WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Joe Biden at the White House Thursday to present his wartime “victory plan,” after the US president announced an $8 billion surge in military aid for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.
But Zelensky’s visit was clouded by a blazing row with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that underscored how November’s US election could upend the support that Kyiv receives from its biggest backer.
“Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said as he hosted Zelensky in the Oval Office, after thanking him for presenting the so-called victory plan.
Dressed in his trademark military-style outfit, Zelensky replied that “we deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side.”
Zelensky is looking to shore up support for his war effort at the same time as Biden tries to lock in aid for Ukraine, ahead of the white-knuckle vote pitting Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris against firebrand Trump.
The Democrat pledged nearly $8 billion in military aid in his announcement on Thursday, including $5.5 billion to be authorized before it expires at the end of the US fiscal year on Monday.
Biden said in a statement that the “surge in security assistance for Ukraine” would “help Ukraine win this war.”
Biden also announced Washington would provide Ukraine with the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) long-range munition and called a summit of allies in Germany in October.
The White House however played down Ukraine’s hopes that Zelensky’s visit would achieve his long-held goal of getting permission to fire long-range Western-made missiles into Russian territory.
“I’m not expecting there to be any new announcements on this particular action or a decision coming out of this meeting,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Harris was due to meet Zelensky separately at the White House on Thursday.
Zelensky also visited the US Congress — where his government said he had also presented his victory plan — and gave a defiant address at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
But Zelensky’s visit has prompted fresh nuclear saber rattling from Moscow, which has repeatedly warned the West against giving Ukraine long-range arms.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced plans to broaden Moscow’s rules on the use of its atomic weaponry in the event of a “massive” air attack.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the nuclear threat “totally irresponsible” while EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said Putin was making a “gamble with his nuclear arsenal.”
Kyiv faces an increasingly difficult battlefield situation two and a half years into Russia’s invasion, with Russian forces continuing to push into eastern Ukraine.
But the US presidential election means Washington’s support now hangs on the balance — and with Zelensky apparently at odds with Trump and the Republicans.
Trump had also been due to meet Zelensky during his US visit, but their talks now appear to be on ice.
Trump accused Zelensky on the eve of the visit of refusing to strike a deal with Moscow and once again questioned why the United States was giving billions of dollars to Kyiv.
At an election rally on Wednesday, the Republican called the Ukrainian president “probably the greatest salesman on Earth.”
Republicans were livid after Zelensky visited an arms factory in Biden’s hometown in the battleground state of Pennsylvania earlier this week, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling for the Ukrainian ambassador to be sacked.
Zelensky also sparked fury in Republican ranks when he told The New Yorker magazine this week that Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance did not understand the war’s complexity.
Trump has echoed many of Putin’s talking points about previous US policy being to blame for the Russian invasion, and has been critical of Zelensky for years.
The United States has provided around $175 billion in both military and economic assistance to Ukraine during the war, despite frequent opposition from Republicans.
Zelensky meets Biden after US unveils Ukraine military aid surge
https://arab.news/223sv
Zelensky meets Biden after US unveils Ukraine military aid surge
- Zelensky’s visit was clouded by a blazing row with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
- “Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said
Kenya set for full Haiti deployment amid call for shift to UN mission
UNITED NATIONS: Kenya is aiming to complete its full deployment of a stabilization force in violence-torn Haiti by January, President William Ruto said Thursday, as Haiti’s leader suggested making it a UN peacekeeping mission.
The three-month-old security force to combat spiraling insecurity in the Caribbean nation is currently a Kenyan-led multinational policing operation, and changing it into a UN-mandated force would require a Security Council vote.
“Kenya will deploy the additional contingent toward attaining the target of all the 2,500 police officers by January next year,” Ruto said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.
“Kenya and other Caribbean and African countries are ready to deploy, but are hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics and funding,” he said.
Ruto called on member states to “stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti by providing necessary support.”
Criminal gangs control more than 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as key roads around the country.
Edgard Leblanc Fils, the head of Haiti’s transitional council, told the General Assembly Thursday he “would like to see a thought being given to transforming the security support mission into a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the United Nations.”
Leblanc Fils said that such a change would allow for the challenge of funding the mission to be resolved, while helping “to strengthen the commitment of member states to security in Haiti.”
“I am convinced that this change of status, whilst recognizing that the errors of the past cannot be repeated, would guarantee the full success of the mission in Haiti,” he said.
The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which deployed from 2004 to 2017, was tarnished by accusations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the force’s accidental introduction of cholera, which killed some 10,000 people.
The United States has also backed consideration of putting the new force under the UN flag to ensure a predictable source of funding.
But the move faces daunting odds in the Security Council, where China and Russia hold veto power.
A draft UN Security Council resolution extending the mandate of the security mission contains a call “to consider” transforming the deployment into a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission.
It is due to be debated Monday.
Haitian interim prime minister Garry Conille warned Wednesday that “we’re nowhere near winning this” as he stressed the battle against the gangs would not be successful without outside help.
