Obama meets with Petro Poroshenko, offers military aid to Ukraine
United States President Barack Obama on Wednesday called Ukraine's president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, a “wise selection” to lead the country and pledged more military aid to help address security threats from Russian-backed separatists. Obama, speaking to reporters after a meeting with Poroshenko in Warsaw, said they discussed the new leader's plan to restore peace, boost economic growth, and reduce energy dependence on Russia. Obama said he discussed with Poroshenko ways the United States can help train Ukrainian law enforcement and military personnel. The White House said in a statement after the meeting that Obama had approved an additional $23 million in defence security assistance to Ukraine since early March, including $5 million for “the provision of body armour, night vision goggles, and additional communications equipment”. Poroshenko, a billionaire confectionary magnate who now takes over a country in deep crisis, told reporters he was preparing to unveil a plan for "the peaceful resolution of the situation in the east" soon after his inauguration on Saturday. He said a gathering of world leaders in Normandy, France on Friday to mark the 75th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day landings would be crucial for the plan. Obama, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and Poroshenko will all be at the Normandy commemorations - the first time they have been in the same location since the crisis in Ukraine began - though there is no plan at the moment for them to have a meeting. "Exactly in Normandy we can start to find out this peaceful process in Ukraine," Poroshenko Poroshenko won a landslide victory on May 25 to fill the office left vacant after a pro-Russian president fled an uprising in late February, the start of a crisis that saw Moscow seize Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and pro-Russian separatists rise up in Ukraine's east. In the days since Poroshenko was elected, Ukraine has ramped up a crackdown against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, leading to the heaviest fighting of the conflict. Ukraine said on Wednesday as many as 300 fighters had been killed in the past 24 hours of fighting, although the rebels denied they had suffered such heavy losses., Reuters reports.
