Biden to meet Zelenskyy in Normandy

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy during 80th anniversary commemorations for D-Day in Normandy, France, the White House said Tuesday.

"While he's in Normandy, he'll have the opportunity to sit down with President Zelenskyy," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters during a briefing aboard Air Force One en route to France.

Biden will also have an opportunity several days later to see Zelenskyy again at the G-7 summit in Italy, he added, stressing that the president will not attend the Ukraine peace summit that will take place from June 15-16 in Switzerland.

Asked whether Biden would consider sending US military advisors to Ukraine for training purposes, Sullivan said: "We're not planning to send US military advisors or troops, trainers, to train Ukrainians in Ukraine."

"For our part, we're not planning for a training mission in Ukraine," he stressed.

Ukraine needs a "continued flow of weaponry, which we are going to supply to them," Sullivan added.

Biden last week granted Ukraine secret approval to use US-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, but only near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where Russian forces entered in early May and have since advanced.

"The president thought it was right that if Russian forces are hitting Ukraine, from Russia into Ukraine, that Ukraine should have the right to hit back, including with American made weapons, and so he authorized the use of weapons for that specific purpose," Sullivan said.