Being America’s oldest president has a complicated reality

Joe Biden and the Ukrainian Counterattack: How the White House Solved the Last Day of Ukraine‘s First Nuclear Collisions with the West

The two Joe Bidens coexist in the same octogenarian president: Sharp and wise at critical moments, the product of decades of seasoning, able to rise to the occasion even in the dead of night to confront a dangerous world. Yet a little slower, a little softer, a little harder of hearing, a little more tentative in his walk, a little more prone to occasional lapses of memory in ways that feel familiar to anyone who has reached their ninth decade or has a parent who has.

And then there was the time a few weeks ago when the president was hosting children for Take Your Child to Work Day and became mixed up as he tried to list his grandchildren. Let me see what I see. I have two in New York and one in Philadelphia. No, I don’t know, but I have one granddaughter. You’re confusing me.” When asked what he liked about the last country he had visited, he blanked out.

There was the time last winter when President Biden was awakened at 3 a.m. while on a trip to Asia and told that a missile had struck Poland, touching off a panic that Russia might have expanded the war in Ukraine to a NATO ally. Within hours in the middle of the night, Mr. Biden consulted his top advisers, called the president of Poland and the NATO secretary general, and gathered fellow world leaders to deal with the crisis.

The White House says that one of the main discussion topics was the Ukrainian demands for American-made F-16 warplanes. In late May, and after months of resisting mounting pressure to provide the planes out of fear they could be used to hit Russian territory, Mr. Biden agreed to allow for pilots to be trained to operate the aircraft and for allied countries to supply them.

“The president is confident that we did everything we could over the past six, eight months or more to make sure that they had all the equipment, training or capabilities,” Mr. Kirby said.

John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Monday that he could not say whether the Ukrainian counteroffensive had officially started, but he added that the Biden administration had done all it could to provide support to get Kyiv ready.

The West is currently faced with a crucial moment in which allies must move forward in lockstep if they want to win the war against Russia.

Mr. Biden helped keep the agreement of Western allies over the need to give aid to Kyiv despite differing opinions about the best way to support the war in Ukraine.

Denmark is one of several countries whose leaders have signaled that they would be open to either transfer F-16s from their own stockpiles or provide pilot training. The countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway said they would be willing to help.

President Biden has a busy week hosting the Danish prime minister on Monday and the British prime minister on Thursday. The topic of the war in Ukraine will come up in both visits.

Ukraine War: State of War and NATO’s Next-to-Leading-Order Security Threat (Survey-Node Observations)

You can read past recaps here. You can find more in-depth stories here. It is possible to get updates throughout the day on NPR’s State of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian fighters prepare to take control of the land from Russia. And, are international sanctions finally affecting Russia’s resilient economy?

Russia did its best to keep up the assault on Kyiv. The air defensesshot down many of the missiles and drones, but there were some casualties and damage. Ukrainian officials said the last weekend in May saw the largest drone attack in Kyiv since the invasion began in 2022, lasting more than five hours and killing one person. Two women and a child died in a missile attack.

Countries on NATO’s eastern flank, known as the Bucharest Nine, will hold a summit in Slovakia on Tuesday. Russia was condemned as the most significant and direct security threat by the group.

NATO’s chief hopes to bring Sweden into the military alliance this month but has yet to win approval from Turkey and Hungary.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/05/1177562432/russia-ukraine-war-news

The Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow: A War of Assault on NATO and the Status of the Organization of World Trade Organization (World Economic Organization)

Drone strikes targeted Moscow, lightly damaging several apartment buildings. The Ukrainian authorities had a great time but did not say who was behind the attack.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said thatUkraine had a right to strike outside its borders. The remark conveyed a harder stance than what the U.S. has said: The Biden administration publicly opposes Ukrainian attacks inside Russia. Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian official and former president, reacted to Cleverly by warning any British “officials could be considered as a legitimate military target.”

Europe has mixed views on Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in NATO, and France is pushing for a clear path for Ukraine to join the alliance. Germany doesn’t like it when people talk about it in the midst of war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has lobbied for his country to become part of NATO, also acknowledged it would be “impossible” to join during the war.

A video was released by the Ukrainian Defense ministry showing troops putting their hands in the air. Accompanying text said, “There will be no announcement of the start.” The messaging built suspense about a major counteroffensive Ukraine has planned for months. Zelenskyy told The Wall Street Journal that they were ready.