President Zelenskyy met with leaders in Washington Thursday as he continued efforts to cement support for Ukraine. The leader of the country fighting against Russia’s invasion presented his "victory plan" to leaders, as the White House rolled out a “surge” in new assistance.
The meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris come after President Zelenskyy has worked to cement global support for Ukraine and its peace plan during this week’s UN general assembly.
“We deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side from the very first moments of this terrible Russian invasion. Your determination is incredibly important for us to prevail,” Zelenskyy said, seated next to President Biden in the Oval Office.
Zelenskyy presented the broad contours of the plan, according to White House national security communications advisor John Kirby. The teams expected to "engage in intensive consultation regarding next steps,” into the details over the coming weeks, according to a White House readout of the meeting.
“Broadly speaking, it contains a series of initiatives and steps and objectives that President Zelenskyy believes will be important, not only for helping him end the war that he's in now, but prevent another one, and be able to deter and defeat any future Russian aggression once the war is over,” Kirby said.
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Zelenskyy called for strong sanctions, the use of proceeds of frozen Russian assets and strengthened air defense.
The meeting comes as Zelenskyy has warned of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the UN General Assembly, Zelenskyy said Russia was planning attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants in particular; as Ukraine has carried out operations in Russian territory against military targets; and as Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for western nations including the US to lift restrictions on the use of their weapons to strike deeper into Russia.
While no new policy changes were made on the use of long-range weapons, the White House announced significant new aid.
Coinciding with the visit, President Biden directed the Department of Defense to allocate all remaining security assistance funding designated for Ukraine by the end of his term in office. The department announced a security assistance package with $2.4 billion including more air defense and air to ground munitions. Biden also authorized $5.5 billion in Presidential drawdown authority, which allows for the drawdown of US stocks and their subsequent replenishment, which comes before authority expired with the end of the fiscal year after not being including in Congress’ continuing resolution for the budget.
The additional aid the White House announced also included the provision of Joint Standoff weapons, a medium range capability; another Patriot battery and additional Patriot missiles; the training of 18 additional Ukrainian pilots on F-16s; and a leader level convening of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany next month, an organization of dozens of nations coordinating support for Ukraine. Biden and Zelenskyy are expected to meet again there and review progress on the victory plan consultations.
“We are making it clear we stand with Ukraine now and in the future,” Biden said.
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed the message during her seventh meeting with Zelenskyy. During remarks she underscored continued support for Ukraine and criticized calls for Ukraine to negotiate territory.
“There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality and would require Ukraine to forego security relationships with other nations,” Vice President Harris said. “These proposals are the same of those of Putin. And let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”
Former president Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine should have negotiated with Russia before its invasion and called Zelenskyy “the greatest salesman on Earth.”
Trump said he would meet with Zelenskyy on Friday.
“We'll see I do believe I disagree with him. He doesn't know me but I disagree but I will say this, I believe I will be able to make a deal between President Putin and president Zelenskyy, quite quickly,” Trump said, defending his strategy as “not a surrender.”
However, the administration has been clear that how the war ends is up to President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people.
“If there's trade space, he gets to decide what that trade space is. He's not getting direction from the United States and administration in one way or another when it comes to that,” said Kirby.
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