The US will back Ukraine in its fight against Russia for “as long as it takes” President Joe Biden said as he made an unannounced and symbolic visit to the capital, Kyiv.
“We have every confidence you’re going to continue to prevail,” he said.
Mr Biden’s first trip to Ukraine as president came days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
He said President Putin had been “dead wrong” to think Russia could outlast Ukraine and its Western allies.
He met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the pair visited a memorial to soldiers who have died in the nine years since Russia annexed Crimea and its proxy forces captured parts of the eastern Donbas region.
Mr Biden’s presence was intended to reaffirm America’s “unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”, according to a White House statement.
The New York Times reported that he took a 10-hour train journey from Poland to reach Kyiv.
He left Ukraine on Monday to travel to Poland.
After the visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new package of security assistance for Ukraine valued at $450m (£373m), including ammunition for howitzers and the Himars rocket system, Javelin missiles, and air surveillance radars.
The US will also provide Kyiv with an extra $10m (£8.3m) in emergency assistance “to keep Ukraine’s energy infrastructure up and running”, Mr Blinken said.
A new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies “that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine” will also be announced later this week.
Mr Zelensky said: “The results of this visit will surely be seen and will surely be reflected on the battlefield in liberating our territories.”
He also said that the two leaders had discussed the possibility of sending other weapons that so far had not been supplied.
Mr Zelensky has repeatedly called for F-16 fighter jets, something the US and other allies have so far stopped short of approving.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan – who was among President Biden’s entourage – said the US notified Russia about the trip a few hours before President Biden’s departure for “deconfliction purposes”.
He refused to comment on how Moscow had responded to the news.
White House officials said planning for the trip had been happening for “months”, and that a final decision to travel was made on Friday.
In a scene that added drama to the most high-profile visit to Ukraine since the war began, air raid sirens wailed while President Biden and Mr Zelensky were in St Michael’s Cathedral in central Kyiv. The sirens sound regularly in Kyiv.
Mr Biden laid a wreath to commemorate those killed during nine years of conflict
While other world leaders have visited Ukraine over the past year, the US president’s appearance in the capital during a war in which American soldiers aren’t fighting is a show of unity at a time when Russia says Western support for Ukraine is waning.
The visit was welcomed by Ukrainians in Kyiv.
“I’m so grateful for his support – it means so much to us,” Roksoliana Gera told the BBC.
“I appreciate his courage, that he took on this challenge and came to show the support of the American nation.”
Oleksandra Soloviova said the visit was an “important sign for the whole world”.
“For Russia first of all, it shows the US supports us and will continue supporting us, with sanctions and military equipment,” she said.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said that the visit had been strategic as well as historic. “Many issues are being solved and those that have stalled will be accelerated,” he said.
The US is one of Ukraine’s biggest allies and has so far announced $24.9bn (£20.6bn) in military assistance, according to the US state department.
In January, Mr Biden announced that the US would send 31 battle tanks and longer-range missiles are also on their way.
However, there is a growing political divide in the US over the amount of aid Kyiv should receive in future.
President Biden’s visit to Kyiv comes ahead of a three-day visit to Poland.
There he will meet with the country’s President, Andrzej Duda, and with Eastern European members of the Nato military alliance.
Japan Aims To Raise Age Of Consent From 13 To 16 In Sex Crime Overhaul
A panel of the Japanese Justice Ministry has proposed raising the age of consent from 13 to 16.
It forms part of a wider overhaul of Japan’s laws on sex crimes, after multiple rape acquittals in 2019 caused outcry.
The proposal also aims to criminalise the grooming of minors and expand the definition of rape.
The statute of limitations for reporting rape will also be increased to 15 from 10 years.
Currently, Japan has the lowest age of consent in developed countries, and the lowest in the G7 group.
In Germany and Italy the age is 14, in Greece and France it is 15 and in the UK and many US states it is 16.
The current law in Japan means victims of rape need to prove that there was “violence and intimidation” used during the rape and that it was “impossible to resist” to secure a conviction.
The panel has not changed this wording but instead added other factors including intoxication, drugging, being caught off guard and psychological control into the definition.
Justice Ministry official Yusuke Asanuma said that this “isn’t meant to make it easier or harder” for victims to win a rape case but that it should make verdicts “more consistent”.
The re-examination of the sex crime laws comes after widespread demonstrations in 2019 following a number of acquittals. One case saw a man go free after being accused of having sex with his teenaged daughter, even though the court agreed that it was against her will. He was later sent to prison after prosecutors appealed.
Another saw a man found not guilty of raping a woman who had passed out from drinking because he “misunderstood” that she consented to having sex.
The government could pass the law as early as summer. Despite the potential change to the age of consent, an exception will still exist for intercourse between people who are at least 13 and who have an age gap of less than five years.
(BBC)
