Moscow accuses US of fighting proxy war against Putin
Moscow accuses US of fighting a proxy war against Putin and says neither Washington or Ukraine are listening to ‘Russia’s concerns’, following Zelensky’s trip to America
- Dmitry Peskov accused the US of funding an ‘indirect war’ with Russia
- Joe Biden granted $1.8billion and weapons to Zelensky during Washington trip
- He was escorted there from Europe by an armada of spy planes and military jets
- Read more: Zelensky praised for hard-hitting Congress speech
The Kremlin has lashed out at the US after granting Volodymyr Zelensky a hero’s welcome in Washington DC, accusing Joe Biden of fighting a proxy war against Moscow.
The Ukrainian president delivered a historic speech to a joint congress session yesterday to a standing ovation after he was escorted by NATO spy planes and fighter jets in a cloak-and-dagger operation from Europe.
The wartime leader also secured an extra $1.8billion in aid and the Patriot missile defence system from Joe Biden as he rallied support from the West against Putin’s savagery.
But today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘We can say with regret that so far neither President Biden nor President Zelensky have said even a few words that could be perceived as potential readiness to listen to Russia’s concerns.
The Kremlin has lashed out at the US after granting Volodymyr Zelensky a hero’s welcome in Washington DC
‘Not a single word was heard warning Zelensky against the continued shelling of residential buildings in towns and villages in Donbas and there were no real calls for peace,’ Peskov said.
‘This suggests that the United States is continuing its line of de facto fighting an indirect war with Russia to the last Ukrainian,’ he added.
Just hours before Zelensky’s secretive arrival which boosted Ukraine’s defence with the aid package, Russia bolstered its own war arsenal with 350,000 troops, nuclear combat readiness and more units based in its west.
During his speech to congress, Zelensky appealed to lawmakers by referencing President Franklin D. Roosevelt who served from 1933 to 1945 and helped Europe defeat Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.
He said: ‘Just like the brave American soldiers, which gave their lives and fought back Hitler’s forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same this Christmas.’
Just hours before Zelensky’s secretive arrival which boosted Ukraine’s defence with the aid package, Russia bolstered its own war arsenal (Putin pictured yesterday)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was welcomed by both sides of the house in a historic joint meeting of the US Congress
Ukrainian servicemen sit on a tank T-72 near Bakhmut, as Zelensky secured more funding and weaponry
The Ukrainian president was stashed in a US Air Force Boeing C-40 Clipper as part of the delicately planned operation to avoid any Russian sabotage on his first foreign visit since Putin sent troops over the border in February.
After privately confirming the trip on Friday, the leader crossed into Poland early yesterday morning by train before being transferred to an airport in Rzeszów where he boarded the nonstop military jet to Joint Base Andrews.
A German Boeing AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control) spy plane ensured safe navigation through the North Sea which is patrolled by Russian submarines, before a US Air Force F-15 fighter jet took off from the UK to escort the Clipper.
After arriving in Washington where Secret Service protection kicked in, Zelensky met with Biden in the Oval Office and addressed a joint session of Congress to appeal for more aid and rally bipartisan support in his fight for ‘life, freedom and security’.
Republicans are set to seize control of the House of Representatives on January 3, and some of their lawmakers have expressed concern about the billions of dollars pumped into Ukraine by Joe Biden.
But Zelensky told the packed joint session: ‘Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.’
The Ukrainian leader earlier visited the White House where Biden announced another $1.85billion in military aid, including a Patriot air defence system to help Kyiv ward off barrages of Russian missiles.
The surprise visit was months in the making, first floated by speaker Nancy Pelosi in October during a summit in Zagreb.
In previous calls, Zelensky had indicated to Biden and other senior officials that the US was the first country he wanted to visit when the time was right for him to travel, according to an official with knowledge of the conversations.
Zelensky’s 10-hour visit – which packed in an Oval Office meeting with Biden, a joint news conference at the White House and an address to a largely supportive Congress – came together quickly.
The Ukrainian President is pictured boarding his flight in Poland as he travels to Washington
President Zelensky met with US President Joe Biden at the White House, where he presented him with a medal from a Ukrainian soldier who asked for it to be given to President Biden
Zelensky presents a Ukrainian flag signed by members of his military to Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi
Tucker Carlson berates Zelensky for dressing like a STRIP CLUB OWNER: click here to read
After the two presidents discussed the trip on December 11, the White House extended a formal invite on December 14, according to the senior administration official.
Zelensky accepted the invitation on Friday, and the visit was confirmed two days later, at which point White House officials notified Pelosi’s office of the Ukrainian leader’s travel plans.
The Ukrainian president crossed into Poland early Wednesday, according to Poland’s private broadcaster, TVN24, arriving at a train station in Przemysl, a border town and the arrival point for many refugees fleeing the war.
Accompanied by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, Zelensky was transported in a US Embassy vehicle to an airport in Rzeszów, where he boarded a nonstop flight at 8.15am local time that landed at Joint Base Andrews shortly after noon Wednesday.
He was on board a US Air Force jet – a government plane typically used for Cabinet secretaries and other dignitaries below the president and vice president.
The White House didn’t publicly announce the impending visit until 1am Wednesday – waiting until they felt Zelensky was safely out of Ukraine.
To ensure safe navigation over the North Sea where Russian submarines patrol a treacherous expanse of water, a Boeing AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control) spy plane was sent from Germany.
When Zelenksy passed over Britain, he was joined by a US Air Force F-15 fighter jet which took off from an airbase in the UK as part of the secret escort mission.
