U.S. blasts ‘ungrateful’ Zelensky after Kyiv slammed ‘absurd’ delay to NATO membership: Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan dismisses claim that POTUS is ‘afraid of Russia by telling Ukraine that America ‘deserves a degree of gratitude’ for its military support to war-torn nation
- Top Biden aide Sullivan hit out at a Ukrainian anti-corruption activist who suggested that the U.S. was ‘afraid of Russia’ by not offering full NATO membership
- His comments came at a side event during a two-day meeting of the military alliance in Vilnius, Lithuania
- Joe Biden has ruled out offering Ukraine a pathway to NATO until Russia has been defeated
Joe Biden‘s administration has told Ukraine that the U.S. ‘deserves a degree of gratitude’ for its billions of dollars in military support to the war-torn nation.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan issued a thinly-veiled warning to Kyiv one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went on a social media tirade over what he called an ‘absurd’ delay in offering his country a pathway to full NATO membership.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Lithuania to press for more military support for his country
Sullivan angrily dismissed claims from Ukrainian anti-corruption activist Daria Kaleniuk that the president ‘was afraid of Russia’ by not setting out a timeline for Ukraine to join the Brussels-based military alliance.
The campaigner also infamously ambushed ex-British prime minister Boris Johnson at a press conference in Warsaw last year, berating him for NATO’s failure to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Speaking at a side event at the two-day NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, top Biden aide Sullivan dismissed her critcism, saying ‘there has been a lot of conspiracy theorizing that simply is not based on any reality whatsoever.’
‘The United States of America has stepped up to provide an enormous amount of capacity to help ensure that Ukraine’s brave soldiers have the ammunition, air defense, the infantry, fighting vehicles, the mine clearing equipment and so much else to be able to effectively defend against Russia’s onslaught and to take territory back as well.
‘I think the American people do deserve a degree of gratitude from the United States government for their willingness to step up and from the rest of the world as well.’
In a thinly-veiled swipe at Zelensky’s criticism of his Western allies, Sullivan said some of the charges leveled against the U.S. were ‘entirely unfounded and unjustified.’
The United States is by far the largest donor of military support to Ukraine, offering more than $46 billion worth of hardware to Kyiv, according to data from a respected German think-tank.
Most of the weapons shipped to Ukraine are also made in the U.S., boosting jobs in the country’s key defense sector.
The second largest donor, by contrast, is Britain, which has offered up just over $6 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s Ukraine Support Tracker.
Zelensky is holding talks with several key NATO allies on Wednesday in Lithuania where he is trying to drum up further miltiary support for Ukraine’s military.
Last week he won a U.S. pledge for cluster munitions that could inflict significant damage to Russian forces.
Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs — banned across a large part of the world — has proved highly controversial.
Biden admitted that it had been “a difficult decision”, one that humanitarian groups strongly condemned.
Sullivan said Sunday that Kyiv had pledged to only use the munitions on Ukrainian territory “where they have the highest incentive to limit impact to civilians, because it is Ukrainian citizens who would be at risk.”
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