Biden publicly apologises to Zelenskyy over delay in military aid to Kiev

US President Joe Biden for the first time publicly apologised to Ukraine for a monthslong congressional holdup in American military assistance that let Russia make gains on the battlefield, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for bipartisan US support "like it was during World War II."

Speaking in Paris, on Friday, a day after they both attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, Biden apologised to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more assistance would come.

At the same time, conservative Republicans in Congress held up a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine for six months.

Still, the Democratic president insisted that the American people were standing by Ukraine for the long haul. "We’re still in. Completely. Thoroughly," he said.

The apology — and Zelenskyy’s plea for rock-solid support akin to the allied coalition in WWII — served as a reminder that for all of Biden’s talk of an unwavering US commitment to Ukraine, recalcitrance among congressional Republicans and an isolationist strain in American politics has led to Russian gains on the battlefield.

And, although unremarked upon, the spectre of Donald Trump’s candidacy loomed over the discussion, as the Republican former president and the presumptive nominee has spoken positively of Russian President Vladimir Putin and sparked Ukrainian concerns that he would call for it to cede territory to end the conflict.

Zelenskyy pressed for all Americans to support his country's defence against Russia's invasion, and he thanked lawmakers for eventually coming together to approve the weapons package, which has allowed Ukraine to stem Russian advances in recent weeks.

The United States is by far Kiev’s biggest supplier of wartime support, and Ukraine is trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive in eastern areas of the country. The push is focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, but Ukrainian officials say it could spread as Russia's bigger army seeks to take advantage.

Ammunition shortages

The offensive is seeking to exploit Kiev’s ammunition shortages and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer front line.

The slow pace of delivery of pledged Western weaponry has long frustrated Zelenskyy, as has Biden’s hesitation over supplying more hardware for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin. That has caused tension in their relationship.

The US will send about $225 million in military aid to Ukraine, Biden announced Friday.

The latest package includes munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as mortar systems and an array of artillery rounds, US officials said Thursday.

Biden cast the additional aid in his meeting with Zelenskyy as money to “reconstruct the electric grid” in Ukraine, a reference aides said was to additional air defence and missile defence systems in the new package.

That step brought a furious response from the Kremlin, which warned that Europe's biggest conflict since World War II could spin out of control.

In a 20-minute speech on Friday at the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, Zelenskyy drew a parallel between the sacrifices made during World War II and his country's current fight.