By Steve Holland and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the White House on Wednesday with renewed assurances of U.S. support amid Russia’s continued onslaught on Ukraine.
“Thank you first of all,” Zelenskiy told the U.S. president in a meeting in the Oval Office. “It’s a great honor to be here.”
The Ukrainian president, who said he had wanted to come to the United States earlier, offered his appreciation to Biden, the U.S. Congress and ordinary Americans for their support.
He gave Biden the Ukrainian cross for military merit, offered by a captain of a HIMARS rocket unit it had been awarded to.
“Well, undeserved but appreciated,” Biden said, promising to give the Ukrainian captain a command coin from a U.S. battlefield in Iraq, where his son Beau had fought.
The U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems have proven to be pivotal to the Ukrainian offensives in August that drove the Russians out of Kharkiv and then Kherson last month, bolstering Ukraine’s strategy of hitting Russian command-and-control nodes, logistics routes and ammunition dumps.
Biden also pledged to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, particularly its air defense. “That’s why we’re going to be providing Ukraine with a Patriot missile battery and training your forces to be able to accurately use it,” he said.
“You are the man of the year,” the U.S. president then told Zelenskiy of Time Magazine’s decision to put him on cover.
Biden also said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “escalating his assaults on civilians” and trying to “use winter as a weapon.”
Zelenskiy arrived at the White House’s South Lawn in a black Chevrolet with tinted windows, wearing his trademark olive green sweater and cargo pants. He stood between Biden and his wife Jill for a photo, then Biden put his arm around him as he guided him inside.
Zelenskiy said he would hold talks with Biden to strengthen Kyiv’s defense capabilities against Russia’s devastating invasion.
He will participate in a joint news conference with Biden, and then Zelenskiy will go to Congress on Capitol Hill to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Nandita Bose; Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Kanishka Singh, Heather Timmons, Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis)
