Washington: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was expected to visit Washington on Wednesday for a possible meeting with Joe Biden and an address to Congress — his first trip abroad since Russia invaded in February.
Zelensky will meet US leader Joe Biden and address Congress in Washington on Wednesday, a visit the White House said will send Russia a strong message of Western unity.
The secretly arranged trip comes on the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet his top military officials to assess the dire results so far of the war on Ukraine and set goals for next year.
The visit will “underscore the United States’ steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
It will be Zelensky’s first trip outside Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February, when they planned for a rapid takeover of Kyiv and much of the country.
Instead, the visit to Washington comes on the 300th day of a war that has seen Russian forces halted by a stubborn Ukrainian army backed by Western arms, forced to retreat from captured territory and struggling to avoid further setbacks.
“On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of (Ukraine),” Zelensky tweeted, also confirming that he will make a speech to Congress.
Zelensky will visit the White House where Biden is to announce a new arms package worth almost $2 billion that a senior administration official said includes Patriot air defense missiles.
The visit will send Putin “a strong message of unity and resolve from the White House, from Washington, from the free world, on behalf of all the nations supporting Ukraine,” the official added.
