US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are smitten with each other as they face off for the second time in a week, on the sidelines of a G7 summit that starts in Italy on Wednesday.
The octogenarian left for Europe just hours after his son Hunter was convicted of three federal firearms charges.
The Hill Reports Biden and Zelensky are due to meet again on Thursday, marking the second time in seven days that the two have met while Biden is overseas.
They were also present during last week’s commemoration of the anniversary of the Normandy landings.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, Friday, June 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“Our commitment to Ukraine will remain front and center at the G7 meetings later this week,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters before Biden’s departure.
“We support Ukraine’s fight for freedom, but we will step up to show Putin that time is not on his side and that he will not outlast us.”
The president will skip the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland on Saturday and fly home to California to attend a major fundraiser hosted by Hollywood actor George Clooney, Breitbart News reported.
Clooney and the Biden administration have maintained a close relationship, with the A-lister calling the administration last month to defend his wife’s work at the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Gaza war.
Clooney tried to defend the indefensible. https://t.co/j7cY7mtlzf
—Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 7, 2024
Zelensky is expected to make the usual appeal for additional aid at the peace summit, as foreshadowed by his urgent request for stronger air defenses and funding to rebuild the country’s destroyed energy infrastructure in a speech to the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
He said his country needed at least seven more U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense missile systems to protect major cities from frequent Russian air strikes.
Vice President Harris will attend the peace summit on Biden’s behalf.
