President Joe Biden had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday — their first connection since Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot stay in power.”
The two men spoke for a little less than an hour on a day when Zelenskyy renewed his urge for powerful defensive weapons, according to the White House.
The two men discussed “the ongoing work of the United States and its allies and partners to provide military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and to impose heavy costs on Russia for its brutal aggression against Ukraine,” a White House statement said. ‘
“Leaders discussed how the United States is working around the clock to meet Ukraine’s top security assistance requests,” it said — amid domestic pressure on Biden to do more.
They also discussed “the critical impact these weapons have had on the conflict and the United States’ continued efforts with allies and partners to identify additional capabilities to help the Ukrainian military defend its country.”
Biden told his counterpart the US would provide $500 million in direct budget assistance, which appears to be on top of a recently announced $1 million in humanitarian aid and $800 million in military aid.
“President Zelenskyy updated President Biden on the status of Ukraine’s negotiations with Russia,” it said.
Biden held talks with Ukraine’s defense and foreign ministers during his trip to Belgium and Poland on Saturday in Warsaw.
He ended his trip with a speech denouncing Putin and trying to rally allies to support Ukraine.
But Zelensky and his top advisers have continued to urge the US and its allies to do more – including calls to close the skies over Ukraine and deploy fighter jets. In a speech to NATO allies, Zelenskyy advocated that nations should spare only 1 percent of their tanks and aircraft.
Even as Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Zelenskyi’s team, a senior adviser called for more “courage” from NATO allies arming Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with President Joe Biden for about an hour on Wednesday morning
‘The [NATO] The Alliance makes decisions as if they were there [were] no war,” Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, told the Atlantic Council over the weekend.
Zelenskyi addressed Norway’s parliament on Wednesday, where he urged allies to provide more weapons and defenses. He called for harpoon missiles, anti-ship missiles and air defense.
“Any weapons that you can use to help us will only be used to protect our freedom, your freedom,” he said. Harpoon missiles are long-range anti-ship missiles.
The call comes as a US official said Putin had been misled by his top advisers amid indications he was aware of battlefield casualties and logistical nightmares that Russia’s forces have endured since their invasion began on March 24 .February was not fully aware.
“We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military,” leading him to distrust leaders, said a US official, who discussed released information on condition of anonymity.
President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Saturday, March 26, 2022, where he concluded with a flourish where he said Putin must not remain in power
President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (second from left) and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in Warsaw
A man with belongings walks past a completely destroyed vehicle and a building in Sviatoshinsky district in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 30, 2022 after Russian shelling
The city market is damaged by night shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Ukrainian officials say Russian troops bombed areas around Kyiv and another Ukrainian city overnight. The attacks come hours after Moscow pledged to limit military operations in those locations
“Putin didn’t even know that his military was deploying and losing conscripts in Ukraine, showing a clear collapse in the flow of accurate information to the Russian president,” the official said, Reuters reported.
Biden tried to clarify his comments on Putin on Monday, insisting he was expressing outrage at the Russian leader’s brutality in Ukraine rather than unveiling a new US policy.
“First, I’m not going back,” he said.
“The fact is, I have expressed the moral outrage I felt at the way Putin is acting … and this man’s actions, which are simply brutality.”
Biden, 79, said he was not concerned his comments would escalate tensions over the war in Ukraine.
“This is just a simple fact that this type of behavior is totally unacceptable,” he said.
For his part, Zelenskyy said he was open to direct talks with Putin – and signaled in a recent interview he was open to Ukraine’s “neutrality” but said any status change would have to be decided in a referendum after Russian troops left.