WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Joe Biden at the White House Thursday to present his wartime “victory plan,” after the US president announced an $8 billion surge in military aid for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.
But Zelensky’s visit was clouded by a blazing row with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that underscored how November’s US election could upend the support that Kyiv receives from its biggest backer.
“Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said as he hosted Zelensky in the Oval Office, after thanking him for presenting the so-called victory plan.
Dressed in his trademark military-style outfit, Zelensky replied that “we deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side.”
Zelensky is looking to shore up support for his war effort at the same time as Biden tries to lock in aid for Ukraine, ahead of the white-knuckle vote pitting Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris against firebrand Trump.
The Democrat pledged nearly $8 billion in military aid in his announcement on Thursday, including $5.5 billion to be authorized before it expires at the end of the US fiscal year on Monday.
Biden said in a statement that the “surge in security assistance for Ukraine” would “help Ukraine win this war.”
Biden also announced Washington would provide Ukraine with the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) long-range munition and called a summit of allies in Germany in October.
The White House however played down Ukraine’s hopes that Zelensky’s visit would achieve his long-held goal of getting permission to fire long-range Western-made missiles into Russian territory.
“I’m not expecting there to be any new announcements on this particular action or a decision coming out of this meeting,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Harris was due to meet Zelensky separately at the White House on Thursday.
Zelensky also visited the US Congress — where his government said he had also presented his victory plan — and gave a defiant address at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
But Zelensky’s visit has prompted fresh nuclear saber rattling from Moscow, which has repeatedly warned the West against giving Ukraine long-range arms.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced plans to broaden Moscow’s rules on the use of its atomic weaponry in the event of a “massive” air attack.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the nuclear threat “totally irresponsible” while EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said Putin was making a “gamble with his nuclear arsenal.”
Kyiv faces an increasingly difficult battlefield situation two and a half years into Russia’s invasion, with Russian forces continuing to push into eastern Ukraine.
But the US presidential election means Washington’s support now hangs on the balance — and with Zelensky apparently at odds with Trump and the Republicans.
Trump had also been due to meet Zelensky during his US visit, but their talks now appear to be on ice.
Trump accused Zelensky on the eve of the visit of refusing to strike a deal with Moscow and once again questioned why the United States was giving billions of dollars to Kyiv.
At an election rally on Wednesday, the Republican called the Ukrainian president “probably the greatest salesman on Earth.”
Republicans were livid after Zelensky visited an arms factory in Biden’s hometown in the battleground state of Pennsylvania earlier this week, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling for the Ukrainian ambassador to be sacked.
Zelensky also sparked fury in Republican ranks when he told The New Yorker magazine this week that Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance did not understand the war’s complexity.
Trump has echoed many of Putin’s talking points about previous US policy being to blame for the Russian invasion, and has been critical of Zelensky for years.
The United States has provided around $175 billion in both military and economic assistance to Ukraine during the war, despite frequent opposition from Republicans.
Zelensky meets Biden after US unveils Ukraine military aid surge
https://arab.news/223sv
Zelensky meets Biden after US unveils Ukraine military aid surge
- Zelensky’s visit was clouded by a blazing row with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
- “Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said
Harvard sues Trump over block on foreign students
- “It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights,” said the lawsuit
NEW YORK: Harvard sued the Trump administration on Friday over its move to block the prestigious university from enrolling and hosting foreign students in a broadening dispute, a court filing showed.
“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.
Greek court charges 17 coast guard officers over 2023 migrant shipwreck, say sources
- The 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations
- A Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges
ATHENS: A Greek naval court has charged 17 coast guard officers over one of the Mediterranean’s worst shipwrecks two years ago, in which hundreds of people are believed to have drowned, three sources said on Friday.
The shipwreck of an overloaded migrant boat in international waters off the southwestern Greek town of Pylos on June 14, 2023, sent shockwaves across Europe and beyond. The naval court is still investigating the circumstances around the incident.
A coast guard vessel had been monitoring the boat, named Adriana, for 15 hours before it capsized and sank. It had left Libya for Italy with about 750 people on board. Only 104 of them are known to have survived.
Greek coast guard authorities have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the handling of the case.
Three legal sources said the 17 coast guard officers would be summoned by a judge to respond to accusations ranging from obstructing transport to causing or helping cause a shipwreck.
Contacted by Reuters, a Greek coast guard official said the service had not been officially informed about the charges and had asked to be briefed by the naval court.
Greece’s judicial system has several preparatory stages and the compilation of charges does not necessarily mean that an individual will face trial.
Human rights activists and other protesters plan rallies across Greece on June 21 to mark the second anniversary of the Pylos shipwreck.
In February, the Greek Ombudsman recommended disciplinary action against eight coast guard officers, the first national probe into the incident to conclude.
Greece says that the coast guard operates with respect to human rights and that it has rescued more than 250,000 people since 2015, when the country was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis.
Russia, Ukraine each free first 390 prisoners in start of war's biggest swap
- Kyiv and Moscow are due to swap 1,000 people each in a deal agreed at talks in Istanbul
- Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the swap had been “completed,” but an official said the exchange was ongoing
CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners on Friday and said they would free more in the coming days, in what is expected to be the biggest prisoner swap of the war so far.
The agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each was the only concrete step toward peace to emerge last week from the first direct talks between the warring sides in more than three years, when they failed to agree a ceasefire.
Both sides said they had each released 270 soldiers and 120 civilians so far, with more due to be released on Saturday and Sunday.
The freed Russians are currently in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine, receiving psychological and medical assistance before being moved to Russia for further care, the Russian Defense Ministry said. They include civilians captured inside Russia’s Kursk region during a Ukrainian incursion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted photographs of released captives, all with shaven heads, celebrating their release and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.
Ukrainian media outlet Espreso TV published a video of the wife of a prisoner crying tears of joy, wrapped in a flag on Kyiv’s Independence Square. She said she had been waiting for her husband’s release since 2022, and had just received the call from Ukrainian authorities confirming the good news.
“We waited, hoped and fought,” said the woman, whose name was given as Victoria.
Earlier, Ukrainian authorities told reporters to assemble at a location in the northern Chernihiv region in anticipation that some freed prisoners could be brought there.
Referring to the prisoner swap earlier on Friday, US President Donald Trump, who had pressed the sides to meet last week, wrote on Truth Social: “Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???“
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been wounded or killed in Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two, although neither side publishes accurate casualty figures. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have also died as Russian forces have besieged and bombarded Ukrainian cities.
CEASEFIRE?
Ukraine says it is ready for a 30-day ceasefire immediately.
Russia, which launched the war by invading its neighbor in 2022 and now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine, says it will not pause its assaults until conditions are met first. A member of the Ukrainian delegation called those conditions “non-starters.”
Trump, who has shifted US policy from supporting Ukraine toward accepting some of Russia’s account of the war, had said he could tighten sanctions on Moscow if it blocked peace. But after speaking to Putin on Monday he decided to take no action for now.
Moscow says it is ready for talks while the fighting goes on, and wants to discuss what it calls the war’s “root causes,” including its demands Ukraine cede more territory, and be disarmed and barred from military alliances with the West. Kyiv says that is tantamount to surrender and would leave it defenseless in the face of future Russian attacks.
Russia claimed on Friday to have captured a settlement called Rakivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said Russia had struck port infrastructure there with two missiles on Friday afternoon, killing one person and wounding eight.
Indonesian pilgrims embark on Hajj journey under Makkah Route expansion
- Saudi Arabia’s Makkah Route initiative is facilitating travel for pilgrims in Jakarta, Surabaya and Solo
- Over 125,000 Indonesian Hajj pilgrims have already arrived in the Kingdom as of Tuesday
JAKARTA: More than 120,000 Indonesian pilgrims are benefiting from the Makkah Route initiative this year, as they embark on Hajj after the flagship Saudi program was expanded to three cities across the country.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation, sends the largest Hajj contingent of pilgrims every year to perform the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam.
In 2025, Saudi Arabia granted Indonesia a quota of 221,000 pilgrims. With the Hajj expected to take place on June 4 and end on June 9, special pilgrimage flights from Indonesia started on May 2.
Over half of the pilgrims are departing under the pre-travel program, which was launched by the Kingdom in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in the Kingdom.
“In Indonesia, Makkah Route is implemented in three airports, Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, and then in the cities of Solo and Surabaya,” Mohammed Zain, director of domestic Hajj services at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News.
The initiative was only expanded in 2024 to reach more Indonesian pilgrims in different parts of the country.
This year, a total of 122,156 Indonesian pilgrims, who are departing from the three selected cities, are benefiting from the program.
“This is very helpful in sorting all of the pilgrims’ document requirements, like visa and passport, so that when the pilgrims reach Saudi Arabia, they simply head to their buses and go on their spiritual journey safely and comfortably,” Zain said.
“We hope that for Hajj next year, the Makkah Route initiative will be further expanded in Indonesia, so that we can offer more high-quality Hajj service.”
In Jakarta, the program is implemented at the new Hajj and Umrah terminal in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which was inaugurated by President Prabowo Subianto earlier this month.
Over 125,000 pilgrims have arrived in the Kingdom as of Tuesday.
Indonesia is among seven Muslim-majority countries — including Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Morocco, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire — where Saudi Arabia is operating its Makkah Route initiative.
Rescue efforts underway for 260 workers trapped in a South African gold mine
JOHANNESBURG: Rescue efforts are underway in South Africa to bring 260 workers trapped in a gold mine for a day back to the surface, the Sibanye Stillwater mining company said on Friday.
According to the company, an initial investigation showed that a sub-shaft rock winder skip door opened at the loading point and caused some damage to the mineshaft at the Kloof mine, west of Johannesburg.
“Following a detailed risk assessment, it was decided that employees should remain at the sub-shaft station until it is safe to proceed to the surface, in order to avoid walking long distances at this time,” the company said in a statement.
The National Union of Mineworkers, which represents workers at the Kloof mine, said the miners have been trapped for almost 24 hours, with the company repeatedly changing the estimated time for them to return to the surface.
“We are very concerned because the mine did not even make this incident public until we reported it to the media,” said NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu.
The company said all miners were accounted for and safe, adding that it expected to hoist them back to the surface on Friday.
