The US welcomed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday on a visit ringing with symbolism, which nevertheless underlined the limits of Western support for Kiev in its showdown with Russia.
Poroshenko sat side-by-side with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and drew multiple standing ovations from lawmakers in a ceremonial joint meeting of both chambers of the US Congress.
His appeal for NATO to grant Ukraine non-member ally status to help bolster its defenses appeared to make little headway, despite his warning that non-lethal aid like “blankets” cannot win wars.
The visit came at a potentially pivotal point in the showdown between Russia and Ukraine, a conflict that has drawn the US into its worst confrontation with the Kremlin since the end of the Cold War.
New talks between Ukraine, separatists, Russia and the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe will take place on Friday in Minsk, a Belarusian official said.
Reflecting the tense atmosphere, the Ukrainian government accused Moscow of massing 4,000 troops on border of Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
The White House had said that the mere image of Obama and Poroshenko sitting side-by-side would “be worth at least a thousand words, both in English and in Russian.”
Obama praised Poroshenko for providing “critical” leadership at an “important time in Ukraine’s history” and endorsed his “difficult” decision to pass laws offering self-rule to some eastern districts of Ukraine to appease separatists.
Obama also condemned Russian “aggression, first in Crimea and most recently in portions of eastern Ukraine,” which he said was designed to undermine the country’s territorial integrity and Poroshenko’s efforts to cement economic reforms.
“President Poroshenko is ... the right man for the job,” said Obama, promising to continue rallying NATO and Western nations in Ukraine’s support.
Poroshenko expressed his beleaguered nation’s thanks for foreign support, telling the US: “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
He said the only way to ease the crisis in eastern parts of Ukraine was the fragile peace process.
And he called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, the closure of the Russian border to other troops and ammunition, and the release of Ukrainian “hostages.”
Earlier, the former chocolate tycoon addressed Congress, and was more explicit than when he spoke with Obama.
“There are moments in history when freedom is more than just a political concept,” he said. “At those moments, freedom becomes [an] ultimate choice which defines who you are.”
Nostalgia for the Soviet Union and European imperialism had conjured up a “revisionist” attitude in Moscow, he said, and warned Russian-backed proxy wars and extremist movements first seen in Crimea must be confined.
“If they are not stopped now, they will cross European borders and spread throughout the globe,” Poroshenko said.
In a speech punctuated by multiple standing ovations, Poroshenko called on NATO to grant Ukraine special status to help it beef up its defenses.
He also asked for more political support, tougher sanctions on Russia and lethal military aid.
“Blankets and night-vision goggles are important,” he said. “But one can not win a war with blankets.”
A senior US official said Washington would offer Ukraine US$46 million more in non-lethal aid, mainly for border and military guards.
Poroshenko did not secure US support for its request for non-NATO member ally status, which Moscow would likely view as a provocation.
The official said that, because of its existing ties to the Western alliance, including in the NATO-Ukraine commission, Kiev already enjoyed the benefits it would get from such status, including security help, advice, training and joint exercises.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion