Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the United States to mark the start of his first known trip abroad since the Russian war of aggression began. The 44-year-old was welcomed by US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill with a red carpet in front of the White House in the capital Washington on Wednesday afternoon (local time). Biden and Selenskyj greeted each other with a handshake. A joint press conference was planned later. Even before the visit, the US had announced that it would be supplying a Patriot air defense system to Ukraine.
The US is the main ally in Ukraine's defense against the Russian invasion. Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the United States has provided almost $22 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The US government had publicly warned early on of a Russian attack on Ukraine, citing intelligence information. Since the invasion began, the US and its allies have imposed tough sanctions on Russia.
Zelenskyj landed on Wednesday at the Joint Base Andrews military airport near the US capital Washington with an American government plane. A speech by Zelenskyj before the congress is also planned for the evening, American time. He had already given a video address to the US Congress in March. At that time he called for the establishment of a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the war on February 24, Zelenskyj had avoided trips abroad. For appearances on the political world stage - for example at the G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria - he always had himself connected digitally from Ukraine.
This is Zelenskyy's second visit to the White House since Biden took office. The US President last received him in Washington in the summer of 2021. According to the White House, Biden and Zelenskyj spoke for the first time about a possible visit to Washington during a phone call in mid-December. An official invitation followed later.
Russia criticized Zelenskyj's trip to the USA and the announced new arms deliveries. "All this is undoubtedly leading to an aggravation of the conflict and in itself does not bode well for Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency Interfax. He does not expect that Zelensky will be more willing to negotiate with Moscow after his trip.
Parallel to Zelenskyj's business trip, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at an extended meeting of the Defense Ministry in Moscow. There he called for a faster pace of rearmament and modernization of the armed forces. As an example, the Kremlin chief cited the use of drones - a weakness of the Russian armed forces up to now. In addition, the new Sarmat ICBM, which can be equipped with nuclear warheads, will soon be operational. There are "no financial restrictions" on further upgrading of the army, Putin said.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated since it was first published.
