U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky just can’t get enough of each other, with the two leaders set for their second head-to-head in a week alongside the G7 meeting that begins Wednesday in Italy.
The octogenarian departs for Europe just hours after his son Hunter was found guilty of three federal gun charges.
The Hill reports the Biden and Zelensky are due to meet up again for talks on Thursday, marking the second time in seven days the two have got together while Biden is abroad.
They previously sat down in Normandy during last week’s D-Day anniversary proceedings.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, Friday, June 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“At the G-7 meeting later this week, our commitment to Ukraine will continue to be right up front and clear,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters ahead of Biden’s departure.
“We will take bolster steps to show Mr. Putin that time is not on his side and he cannot outlast us as we support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.”
The president is skipping a Ukraine peace summit being held Saturday in Switzerland to return home for a major fundraiser in California hosted by Hollywood actor George Clooney, as Breitbart News reported.
Clooney and the Biden White House enjoy close ties, with the A-lister calling the administration last month to defend his wife’s work on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Gaza war.
Clooney tried to defend the indefensible https://t.co/j7cY7mtlzf
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 7, 2024
Zelensky is set to lead the peace summit with its usual sideline calls for additional aid, as previewed Tuesday when he made an urgent plea for more air defense systems and finance to rebuild his country’s ravaged energy infrastructure in a speech to a Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.
He said his country needs at least seven more U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense missile systems soon in order to protect major cities from frequent Russian airstrikes.
Vice President Harris will attend the peace summit in Biden’s place.