President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States for arms and weapons provided Ukraine in its war against the Russian Federation (RF), and said his American counterpart Joe Biden is “a true leader” for calling widespread RF soldier murders of Ukrainian civilians genocide.
“These were true words of a true leader,” Zelensky said in a speech televised late Tuesday evening, April 12. “One must call things by their name, in order to stop evil. We are thankful for the help America has provided us thus far.”
Zelensky’s comments came hours after the US leader, speaking to reporters in Iowa, said that he believes the Kremlin’s intention is to destroy the Ukrainian nation.
“Yes, I called it genocide,” Biden said. “We’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me. It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian.”
RF forces in the first week of retreated from towns and villages north of Kyiv. Following UAF units uncovered the remains of hundreds of civilians, many seemingly executed by RF soldiers. The worst killing appeared to have taken place in the bedroom community Bucha, where rescue teams and local officials discovered a mass grave with more than 400 bodies, and encountered local resident accounts and other evidence, including victim remains, attesting to mass rape by RF troops.
Zelensky said the only way to stop RF attacks on Ukrainian civilians, homes and businesses is for a fully-armed Ukrainian military to force the Kremlin’s forces out of the country. He repeated the longstanding Kyiv official position that in order to do that Ukraine’s Armed Forces (UAF) must have more tanks, artillery, long-range anti-aircraft systems, anti-ship missiles, and combat aircraft.
“We critically need more heavy weapons, in order to stop further atrocities by Russia,” Zelensky said.
Overnight and early on Wednesday Ukrainian news agencies gave heavy attention to Tuesday reports from US media that Pentagon top staff had met with senior executives of eight American defense manufacturing corporations, to coordinate US arms supplies to Ukraine.
Also thoroughly covered was news from Washington, originally reported by the Reuters news agency, that the Biden administration is planning a new Ukraine arms package worth $750 million, which would hand over to the UAF armored cars, coastal defense drones and howitzer artillery. According to Washington Post newspaper, the US has provided more than $2.4 billion in arms assistance to Ukraine, with $1.7 billion coming after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
Past US arms deliveries to Ukraine have included thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, several hundred strike drones, small arms, ammunition, and non-lethal equipment like body armor, thermal sights and anti-artillery radars. UAF senior officers have said the American military gear has been a great help to Ukrainian infantry fighting RF tanks and strike aircraft in close-in battles, but, is of less to UAF forces conducting a major offensive.
