WASHINGTON — Ukraine's ambassador to the United States has called the U.S. her country's “Strategic Friend No. 1.”
In Washington, a stiff wind whipped blue and yellow flags set in the ground to mark the days of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, used the event to say the U.S. had begun distributing $9.9 billion allocated by Congress to help pay salaries and otherwise support Ukraine’s government through the end of the fiscal year.
Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova said the second year of the war would be “the year of winning.”
Power acknowledged Markarova's thanks and added, “We are grateful to you” for the persistence of democratic Ukraine in fighting the Russian invasion. “We are awed by your commitment to the values that we cherish here in the United States.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
— Ukraine's Zelenskyy defiant and busy on war anniversary
— US commits $2 billion in drones, ammunition, aid to Ukraine
— ‘People’s court’ endorses Putin indictment for aggression
— China issues peace plan; Zelenskyy says he’ll await details
— Joy amid sorrow: 1st birthdays muted for Ukrainian parents
— Tallying Ukraine toll an elusive task
— Follow AP’s coverage of the war anniversary in Ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
TBILISI, Georgia -- Thousands of Georgians took to the streets of the country’s capital on Friday to express solidarity with Ukraine, while the ex-Soviet nation’s president blasted her government’s “neutral position” on the Russian aggression.
Georgia, which in 2008 survived a war with Russia over a breakaway region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, has provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid, taken in thousands of war refugees and joined all international resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But its authorities stopped short of supplying Kyiv with military assistance, citing the need to maintain neutrality and not get dragged into the conflict.
President Salome Zourabichvili said in a statement Friday that the government’s “neutral and balanced” position was “incomprehensible to a country that has gone through the same test many times, which knows very well what it means when its sovereignty is violated by the enemy and the sword raised against independence, which best understands the bitterness of occupation.”
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PARIS -- French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said France will create a 1 million-euro fund to support Ukrainian athletes and delegates participating in next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
Oudéa-Castéra made the announcement on Friday, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She told a group of Ukrainian athletes in northern France that the French government will do everything to help Ukraine be “as well prepared as possible” for the Summer Games.