‘You are man of the year’: Biden welcomes Ukrainian leader to White House:
US President Joe Biden has welcomed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the White House with renewed assurances of support amid Russia’s continued onslaught on Ukraine.
“Thank you first of all,” Zelenskiy told the US president in a meeting in the Oval Office. “It’s a great honour to be here.”
The Ukrainian president, who said he had wanted to come to the United States earlier, offered his appreciation to Biden, the US Congress and ordinary Americans for their support on Wednesday.
He gave Biden the Ukrainian cross for military merit, offered by a captain of a HIMARS rocket unit it had been awarded to.
“Well, undeserved but appreciated,” Biden said, promising to give the Ukrainian captain a command coin from a US battlefield in Iraq, where his son Beau had fought.
The US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems have proven to be pivotal to the Ukrainian offensives in August that drove the Russians out of Kharkiv and then Kherson last month, bolstering Ukraine’s strategy of hitting Russian command-and-control nodes, logistics routes and ammunition dumps.
Biden also pledged to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, particularly its air defence. “That’s why we’re going to be providing Ukraine with a Patriot missile battery and training your forces to be able to accurately use it,” he said.
“You are the man of the year,” the US president then told Zelenskiy of Time Magazine’s decision to put him on cover.
Biden also said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “escalating his assaults on civilians” and trying to “use winter as a weapon”.
Zelenskiy arrived at the White House’s South Lawn in a black Chevrolet with tinted windows, wearing his trademark olive green sweater and cargo pants. He stood between Biden and his wife Jill for a photo, then Biden put his arm around him as he guided him inside.
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Zelenskiy said he would hold talks with Biden to strengthen Kyiv’s defence capabilities against Russia’s devastating invasion.
He will participate in a joint news conference with Biden, and then Zelenskiy will go to Congress on Capitol Hill to address a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Ukraine in recent weeks has come under repeated Russian missile and drone strikes targeting its energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without electricity or running water in the dead of a freezing winter.
Zelenskiy’s political adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the visit would allow Ukraine to explain the need for more advanced weaponry. Some US Republicans have expressed skepticism.
“…Weapons, weapons and more weapons,” Podolyak told Reuters in written comments about goals for the trip. “In particular, armoured vehicles, the latest missile defence systems and long-range missiles.”
