US President Joe Biden has apologized to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for the delay earlier this year in passing a new military aid package, which was held up by Republican opposition in Congress.
Biden made the apology while announcing a new aid package for Ukraine in a bilateral meeting with Zelensky on Friday.
“You know, you haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, is just remarkable—and we’re not going to walk away from you,” Biden told the Ukrainian president.
“I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what’s going to pass, in terms of funding, because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money from some of our very conservative members who were holding it up, but we got it done.”
Biden took the opportunity to tout Friday’s funding announcement, as well as the additional funding surged to Ukraine since he signed the supplemental in April.7 hr 20 min ago
“Europe is no longer a continent of peace,” Zelensky tells French parliament
From CNN’s Christian Edwards
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the return of fascism in Europe, 80 years after D-Day, the Allied invasion of France which laid the foundations for the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
“Unfortunately, we live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace. And at a time when Nazism is unfortunately making a comeback,” Zelensky told the French National Assembly in Paris Friday.
Zelensky had joined other world leaders and veterans in marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, northwest France, on Thursday, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rages on.
“Once again in Europe, cities are being completely destroyed and villages are being burnt down. Once again in Europe, filtration and deportation camps are appearing, and hatred, which has become a new Russian cult,” Zelensky told French lawmakers Friday.
7 hr 44 min ago
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid inflict “unprecedented scale of destruction”
From CNN’s Svitlana Vlasova
Large swaths of Ukraine are facing rolling and emergency blackouts as the country grapples with historic low energy capacity due to Russian strikes targeting critical infrastructure.
Nearly half of Ukraine’s available capacity has been damaged or destroyed, according to Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.
“We are dealing with an absolutely unprecedented scale of destruction. And the deficits that we have in the power system now, which are not even covered by the fairly powerful imports that come from Europe to Ukraine, are precisely the result of this destruction,” Kudrytskyi told local media.
The destruction means Ukraine is facing a historic low energy generation capacity, he said, and announced electricity consumption limits in all regions of Ukraine.
“The main reason for the restrictions is the consequences of six enemy missile attacks on Ukrainian power plants. Due to significant damage, they cannot produce as much electricity as before the attacks,” he explained.
Ukraine has imported energy from neighboring Poland, Romania and Moldova. It has also received emergency assistance from Poland, but Kudrytskyi warned these measures are insufficient.8 hr 30 min ago
Biden set to make case for democracy from scene of American heroism
From CNN’s Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak
US President Joe Biden is set to present a case for democracy Friday against the backdrop of a key turning point for allied forces in World War II – setting up a dramatic moment with war once more on Europe’s doorstep and teeing up a domestic contrast with his political rival.
Biden will travel to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France, on Friday – a site separating the Omaha and Utah beaches where American Army Rangers scaled steep cliffs to secure positions against the Germans – for a speech on the power of democracy invoking the symbolism of the location.
The speech will stand out as a call to modern-day action against an isolationist streak seeping into American politics and a rise of authoritarianism around the world.
Eighty years after the allied landings, the president will draw a “throughline” from World War II to today in his remarks, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. But the subtext of the speech is also likely to be aimed at former President Donald Trump.
“He’ll talk about the stakes of that moment – an existential fight between dictatorship and freedom. He’ll talk about the men who scaled those cliffs and how they… put the country ahead of themselves. And he’ll talk about the dangers of isolationism and how if we back dictators, fail to stand up to them, they keep going, and ultimately, America and the world pays a greater price,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Read more here.9 hr 25 min ago
Zelensky compares Kyiv’s struggle and World War II, in speech to French lawmakers
From CNN’s Joseph Ataman in Paris
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky drew parallels between World War II and his country’s battle against Russia in an address to French lawmakers in Paris Friday.
“Hitler crossed red line after red line, Putin does the same,” he said, adding that Ukrainians were the heirs of the Allied fighters of WW2.
His speech was greeted rapturously by the French National Assembly, with lawmakers giving him a standing ovation. In the opening months of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Zelensky addressed the French National Assembly by video.
