Description
Added on the 23/06/2022 15:08:58 - Copyright : France 24 EN
"I can confirm that the United States provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMs at the President's direction," US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel tells reporters. Biden "quietly directed his national security team to send ATACMs to Ukraine for use inside Ukrainian sovereign territory in February. They started moving as part of the military aid package we announced on March 12th," Patel adds. SOUNDBITE
The US Senate approves a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine that had been stalled for months in Congress, with President Joe Biden vowing fresh supplies to be delivered swiftly to the warzone as Russia makes battlefield gains. IMAGES
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says that alliance members must guarantee long-term weapon deliveries for Ukraine, as ministers prepared to discuss a proposal for a 100-billion-euro, five-year fund. Speaking in Brussels, where NATO foreign ministers are meeting to forge a support package by a July summit in Washington, Stoltenberg says "we must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul." "We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on the voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges," Stoltenberg says as NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels. SOUNDBITE
US President Joe Biden will not give Kyiv long-range ATACMS missiles yet, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tells reporters ahead of Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to the White House: "To date, he is determined that he would not provide ATACMS, but he has also not taken it off the table in the future." SOUNDBITE
Ahead of an informal dinner in Athens hosted by Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis marking the twentieth anniversary of a 2003 Thessaloniki summit confirming the European perspective of Western Balkan states, leaders from the European Union and the Balkans pose for a group photo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a guest. The Ukrainian leader is concluding a European tour with previous stops in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark. IMAGES
President Joe Biden voices confidence that the United States would provide long-term military support to Ukraine, despite hesitation among some lawmakers in the rival Republican Party. "The fact of the matter is that I believe we'll have the funding necessary to support Ukraine as long as it takes," Biden tells a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. SOUNDBITE