The leaders spoke about ways of curbing Russian aggression, the press service of the Ukrainian president informed. Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his American counterpart for assistance and support.
Biden and Zelenskyy discussed results of the recent meeting of political advisers within the Normandy Four format. They also touched upon concrete steps to increase American financial assistance to Ukraine.
President Biden reaffirmed once again the readiness of the United States, its allies and partners to act decisively in the event of further Russian invasion in Ukraine.
The readout of President Biden’s call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine says, “President Biden noted the United States has provided Ukraine with over half a billion dollars in development and humanitarian assistance in the last year, and is exploring additional macroeconomic support to help Ukraine’s economy amidst pressure resulting from Russia’s military build-up.”
For his part, Zelenskyy posted a message in Twitter, “Had a long telephone conversation with Biden. We discussed current diplomatic efforts to reach de-escalation and agreed on our joint actions for the future. I thanked President Biden for continuous military aid. We discussed possibilities of further financial assistance for Ukraine.”
In the meantime, CNN referring to anonymous sources wrote that Joe Biden during the call with the President of Ukraine allegedly said that “once the ground freezes” the Russian Federation would try to capture Kyiv. That’s why Kyiv should “prepare for impact.”
U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson Emily Horne refuted the CNN allegations. She wrote, “This is not true. President Biden said that there is a distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February. He has previously said this publicly and we have been warning about this for months. Reports of anything more or different than that are completely false.”
The latest call of President Biden with President Zelenskyy was a second conversation this month. It was held amidst current reports on Russia’s massing military force on the border with Ukraine and on its possible invasion in the Ukrainian territory.
The previous telephone conversation of the two presidents took place early this month. The White House readout of that call said, “Biden made clear that the United States along with its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
It was reported that the United States calls an open session of the UN Security Council for January 31 because of the threatening behaviour of the Russian Federation and the massive build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and in Belarus. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield made a statement on January 27. She noted that the United States had decided to call a session of the UN Security Council after two weeks of close consultations with Ukraine and American partners in the Security Council.
The statement reads, “The members of the UNSC must squarely examine the facts and consider what is at stake for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe, and for the international order should Russia further invade Ukraine. This is not a moment to wait and see. The Council’s full attention is needed now. We look forward to a direct and purposeful discussion on Monday.”
The newspaper Voice of Ukraine
