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Zelensky to visit US, meet with Biden on December 21 — US administration

Apart from that, the Ukrainian leader will hold a "meeting with key members of President Biden's national security team and cabinet"

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky John Moore/Getty Images

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky

© John Moore/Getty Images

WASHINGTON, December 21. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will visit the United States on Wednesday on an invitation from his US counterpart Joe Biden, a high-ranking US administration official told reporters.

"At President Biden's invitation, President Zelensky will be visiting Washington DC tomorrow," the official said during a special online briefing about the upcoming visit.

According to the official, an extended meeting between Biden and Zelensky will take place in the White House.

Apart from that, the Ukrainian leader will hold a "meeting with key members of President Biden's national security team and cabinet". Also, a press conference with Zelensky will be held in the White House.

After that, the Ukrainian president will go to the Capitol Hill.

"There will be an address by President Zelensky to a joint session of Congress demonstrating the strong bipartisan support for Ukraine. And then President Zelensky will return after just a few short hours on the ground here to his people in Ukraine," the official added.

The US and Ukrainian leaders discussed Zelensky’s visit to Washington during their phone conversation on December 11. An official invitation was sent to Zelensky on December 14. The visit was officially confirmed on December 18. It will be Zelensky’s second visit to the US as the president of Ukraine, and the first one since the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, in response to a request from the Donbass republics, he made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. He underscored that Moscow does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories, instead planning to demilitarize and denazify the country. In response, the West started introducing sweeping sanctions against Russia and shipping weapons and military vehicles to Kiev already worth tens of billions of dollars at this point.

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