U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an additional $225 million military package for Ukraine to support its forces as they fight Russia’s assault near Kharkiv, said a statement Friday.

This is the sixth tranche Biden has authorized for Ukraine since he signed the national security supplemental measure. The package includes air defense interceptors, artillery systems and munitions, armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and other capabilities.

It also will help to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses that would protect Ukraine’s electric grid from Russian attacks and reinforce Ukrainian capabilities across the front lines, the statement said.

Earlier Friday, during his visit in France for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and he apologized for the delay in approving $61 billion in military assistance for Ukraine.

“I apologize for those weeks of not knowing what’s going to happen in terms of funding,” the U.S. president said, referring to the six-month holdup of the package by conservative Republicans in Congress.

Biden underscored that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. “We’re still in. Completely. Thoroughly,” he said, stressing Ukraine’s tenacity and bravery against Russian aggression.

“The way you’ve stood in holding onto Kharkiv, you’ve proven once again that the people of Ukraine cannot and will never be overtaken. And I assure you the United States is going to stand with you. I’ve said that all during this debate. I will continue to say it. The United States is standing with you. You are the bulwark against the aggression that’s taking place. We have an obligation to be there.”

Zelenskyy hailed Biden’s comments. “This meeting is symbolic. It is important that all the American people stay with Ukraine. Like it was in World War II when the U.S. stayed with Europe. This big package is very important. It is necessary that we understand that we aren’t alone,” he said.

The U.S. support for Ukraine is being promised as its outgunned and outmanned troops are struggling to fend off a renewed Russian offensive along the roughly 1,000-kilometer frontline in Ukraine’s eastern border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk.

Additionally, Washington and some NATO allies have softened their position to allow Ukraine to use some western weapons for attacks inside Russia, along the border in the Kharkiv region.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that France is providing Ukraine with Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets. The Ukrainian pilots will be trained in France, he added in an interview on French TV.

Macron said the fighter jets will “allow Ukraine to protect its soil, its airspace” against Russian attacks.

Germany’s defense ministry said it will need at least 75,000 additional troops to fulfill its NATO commitments, as the alliance adapts to face what it sees as an increasingly hostile Russia, Der Spiegel magazine reported Friday.

Germany joined the United States last week in authorizing Ukraine to hit targets on Russian soil along Ukraine’s Kharkiv regional border using long-range weapons it supplied.

Russian threats

The Kremlin has warned that the decision could lead to a widening of the conflict in Europe that could entangle western allies against Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also warned the United States and NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to fire long-range, Western-made weapons into Russia could prompt him to place similar Russian weapons in countries within range of the U.S. or its European allies.

The Russian leader said Friday that he did not see the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons as set out in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, but he added that he could not rule out a change to the doctrine.

Putin was responding to a question by Sergei Karaganov, an influential Russian analyst, who asked if Putin should hold a nuclear pistol to the temple of the West over Ukraine.

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened.

“If somebody’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all means at our disposal,” Putin said, citing what he described as his country’s security policy.

Fighting grinds on

The Russian military said Friday that its forces had seized one more village in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk.

“During the past week, units of the Southern group of troops improved their positions along the front line and liberated the settlement of Paraskoviivka,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a daily briefing.

Since the beginning of 2024 Russia has captured 47 Ukrainian towns and villages, Putin said Friday.

“Since the beginning of this year alone, 47, I think, settlements have been liberated,” Putin told attendees of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Ukrainian air force shot down all five missiles and 48 out of 53 drones over nine regions during Russia’s overnight attack, among them, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, the Dnipropetrovsk and Mikholaiv regions, according to the Ukrainian military on Friday.

Four people were killed and more than 40 were injured in a Ukrainian strike on the Russian-controlled city of Lugansk on Friday, Russia-appointed officials said.

The city of Lugansk came under a “massive” missile attack Friday morning, according to its Russia-appointed head, Leonid Pasechnik.

A section of an apartment complex collapsed and the “bodies of four peaceful civilians killed were removed from the rubble,” the Moscow-backed region’s government said on Telegram, raising the toll from three.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. VOA’s Kim Lewis contributed to this story.

Source: voanews.com