Biden pledges another $500 mn in aid to Ukraine
Washington, Mar 30 (EFE).- The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional $500 million in direct budgetary assistance, President Joe Biden told Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the Wednesday, the White House said.
In a telephone conversation that lasted about an hour, the two men discussed the efforts of Washington and its allies “to deliver military, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and to impose severe costs on Russia for its brutal aggression against Ukraine,” according to a statement.
The White House offered no specifics as to how Kyiv will use the extra $500 million.
Biden and Zelenskyy noted the “critical effects” US-supplied weapons and military materiel have had on the course of the conflict since Russia invaded on Feb. 24 and spoke of initiatives to “identify additional capabilities to help the Ukrainian military defend its country,” the statement said.
Zelenskyy also briefed Biden on the latest developments in Ukraine’s negotiations with Russia in Istanbul, the White House said.
The Ukrainian representatives to those talks said that Kyiv would be willing to renounce eventual membership in NATO or any other military alliance in exchange for written security guarantees from 10 countries: the United States, China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Poland, and Israel. EFE
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