President Joe Biden issued a public apology to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, attributing Ukraine’s aid struggles to the obstruction by Republican members in Congress. The apology took place during their meeting in Paris, France, as part of Biden’s pre-G7 summit engagements before his upcoming visit to Italy. Biden expressed regret to Zelenskyy for the delay in approving the $60 billion aid package for Ukraine’s security, acknowledging the hindrance caused by certain conservative lawmakers.
“We’re not gonna walk away from you. I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what was going to pass, in terms of funding,” Biden told Zelenskyy in front of reporters on Friday. “And because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass — that had the money in it — some of our very conservative members who were holding it up. But we got it done, finally.”
The aid package worth $60 billion was approved by Congress and signed by President Biden in April following extensive discussions and disagreements among lawmakers. President Biden has consistently shown public support for Ukraine’s efforts in the ongoing conflict with Russia, having allocated a total of $175 billion in aid since the conflict began in 2022.
Privately, however, the Biden administration has reportedly expressed reservations about Russia’s increasing chances of success as it makes progress along the Eastern front of the conflict. Russia’s military has significantly recovered from the losses it faced in the initial years of the war and is not facing the same shortages in manpower or weapons that Ukraine is experiencing.
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