INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
United States President Joe Biden will meet Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday with a package of $225 million in
weapons on the sidelines of D-Day anniversary events, Reuters reported.It will be their first face-to-face talks since Zelenskiy visited
Washington in December, when the two wrestled with Republican opposition to more Ukraine aid
They will meet again next week at a G7 summit in Italy, as rich nations discuss using Russian assets frozen after the Ukraine invasion to
provide $50 billion for Ukraine.Zelenskiy told Reuters last month that Western countries are taking too long to make decisions about
aid.Biden in remarks in Normandy, France, on Thursday drew a link between the World War Two battle against tyranny and Ukraine&s war with
Russia, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a &dictator.The $225 million in new weaponry includes artillery rounds and air defense
interceptors, among other items, sources said
Ukraine has struggled to defend the Kharkiv region after an offensive launched by Moscow on May 10 has overrun some villages.Biden last week
shifted his position and decided Ukraine could launch United States -supplied weapons at military targets inside Russia that are supporting
the Kharkiv offensive.The United States is trying to catch up with Ukraine&s weaponry needs, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said
in Washington Thursday.If there were two things that we could provide an infinite number of to the Ukrainians to try to turn the tide in
this war, it would be artillery munitions and air defense interceptors,& but the United States lacked supply, Finer told a forum by the
Center for a New American Security.Outside the physical battlefield, the Russia-Ukraine war is &also a competition that takes place in our
factories, the factories in Europe, the factories in Ukraine,& he said.Reaching consensus on the frozen assets has been complicated, Daleep
Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, told the same group.We&re waist-deep in the sausage-making of trying to
strike a deal,& said Singh, who said he was heading back to Italy on Friday to continue the negotiations.The post Biden to meet Zelenskiy in
France with $225 million in military aid first appeared on Ariana News.
