Biden is to meet with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in Paris as Russia leans into its battlefield offensive

PARIS (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden was due to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Friday as Kyiv’s army endures its hardest days of fighting since the early weeks of the war with Russia and prepares for what officials say could be a tough summer ahead.

The United States is by far Kyiv’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 wider as Russia’s bigger army seeks to make its advantage tell.

The offensive is seeking to exploit Kyiv’s shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

That shortfall in weaponry came after U.S. military aid was held up in Congress for six months before Biden in April signed into law a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine.

Amid Russia’s most recent onslaught and with Ukraine’s army reeling, some NATO allies including the U.S. said last week they would allow Ukraine to use weapons they deliver to Kyiv to carry out limited attacks inside Russia.

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