US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky will meet next Thursday at the White House. This was announced this Friday by Jake Sullivan, Biden's main foreign advisor, who stressed the importance of this meeting taking place just after the summit this week between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. a.
“Certainly, the meeting comes at a critical time, as Russia is desperately seeking help from countries like North Korea for its brutal war in Ukraine, while Ukrainian forces continue to advance their counteroffensive,” Sullivan said at a press conference.
The details of the meeting between Kim and Putin have not been made public but, at its end, the Russian president stated in statements to public television Rossía-1 that there is room for military and space cooperation with North Korea.
In addition to meeting Biden, Zelensky will also see Democratic congressional leaders next week, Sullivan said.
The meeting at the White House will come after Zelensky participates in the United Nations General Assembly's High-Level Week, where leaders from around the world gather to address the most important current issues and deliver speeches to their peers.
Biden and Zelensky are scheduled to speak on Tuesday, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is attending in Putin's place, is expected to speak on Saturday, according to the provisional schedule provided by the UN.
More humanitarian aid
The meeting will take place at a time when Biden is trying to convince Congress to approve $24 billion in humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine, where the counteroffensive is yielding less satisfactory results than expected by some lawmakers in Washington.
In particular, a growing number of House Republicans have been trying to reduce military assistance and criticizing what they see as a “blank check” for Ukraine.
This will be the sixth bilateral meeting between Biden and Zelensky since the American assumed the presidency in January 2021.
The first two took place at the White House – one in September 2021 before the start of the war and the second in December 2022 -, which marked Zelensky's first foreign visit since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. .
The third meeting took place in kyiv in February of this year, coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion.. The fourth meeting took place in May on the sidelines of the G7 in Hiroshima, Japan, and the fifth in July during the NATO summit in Vilnius.