They have also emphasized that those responsible for attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians in the war-ravaged nation must be held accountable.
The two nations decried “Russia’s illegal war of aggression” against its neighbour in a statement detailing the discussions that took place on Thursday at the White House between US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
According to the statement, Biden and Macron “also reiterate their steadfast resolve to hold Russia to account for widely documented atrocities and war crimes, committed both by its regular armed forces and by its proxies.”
Following lengthy discussions in the Oval Office, Biden and Macron addressed the media at a news conference alongside Macron, declaring, “We reaffirm that France and the United States together, with all our NATO allies and the European Union and the G7, stand as strong as ever against Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.”
“France and the United States are facing down [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s grasping ambition for conquest,” the US president stated to reporters, “defending democratic values and universal human rights.”
Additionally, Biden stated that he was willing to speak with Putin “if, in fact, there is an interest in him deciding that he is looking for a way to end the war.”Putin “hasn’t done that yet,” however, Biden added.
The country of Ukraine is reeling from massive, nearly weekly missile and drone attacks that target power, water, and heat supplies in its cities just as winter is beginning, nine months into Russia’s invasion. Western powers are attempting to garner support for Ukraine.
Thursday’s discussions among Biden and Macron came as the city chairman of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, encouraged occupants of the Ukrainian funding to load up on water, food and comfortable dress in case of a complete power outage.
Additionally, Klitschko advised people to think about staying with friends on the city’s outskirts if at all possible.
Overnight, neighborhoods in the recently liberated city of Kherson were bombarded by Russian rockets.The assaults took out power supplies after power had simply started to be reestablished almost three weeks after Russian soldiers emptied the city.
As they patrolled past charred automobiles and buildings whose windows had been blown out by overnight shelling, some locals gave Ukrainian soldiers hugs.
Ukraine will succeed.Inna Sydorchuk, 52, a resident of one of the hit apartment blocks, stated, “We will get through it.”
Ukrainian energy infrastructure “supports the combat capability of the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier on Thursday.
In an online news conference, Lavrov stated that the aim of the bombardment was to “knock out energy facilities that allow you to keep pumping deadly weapons into
Ukraine in order to kill the Russians.”
Antony Blinken, Secretary of State for the United States, made the claim a month ago, alleging that Russia wanted to “freeze” Ukraine.
Blinken stated on November 4 that, following a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Germany, “President Putin seems to have decided that if he cannot seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze it into submission.”
