Joe Biden ‘confident’ of renewed US war aid for Ukraine

Joe Biden has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he is ‘confident’ the US congress will renew war aid.

US President Joe Biden: ‘I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need.’ Picture: AFP

Joe Biden has told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he is “confident” the US congress will renew war aid, adding that without American help, Kyiv could lose more territory to Russian advances.

The leaders spoke hours after Russia captured the eastern Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka, a major symbolic victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Avdiivka, mostly destroyed, had been a symbol of Ukraine’s determined resistance to Russian ­aggression since 2014.

“I spoke with Zelensky this afternoon to let him know that I was confident we’re going to get that money,” the US President said after attending church in Delaware.

Failure by congress to approve new funding for military aid to Kyiv would be “absurd” and “unethical,” he said, adding: “I’m going to fight to get them the ammunition they need.”

The White House said the Ukrainian withdrawal from Avdiivka came “after Ukrainian soldiers had to ration ammunition due to dwindling supplies as a ­result of congressional inaction, resulting in Russia’s first notable gains in months”.

Mr Biden said he was not confident another Ukrainian city wouldn’t fall to Russian forces without an infusion of US aid.

“I’m not. I’m not. No one can be,” he said.

With existing US funding ­already dried up, former president Donald Trump’s allies in the House of Representatives have been stalling $US60bn ($92bn) in military aid.

Mr Trump, the likely Republican nominee in the November presidential election, opposes helping Kyiv and recently used his sway to kill a US border reform bill that would have also authorised additional aid to Ukraine.

In a post on Telegram following the phone call, Mr Zelensky said: “I am glad that I can count on the full support of the American president. We also believe in the wise decision of the US congress.”

The statements of US support came as Vice-President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State ­Antony Blinken were scrambling to reassure Western allies at the Munich Security Conference that Washington’s support of Kyiv’s war effort against the Russian ­invasion would continue.

Speaking in Munich alongside Mr Zelensky, Ms Harris said: “As it relates to our support for Ukraine, we must be unwavering and we cannot play political games.”

The capture of Avdiivka represents Russia’s biggest victory in the war since May.

Mr Putin “congratulated our military and fighters on such an important victory”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media.

Facing ammunition shortages and outnumbered on the battlefield, Ukrainian forces announced they had withdrawn in the early hours of Saturday.

It followed months of pressure after Russian forces stepped up ­efforts to capture the eastern industrial hub in October, devastating the city and causing mass casualties.

Ukraine’s newly appointed commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky earlier said he had “decided to withdraw our units from the city and switch to defence on more favourable lines”. A number of Ukrainian servicemen were captured in the operation, several military officials said.

It was General Syrsky’s first major decision since his appointment earlier this month.

On the eastern frontline, one Ukrainian serviceman said withdrawing was “the right decision, given the lack of weapons and artillery shells, because if we don’t save the lives of the soldiers, we will soon have no one left to fight”.

Avdiivka lies in the Donetsk ­region of Ukraine, which the Kremlin has claimed to be part of Russia since a 2022 annexation that remains unrecognised by nearly all UN members. In July 2014, it briefly fell into the hands of pro-Russian separatists before ­returning to Ukrainian control.

The battle for Avdiivka, less than 10km north of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, has been one of the bloodiest of the nearly two-year war.

Many compare it to the battle for Bakhmut, in which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed.

Mykola Bielieskov, from Ukraine’s ­National Institute for Strategic Studies, said holding ­Avdiivka would grant no advantage to Russia, whose positions in the city of Donetsk “even with the ruins of Avdiivka, wouldn’t be fully secured”.

Avdiivka had about 30,000 residents before the Russian invasion. Most of the city has since been ­destroyed and fewer than 1000 ­ remain, local officials said.

“I am surprised that Avdiivka has held out for two years,” Oleksii, a 50-year-old sergeant in the Donetsk region, said.

Russian forces “destroy everything, level it to the ground.

“You can’t hold the city because it no longer exists.”

AFP