The United States announced on Wednesday $160 million of new aid for Haiti, bringing the amount of US aid to the troubled Caribbean country to $1.3 billion since 2021.
Leblanc Fils said his country still needed “much more in terms of personnel and also equipment to be able to solve the security problems and allow elections to take place.”
Washington on Wednesday also announced sanctions against two Haitians linked to the country’s powerful gangs.
Florida bracing for ‘unsurvivable’ Hurricane Helene
A powerful hurricane was barreling toward Florida on Thursday, with officials warning of “unsurvivable” conditions and a potentially catastrophic storm surge high enough to swamp a two-story house.
Tens of thousands of people were without power and roads were already flooded ahead of what is expected to be one of the largest Gulf of Mexico storms in decades.
Fast-moving Helene strengthened to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane Thursday evening, ahead of landfall expected around 11pm (0300 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
It was packing winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour as it churned over the Gulf’s warm waters toward the Big Bend area south of Florida’s capital city Tallahassee.
“EVERYONE along the Florida Big Bend coast is at risk of potentially catastrophic storm surge,” the NHC said on social media.
Tampa and Tallahassee airports have closed, with parts of St. Petersburg, downtown Tampa, Sarasota, Treasure Island and other cities on Florida’s west coast already flooded.
About 125,000 homes and businesses were without power.
“We’re expecting to see a storm surge inundation of 15 to 20 feet above ground level,” NHC director Mike Brennan said. “That’s up to the top of a second story building. Again, a really unsurvivable scenario is going to play out here in this portion of the Florida coastline.”
The accompanying waves “can destroy houses, move cars, and that water level is going to rise very quickly,” Brennan added.
In Alligator Point, a coastal town on a picturesque peninsula in the storm’s path, David Wesolowski was taking no chances.
“I just came to button up a few things before it gets too windy,” the 37-year-old real estate agent told AFP as he boarded up his house on stilts.
“If it stays on course, this is going to look different afterwards, that’s for sure,” he said, before taking his family to higher ground in Tallahassee.
Meanwhile, Patrick Riickert refused to budge from his small wooden house in Crawfordville, a town of 5,000 people a few miles inland.
As in Alligator Point, most residents have bolted and it looked like a ghost town, but Riickert, his wife and five grandchildren were “not going anywhere,” the 58-year-old insisted.
“I am going to hunker down” and ride out the hurricane, as he did in 2018 when deadly Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 megastorm, blew through the Florida panhandle.
The NHC warned of up to 20 inches (51 cm) of rain in some spots, and potentially life-threatening flooding as well as numerous landslides across the southern Appalachians.
The National Weather Service said the region could be hit extremely hard, with floods not seen in more than a century.
“This will be one of the most significant weather events to happen in the western portions of the area in the modern era,” it warned.
Tornado warnings went out across northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Georgia’s sprawling capital Atlanta was forecast to experience tropical storm-force winds and flash flooding from up to 12 inches of rain.
And Tennessee — more than 300 miles from the Gulf Coast — braced for tropical storm conditions statewide.
More than 55 million Americans were under some form of weather alert or warning from Hurricane Helene.
“This is going to be a multi-state event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida all the way to Tennessee,” Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters.
Vice President Kamala Harris said the White House was watching.
“The President and I, of course, are monitoring the case and the situation closely, and we urge everyone who is watching at this very moment to take this storm very seriously,” she told reporters.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis mobilized the National Guard and ordered thousands of personnel to ready for search-and-rescue operations.
He warned that the powerful storm would be dangerous, and urged everyone to take precautions.
“We can’t control how strong this hurricane is going to get. We can’t control the track of the hurricane, but what you can control is what you can do to put yourself in the best chance to be able to ride this out in a way that’s going to be safe.”
Helene could become the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in over a year — and almost certainly the biggest.
Hurricane specialist Michael Lowry called Helene “extreme,” noting its tropical storm winds of 39 mph or higher stretched nearly 500 miles across.
Researchers say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.
Minority wing of Moldovan Orthodox church accuses priests of lobbying against Europe vote
- Religion, like politics, is deeply polarized in ex-Soviet Moldova, split between liberals advocating for closer ties with the EU Romania and conservatives seeking to retain longstanding links with Russia
CHISINAU: The minority pro-Romanian branch of Moldova’s Orthodox Church accused clergy from the rival Moscow-linked branch of the church of campaigning against a referendum asking voters whether they back the government’s drive to join the European Union.
The minority Metropolis of Bessarabia said rival priests were lobbying against pro-European President Maia Sandu’s campaign to join the 27-nation bloc in “profoundly offensive acts ... clearly directed against the spiritual and national unity” of Moldova.
Why it is important
Religion, like politics, is deeply polarized in ex-Soviet Moldova, split between liberals advocating for closer ties with the EU and neighboring Romania and conservatives seeking to retain longstanding links with Russia.
The majority Moldova Metropolis is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, though the number of priests switching to the minority branch has increased because of the Russian church’s backing for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Moldova’s eastern neighbor.
