Zelensky to meet Trump after Biden commits another $8bn in aid to Kyiv – Ukraine live

US president Joe Biden has insisted that Ukraine will win the war against Russia, after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart at the White House in Washington.

“We stand with Ukraine, now and in the future,” Mr Biden said alongside Mr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

“Russia will not prevail. Ukraine will prevail.”

Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky will meet on 12 October in Germany, the White House said, confirming one of the final interactions between the two before the US president’s term ends.

The two leaders, who met in the Oval Office yesterday, will discuss Mr Zelensky’s peace plan, said spokesperson John Kirby.

Mr Zelensky said the $7.9bn in aid announced by the White House “will be a great help” and revealed that he and the American president were “preparing to discuss the details” and “strengthen” his “plan for victory” over Russia.

The Ukrainian war-time president has been in the United States for the UN General Assembly, where on Wednesday he warned world leaders that Russian president Vladimir Putin is attempting to “break the Ukrainian spirit” by targeting his country’s energy infrastructure.

He also cautioned against accepting purported peace deals that would be negotiated without Ukraine having a say.

Outgoing Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Moscow was attempting to intimidate alliance members with its new nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for a nuclear response.

“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric is dangerous and reckless,” Mr Stoltenberg said at the Council on Foreign Relations. “We are closely watching what Russia is doing.”

Vladimir Putin has said Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack.

The move, his aide and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, should be considered a signal to Western countries that there will be consequences if they participate in attacks on Russia.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky presented the key points of his “victory plan” to members of the US House of Representatives, and said strong pressure was needed for his country.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said the billions of dollars of defense aid he has authorised for Ukraine will strengthen Kyiv’s hand “in future negotiations” as he met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office for what could be the final time during his presidency.

Sitting alongside Zelensky, Biden thanked the Ukrainian leader for sharing his own plan for victory in his country’s nearly three-year-old war against Russian invading forces.

He added that it was important “to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield” by releasing all of the aid approved by Congress in the supplemental defense aid package he signed into law earlier this year.

The billions of dollars worth of defence assistance will be delivered to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in January.

Donald Trump has said he will meet Volodymyr Zelensky today in New York as the Ukrainian president wraps up his US visit.

The Republican presidential nominee told reporters he will meet Mr Zelensky at Trump Tower in Manhattan at 9.45am EDT. The Ukrainian war-time leader, who met president Joe Biden yesterday, has extended his stay in the United States in order to meet the former president.

Ukraine should be able to freely use arms it has been provided, Lithuania’s foreign minister has said.

The minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he hoped Kyiv would be able to shoot further into Russia with weapons Washington announced it would deliver to Ukraine. Kyiv’s allies in Nato are deliberating sending long-range missiles to Ukraine which can be used to strike Russia, which routinely strikes Ukraine with its own ballistic and cruise missiles.

“The strategic goal that puts Ukraine in the strongest possible position requires to allow them to use the weaponry freely,” Landsbergis said. Arming Ukraine is one thing, but it is not very efficient if Kyiv is not allowed to use the arms, Mr Landsbergis told Reuters.

“I’m reading president Biden’s statement, and I’m seeing that there is a new type of rockets that are being delivered that are longer-range than the previous ones,” Mr Landsbergis said.

“My hope is that it’s not a rocket that they should shoot from afar, from a distance to the front, that they would be allowed to use those rockets and shoot further out.”

He also confirmed Lithuania’s support of including Ukraine in Nato’s common defence area. “It has to happen,” Mr Landsbergis said. “If you’re saying that, OK, we want Ukraine in a safe, secure position, without the risk that they will be attacked, you have to answer how. And, honestly, it’s not rocket science.”

Russian forces repeatedly shelled a settlement west of the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson yesterday, killing one person and wounding another, the region’s governor said.

The casualty included a woman who died when Russian forces hit the village of Tomyna Balka six times, said Vyacheslav Prokudin, governor of Kherson region, still partly held by Russian forces.

Outside Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, a strike by Russian multiple rocket launchers triggered a fire engulfing at least six homes in the town of Slatyne, local official Vyacheslav Zadorenko said.

Zadorenko said emergency services were tackling the blaze and trying to establish whether any residents were trapped under rubble. Kharkiv, located 30km (18 miles) from the border, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks.

The Kremlin said that the changes to Russia’s nuclear weapons doctrine outlined by Vladimir Putin should be considered a signal to Western countries that there will be consequences if they participate in attacks on Russia.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said adjustments to a document called “The Foundations of State Policy in the Sphere of Nuclear Deterrence” had been formulated.

Asked by reporters if the changes were a signal to the West, Mr Peskov said: “This should be considered a definite signal.”

“This is a signal that warns these countries about the consequences if they participate in an attack on our country by various means, and not necessarily nuclear ones,” Mr Peskov said.

The world, Mr Peskov said, was witness to an “unprecedented confrontation” which he said was provoked by the “direct involvement of Western countries, including nuclear powers” in the Ukraine war.

US president Joe Biden said the US would strengthen Ukraine’s position in future negotiations by expediting funding during his term, which ends in January.

Before meeting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, Mr Biden said the US would deal with Ukraine’s future defence needs.

He said he planned to convene a meeting with other world leaders focused on Ukraine’s defence during a visit to Germany next month.