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Joe Biden has pledged support from the US and its allies for Ukraine “until they prevail” in the war against Russia’s invasion and said Washington would send more air defence systems to Kyiv after signing a 10-year defence pact with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The US president’s comments and the deal with his Ukrainian counterpart marked a show of unity between the leaders following tensions between Washington and Kyiv in recent weeks.
Biden and Zelenskyy announced the deal on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy, as the group of leading advanced economies announced new measures to support Kyiv and punish Russia for its two-and-a-half year long military invasion of Ukraine.
The G7 had taken “major steps” at the summit that “collectively show Putin that he cannot wait us out, he cannot divide us and we will be with Ukraine until they prevail in this war”, Biden said.
During the summit, G7 countries approved a new scheme to send $50bn in loans to Ukraine backed by proceeds from frozen Russian sovereign assets, and some increased sanctions on Moscow and international networks aiding its war.
Biden also said he had secured commitments for the delivery of additional air defence systems to Ukraine — including Patriot missile batteries Kyiv has been clamouring for after Russia escalated its aerial attacks on critical infrastructure.
Biden said five countries had agreed to send Patriot and other air defence systems to Ukraine. Other countries expecting the delivery of US air defence systems would have to wait because “everything we have is going to go to Ukraine until their needs are met”, he said.
Ukraine would begin receiving some of the systems “relatively quickly”, he said.
Biden’s comments were his most emphatic on US support for Ukraine since Congress approved a $60bn aid package for Kyiv in April, handing the country much-needed military support after months of delay and political wrangling in Washington. During the winter months, US aid had slowed to a trickle and the US president toned down his pledges to Kyiv.
Zelenskyy had recently been bruised by Biden’s decision to skip a peace summit organised by Ukraine in Switzerland at the weekend and return to the US for an election campaign fundraiser in California. Kamala Harris, US vice-president, will attend the conference instead.
But in a move that was welcomed by Kyiv, the US authorised Ukraine to use some American weapons to strike military targets inside Russia in the area across the border from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The security pact agreed in Italy falls short of the mutual defence guarantee that Ukraine would be part of if it joined Nato, though the US did pledge that the country’s “future” lies inside the transatlantic alliance.
But it does commit the US to help develop Ukrainian military capacity beyond the support it has given Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion, including boosting its air defence, munitions stockpiles, ability to deploy modern fighter jets, cyber defence and its naval force in the Black Sea.
The deal, first reported by the Financial Times last month, commits the US to “deter and confront any future aggression against the territorial integrity” of Ukraine and “assist Ukraine in maintaining a credible defence and deterrence capability”.
Among the pact’s provisions is a boost to intelligence sharing and military training. Ukraine made new pledges on economic and political reforms, including the implementation of “robust” anti-corruption measures.
The US and Ukraine also agreed to “co-operate to advance a just and lasting peace that has broad global support” — solidifying Washington’s vow not to force Kyiv into a peace deal with Russia without its consent.
But one ominous provision of the agreement says it can be terminated with six months notice, meaning it could be in peril if former president Donald Trump, a sceptic of Ukraine aid, defeats Biden in the US election in November.
Zelenskyy said in the press conference on Thursday that the G7 had agreed to find Ukraine another five of the seven Patriot air defence systems he requested. The US-made systems have been highly effective at protecting Ukraine from daily barrages of Russian missiles.
While Kyiv has enjoyed relative protection from Russian missiles since the systems first arrived in spring 2023, other Ukrainian cities without them, such as Kharkiv, have been repeatedly struck, decimating energy and civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine has at least four Patriot batteries provided by the US and Germany with one more on the way from Berlin. Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed 25 Patriot air defence systems to protect the country from Russian air strikes. But he has said seven would be enough to protect Ukraine’s most critical infrastructure.
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