With more than 90 percent of Moldovans adhering to Orthodox Christianity, church actions could have a major effect on the Oct. 20 referendum — held alongside a presidential election in which Sandu is seeking a second term.
Key quotes
Statement by the minority Metropolis of Bessarabia:
“Priests are openly involved in election political propaganda ... The Bessarabia Metropolis firmly supports Moldova’s Europe policy which reflects Democratic values and respect for the Church and Christianity.”
President Sandu, earlier in September
“Clergy must not permit themselves to be used to destabilize the country. They must in all things work for peace in our society ... My appeal to clergy is not to get involved in politics and leave citizens to choose what they believe in. Let them teach Christian morals.”
Context
The latest opinion poll puts support for EU membership at 56 percent, with 34 percent opposed. Two of 15 parties registered in the referendum campaign are calling for a “no” vote.
Denial of Palestinian state threatens Israelis, Jews everywhere: European Council president
- Charles Michel calls for ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza, two-state solution
- Conflict in Sudan a ‘huge humanitarian catastrophe,’ he tells UN General Assembly
NEW YORK CITY: The continued denial of a state for the Palestinian people threatens the security of Israelis and Jews everywhere, the European Council president told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.
Charles Michel said the EU is working hard toward achieving an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and Israel’s security cannot come at the cost of regional peace.
“We want an immediate ceasefire in accordance with the order of the International Court of Justice. The EU is working for a lasting peace within the framework of a two-state solution living freely side by side and in safety,” he added.
“Freedom and solidarity — it’s under these same principles that we condemn the abominable terrorist attacks by Hamas (on Oct. 7 last year).
“Israel has the right to defend itself in accordance with international law and within the principle of proportionality, but ensuring security while neglecting peace is an illusion. There will never be lasting security without peace.
“The Palestinian people have the right to their state. Denying them this right will indefinitely fuel threats to the security of Israelis and of Jews everywhere.”
Remaining on the topic of regional crises, Michel called the conflict in Sudan a “huge humanitarian catastrophe.”
He said the EU will continue its efforts to pressure the warring parties in the country and those who support them to respect humanitarian and international law.
Kremlin says changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine are intended as a warning to the West
- Moscow earlier said any assault on Russia supported by a nuclear power would be considered a joint attack and it could use nuclear weapons in response
- New doctrine comes as US and UK discuss Ukraine's request for permission to fire conventional Western missiles into Russia
- US and European Union both denounced the latest statements by the Russian leader as “irresponsible”
MOSCOW: Changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine that were announced by President Vladimir Putin are intended to discourage Ukraine’s Western allies from supporting attacks on Russia, the Kremlin said Thursday.
The United States and the European Union both denounced the latest statements by the Russian leader as “irresponsible.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the revisions in the document outlined Wednesday by Putin are a “warning signal to those countries about the consequences in case of their involvement in an attack on our country with various assets, not necessarily nuclear ones.”
In the strong, new warning to the West, Putin said that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.
The threat was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
Speaking at Wednesday’s Security Council meeting that discussed changes in the doctrine, Putin didn’t specify whether the modified document envisages a nuclear response to such an attack. He emphasized, however, that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional assault posing a “critical threat to our sovereignty,” a vague formulation that leaves broad room for interpretation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Putin’s statement as “totally irresponsible,” saying on MSNBC that “many in the world have spoken clearly about that when he’s been rattling the nuclear saber, including China in the past.”
“To do that now while the world’s gathered in New York, including talking about the need for more disarmament, nonproliferation, I think that’s going to play very badly around the world,” Blinken said, referring to the meeting of the UN General Assembly.
European Commission spokesman Peter Stano similarly criticized Putin’s statements about the nuclear doctrine as “a continuation of the very irresponsible and unacceptable behavior” by the Russian leader, showing that “he doesn’t shy away from playing the nuclear gamble over and over again.”
Russia is making slow but steady gains in Ukraine as the conflict grinds through its third year, and the Kremlin is seeking to discourage stronger Western support for Kyiv.
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian territory with missiles and drones in response to Moscow’s attacks, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pushing the US and other Western allies for permission to use the longer-range Western weapons to strike deep inside Russian territory. The Biden administration has said it hasn’t given Kyiv the go-ahead for strikes with American weapons deep inside Russia.
Zelensky met Thursday with Biden, who announced billions of dollars more in new weapons deliveries, including an additional Patriot missile defense battery and a new shipment of glide bombs that can be deployed from F-16 fighter jets, a few of which already have been supplied to Ukraine.
Putin said the revised doctrine spells out conditions for using nuclear weapons in greater detail, noting that they could be used in case of a massive air attack. The new phrasing holds the door open to a potential nuclear response to any aerial attack — a deliberate ambiguity intended to make the West more reluctant to allow longer-range strikes.
Since Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, he and other Kremlin voices have frequently threatened the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal to discourage it from ramping up support for Kyiv.
Earlier this month, Putin warned the US and other NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied longer-range weapons to hit Russian territory would put Russia and NATO in a direct conflict.
