Ukraine’s president said he had received assurances from U.S. President Joe Biden in a phone call on Friday (April 2) that Washington would not abandon Ukraine in the face of Russian “aggression.”
“We discussed the situation in Donbass in detail. President Biden assured me that Ukraine will never be left alone against Russia’s aggression,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a televised statement after he and Biden spoke.
NATO said on Thursday it was concerned about a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s borders, as NATO ambassadors met to discuss the recent spike in violence in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region. Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, drawing Western condemnation and tit-for-tat sanctions.
Biden emphasized his administration’s commitment to a strategic partnership with Ukraine and support for Zelenskiy’s anti-corruption plans and reform agenda.
(Production: Sergiy Karazy, Margaryta Chornokondratenko)