Biden promises new military aid for Kyiv

KYIV/WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, a striking gesture of solidarity coming days away from the one-year anniversary of the conflict with Russia.

Speaking alongside Zelensky at Mariinsky Palace, Biden recalled the fear nearly a year ago that Russian forces might quickly take the Ukrainian capital. "One year later, Kyiv stands," he said.

The Ukraine visit came at a crucial moment as Biden looks to keep allies unified in their support for the country, with the conflict expected to intensify as both sides prepare for spring offensives. Zelensky is pressing allies to speed up delivery of pledged weapon systems and is calling on the West to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine, something that Biden to date has declined to do.

In Kyiv, Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in US assistance — on top of the more than $50 billion already provided — including shells for howitzers, antitank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid, but no new advanced weaponry.

Ukraine has also been pushing for battlefield systems that would allow its forces to strike Russian targets that have been moved back from front-line areas, out of the range of HIMARS missiles that have already been delivered.

Zelensky said he and Biden spoke about "long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn't supplied before". But he did not detail any new commitments. "Our negotiations were very fruitful," he added.

Biden's mission with this visit, coming ahead of a scheduled trip to Warsaw, Poland, was to underscore that the US is prepared to stick with Ukraine "as long as it takes" to repel Russian forces, even as public opinion polling suggests that US and allied support for providing weaponry and direct economic assistance has started to soften, The Associated Press commented.

For Zelensky, it added, the symbolism of having the United States president stand side by side with him on Ukrainian land as the anniversary nears is no small thing as he prods the US and European allies to provide more advanced weaponry and to step up the pace of delivery.

'War machine' protest

Speculation has been building for weeks that Biden would pay a visit to Ukraine around the Feb 24 anniversary. The White House had repeatedly said that no presidential trip to Kyiv was planned, even after the Poland visit was announced this month.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters attended a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, slamming the US' role as a "war machine" in overseas conflicts.

Organizers said the rally was to protest the massive amounts of money being funneled into Ukraine, as well as the US' role in the ongoing conflict. "Billions of taxpayers' dollars are being torched at the altar of US hegemony, the military-industrial complex, and a corrupt Congress," they said in a news release.

Jimmy Dore, a US political commentator and media personality, spoke at Sunday's rally, saying: "Do you know we could end this war today through diplomacy? But our politicians want to enrich weapons manufacturers, so they keep donating to them."

Cat McGuire, a protester from New York City, said the overarching goal of the rally was to stop the conflict in Ukraine. "People have to wake up," she said. "There's massive warmongering propaganda and, unfortunately, too many people have bought into it."

Other speakers and protesters also lashed out at the US military-industrial complex, a powerful interest group made of the military, private defense contractors, and politicians.

After the rally, the protesters marched to the White House, chanting slogans including "No NATO, no war".

Eric Reeves, a protester from Texas, said that the military-industrial complex, which has huge influence on Washington's decision-makers, is way out of control. The US government is "not doing the will of the American people" and is "making decisions without consulting us", he added.

Agencies - Xinhua