The US and different G7 nations vowed to defend Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity” on Sunday’s 77th anniversary of Germany’s World Struggle II defeat — as Russian despot Vladimir Putin boasted of erasing Ukrainian “Nazi filth.”
Leaders of the Group of Seven — the US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the UK and Japan — made the pledge in a telephone name with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Canadian President Justin Trudeau and First Woman Jill Biden additionally confirmed their private assist for Ukraine by paying separate shock visits to the embattled nation Sunday.
“In the present day, we, the G7, reassured President Zelenskyy of our continued readiness to undertake additional commitments to assist Ukraine safe its free and democratic future, such that Ukraine can defend itself now and deter future acts of aggression,” the seven nations wrote in an announcement.
As a part of the guarantees made on Sunday’s name, the Biden Administration will ban the sale of all American-made know-how and tools to state-owned Russian TV channels to attempt to curb “Putin’s propaganda machine,” a senior administration official mentioned. The transfer contains barring advertisers from shopping for time on state Russian airwaves, the official mentioned.
The White Home, in tandem with the EU, can be sanctioning Russia’s means to entry much more chemical and mechanical parts wanted to restock its navy functionality.
The US will add 2,600 extra visa restrictions in response to the warfare and sanction extra Russian financial institution executives, too, the official mentioned. Russian oligarchs and companies can even be barred from utilizing U.S. accounting, consulting and advertising providers.
On the G7 name, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised Zelensky he would additional intensify financial strain in opposition to Russia, saying, “The world should go additional and sooner to assist Ukraine,” in accordance with his workplace.
In the meantime, Russia spent the 77th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany persevering with to parrot its line it was “cleaning” Ukraine of Nazism.
“In the present day, our troopers, as their ancestors, are combating facet by facet to liberate their place of origin from the Nazi filth with the boldness that, as in 1945, victory might be ours,” Putin mentioned Sunday.
Soviet flags and striped navy ribbons have been strung up throughout the nation forward of Monday’s Victory Day parade in Moscow, which is predicted to be extra sparse as a lot of the nation’s troopers and navy tools is at present deployed in Ukraine.
“I can’t keep in mind a time when the Could 9 vacation was anticipated with such anxiousness,” Russian historian Ivan Kurilla wrote on Fb, in accordance with The Related Press.
British Protection Secretary Ben Wallace mentioned he believes Putin might use the celebration to say, ‘Look, that is now a warfare in opposition to Nazis, and what I would like is extra individuals.’ ”
In Ukraine, Trudeau was pictured Sunday strolling across the closely shelled Kyiv suburb of Irpin and introduced whereas visiting the capital metropolis that he’ll ship extra weapons to Zelensky’s military. He additionally reopened the Canadian embassy in Kyiv, elevating his nation’s flag there.
In the meantime, Jill Biden traveled in secret to Uzhhorod, a small metropolis in western Ukraine a number of miles from Slovakia.
She met with Ukraine’s First Woman, Olena Zelenska, and the 2 sat throughout the desk from each other in a small classroom and spoke in entrance of reporters earlier than a non-public assembly.
Zelenska referred to as Jill Biden “brave,” saying, “We perceive what it takes for the US First Woman to return right here throughout a warfare when navy actions are happening day by day, the place the air sirens are occurring day by day — even right now.”
The developments got here as:
- Home of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned “we’ve to” approve the proposed $33 billion in extra money for Ukraine by finish of the month.
- As many as 60 individuals have been feared lifeless within the Russian bombing of a faculty within the japanese Ukrainian area of Luhansk, the regional governor mentioned Sunday.
- UK’s Johnson mentioned the G7 nations must do extra to assist Ukraine’s agricultural sector, saying it might damage meals safety around the globe
- Trudeau introduced extra sanctions on 40 particular person Russians and 5 entities
- U2’s Bono and The Edge carried out a shock live performance in a Kyiv subway station Sunday on the request of Zelensky.
- The US and the EU are nonetheless contemplating whether or not to sanction Putin’s rumored girlfriend, Alina Kabaev, the senior Biden administration official mentioned Sunday.
With Submit Wires
