaders blocked additional military aid for six months, leaving Ukraine’s defenders scrambling for ammunition and weapons as Russia moved forward with heavy attacks .
Congress finally passed a $61 billion relief package in April, and now guns are flowing again. On Friday, Mr. Biden announced a $225 million package that he told Mr. Zelensky would “help you rebuild the electric grid.” American officials said the funding included money for air defense that could, among other things, defend an energy grid that has been badly damaged by relentless Russian attacks.
The meeting with Mr. Zelensky was the first of two meetings in the coming days for Mr. Biden, who also plans to meet his Ukrainian counterpart at the Group of Seven meeting in Italy later next week.
“It is a signal of the depth of our commitment to Ukraine at this crucial moment,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters this week. “And this opportunity for the president and Zelensky to sit down twice will really allow them to examine in depth every aspect and every issue of the war.”
Mr. Biden’s speech in Normandy on Friday afternoon is designed to further connect the fight to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny with the effort to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression eight decades later, expanding on a theme he has continued to promote at a ceremony on Thursday.
He will speak from Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers climbed 100-foot cliffs to take out a suspected German gun emplacement on D-Day, one of the most daring moments of the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944.
In doing so, Mr. Biden will follow in the footsteps of President Ronald Reagan, who gave one of the most memorable speeches of his presidency at Pointe du Hoc in 1984, and make a similar argument for American leadership and democracy on the world stage during a time of isolation at home.
Source link
2024-06-07 18:51:13
www.nytimes.com
