President Joe Biden sought to ramp up pressure on Russia, announcing more than $2.8 billion in additional aid for Ukraine and its neighbors and dispatching top national security officials to Europe ahead of a call with allies.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden sought to ramp up pressure on Russia, announcing more than $2.8 billion in additional aid for Ukraine and its neighbors and dispatching top national security officials to Europe ahead of a call with allies.
The call — under way Thursday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter — will underscore “continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression,” the White House said in a statement, without providing further details. People familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private planning, said Biden would lead the video session with participants including Group of Seven leaders, as well as the leaders of NATO and the European Union.
Biden has sought to maintain unity in backing Ukraine, and the call comes the same week the UK swore in a new leader, Liz Truss, who has positioned herself as a hawk in the confrontation with Russia that’s approaching its seven-month mark.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Kyiv. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Germany for a meeting with other European leaders and said the war was entering a “new phase” with a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Meeting Blinken in Kyiv, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his visit “sends a very important signal” about the US commitment to Ukraine. He thanked the administration for its security assistance and support stabilizing the country’s economy.
Blinken said the Ukrainian counteroffensive is “under way and proving effective,” and attributed much of the success to the fact that Ukrainians are defending their homeland from Russia.
“It’s gotten to a point where Moscow is now seeking military assistance from North Korea and Iran, as we have systematically choked off their access points elsewhere,” Blinken said in reference to intelligence that shows Russia is buying Iranian drones and North Korean munitions. “And we will continue to exert that pressure until the aggression ceases and Ukraine is fully sovereign and independent.”
The US also is planning to provide another $2.8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine and its neighbors, including NATO allies, Blinken said in a statement. That includes $2.2 billion in future foreign military aid and $675 million in arms, munitions and equipment drawn from existing Pentagon inventory.
“Putin’s bet I think is that he’s going to be tougher, than the Ukrainians, than the Europeans, than the Americans, that he can wear down the Ukrainians, strangle their economy,” CIA Director William Burns said at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit in Washington.
“I believe, and my colleagues at CIA believe, that Putin is as wrong about that bet as he was profoundly wrong in his assumptions going back to last February about Ukrainian will to resist and the will of the West, of the United States and all of our partners, to support the Ukrainians,” Burns said.
Blinken met Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for a 30-minute conversation. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced NATO will host Blinken for meetings in Brussels on Friday.
The Pentagon has also sent Ukraine its most accurate artillery shell, the GPS-guided Excalibur, according to budget documents. Excalibur’s accuracy reduces the number of rounds required while reducing collateral damage. Each round costs about $100,000.
Biden’s call takes place as Ukraine pursues an offensive against Russian forces and as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since the war began in February.
That encounter will be on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit that runs from Sept. 15-16 in Uzbekistan, Russia’s ambassador to China Andrey Denisov said, according to a Tass report.
Both Putin and Xi also plan to attend the Group of 20 summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in November, according to Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo.
Stoltenberg wrote in Wednesday’s Financial Times that the war is “entering a critical phase” and warned of a tough winter ahead for members of the military alliance that could include “energy cuts, disruptions and perhaps even civil unrest.”
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