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden stand with President Zelensky outside the White House
Zelensky thanked the US for its support in a speech to Congress at the Capitol in Washington DC
The speech to the joint meeting was hastily arranged and only announced on Tuesday as Zelensky’s visit was kept in secrecy
(File Photo) President Zelensky was escorted by a US Air Force F-15 fighter jet during his flight
(File Photo) An AWACS spy plane flew over the north sea, an area patrolled by Russian submarines, to ensure safe passage for the Ukrainian leader
Zelensky addressed the US Congress as a wartime leader appealing for American support, as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill did more than 80 years before.
Zelensky’s visit to Washington – much like Churchill’s in December 1941 – came with his country under relentless attack and international aid essential to its ability to fight on.
‘Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender,’ Zelensky told Congress, echoing one of Churchill’s most famous phrases and earning a standing ovation.
Zelensky earlier this year channeled Churchill in a video address to Britain’s House of Commons, pledging to ‘fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.’
The British prime minister addresses a joint session of Congress on December 26, 1941
Zelensky receives a standing ovation from lawmakers as he addresses Congress yesterday
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was among US politicians drawing parallels to the former British premier, saying Zelensky was leading his country with ‘Churchillian courage and resolve.’
‘Our message now must be the same from all quarters as it was then: We are with you,’ she said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he had told Zelensky ‘that where Winston Churchill stood generations ago, so too does he tonight not just as a president but as an ambassador for freedom itself.’
The comparison between Churchill’s and Zelensky’s trips to the United States has its limits, however, including in the length of the Ukrainian leader’s stay.
Churchill spent three weeks in Washington at the invitation of president Franklin Roosevelt – a lengthy visit that historians say wore on the nerves of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who did not enjoy the two men’s late night cigar and brandy-fueled conversations.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1952
The Ukrainian president is applauded by Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi yesterday
Zelensky’s trip lasted only a few hours, and included a meeting in the Oval Office, a joint press conference with President Joe Biden, and the speech to Congress.
Churchill ventured across the Atlantic by ship despite the threat of submarines, while Zelensky made the journey via aircraft.
When Churchill arrived in the United States, he found a country shaken by the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor and drawn into an international conflict it had sought to avoid.
While Biden is willing to be compared to Roosevelt for his ambitious economic reforms, he does not want to be drawn into a third world war, making clear that he will not send troops to Ukraine, nor even certain types of weapons, in a bid to avoid escalation.
The F-15 jet returned to its base in Mildenhall, Suffolk shortly after Zelensky’s plane passed over Scotland.
Military AWACS and F-15 work closely together over the North Sea, a region that has seen Russian naval activity in the past.
Later in the day, the airborne escort safely touched down with the Ukrainian President at Joint Base Andrews (JBA), just a 30-minute drive from the White House.
Zelensky announced the visit on Twitter yesterday, saying: ‘On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defence capabilities of Ukraine.’
Thousands were able to track his flight for at least part of the journey as it travelled across the Atlantic.
The plane appeared over Berlin and just briefly off the coast of Greenland before disappearing again.
Zelenksky used his visit to thank US leaders and ‘ordinary Americans’ for their support in fighting off Russia’s invasion and pledged there would be ‘no compromises’ in bringing an end to the war.
Biden and Congress responded with billions in new assistance and a pledge to help Ukraine pursue a ‘just peace’.
Biden welcomed Zelensky to the Oval Office, saying the US and Ukraine would continue to project a ‘united defence’ as Russia wages a ‘brutal assault on Ukraine’s right to exist as a nation’.
Zelensky, on his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February, said he wanted to visit earlier and his visit now showed the ‘situation is under control, because of your support’.
‘For me as a President, ‘just peace’ is no compromises,’ Zelensky told reporters.
He said the war would end once Ukraine’s sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity were restored, as well as the ‘payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression’.
The highly sensitive trip was taking place after 10 months of a brutal war that has seen tens of thousands of casualties on both sides and devastation for Ukrainian civilians.
Zelensky’s visit was intended to reinvigorate support for his country in the US and around the world amid concerns that allies are growing weary of the costly war and its disruption to global food and energy supplies.
Just before his arrival, the US announced its largest single delivery of arms to Ukraine, including Patriot surface-to-air missiles, and Congress planned to vote on a spending package that includes about 45 billion dollars in emergency assistance to Ukraine.
Biden said Russia is ‘trying to use winter as a weapon, but Ukrainian people continue to inspire the world’.
At the news conference, he said Putin has ‘no intention of stopping this cruel war’.
Biden said it is ‘important for the American people, and for the world, to hear directly from you, Mr President, about Ukraine’s fight, and the need to continue to stand together through 2023’.
After the White House meeting, the Ukrainian president was scheduled to give an address to Congress in the evening, which Vice President Kamala Harris would attend.
Thousands of people were able to track Zelensky’s flight from Poland to the US for part of his journey
Pelosi, in her invitation to Zelensky to speak to lawmakers, said ‘the fight for Ukraine is the fight for democracy itself’ and that they were looking forward to ‘hearing your inspiring message of unity, resilience and determination’.
US and Ukrainian officials have made clear they do not envision an imminent resolution to the war and are preparing for fighting to continue for some time.
The latest infusion of US money would be the biggest yet.
Biden has repeated that while the US will arm and train Ukraine, American forces will not be directly engaged in the war.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said the delivery of the advanced surface-to-air missile system would be considered a provocative step and that the system and any crews accompanying it would be a legitimate target for Moscow’s military.
It was unclear when the Patriot battery would arrive on the front lines in Ukraine, given that US troops will have to train Ukrainian forces. The training could take several weeks and is expected to be done in Germany.
The visit comes at an important moment, with the White House bracing for greater resistance when Republicans take control of the House in January and give more scrutiny to aid for Ukraine. Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California has said his party will not write a ‘blank cheque’ for Ukraine.
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