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Biden will arrive at Pointe du Hoc to deliver a speech highlighting democracy and freedom
From CNN staff
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive at Pointe du Hoc, in Normandy in minutes, as Western leaders mark the anniversary of the largest Allied forces' operation against Nazi Germany in World War II.
The US leader will draw parallels between the more than 150,000 allies troops who fought for the liberation of Europe from Adolf Hitler's Nazis on June 6, 1944, and Ukraine's present fight against Russia's raging 27-month invasion.
“He’ll talk about the stakes of that moment – an existential fight between dictatorship and freedom," national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters. The speech will attest to the urgency of democracy, invoking the symbolism of the location.
Biden will echo one of his predecessors, Ronald Reagan, who in 1984 traveled to a clifftop 100 feet high known as Pointe du Hoc, which was scaled in a daring raid by US Army Rangers on D-Day. Despite heavy losses, the Rangers seized German artillery pieces that could have caused even greater carnage of the Omaha and Utah invasion beaches.
Reagan stood in front of a stone memorial shaped into the Rangers’ emblem, with his back to the Channel, surrounded by surviving veterans of the raid, and gave one of the greatest presidential speeches. “These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war,” Reagan said. He later confessed to his diary that he was so moved it was tough to get the words out.
CNN's Betsy KleinandKevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.
Biden apologizes to Zelensky over delay in passing Ukraine aid package
From CNN's DJ Judd
US President JoeBiden has apologized to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for the delay earlier this year in passing a new military aid package, which was held up by Republican opposition in Congress.
Biden made the apology while announcing a new aid package for Ukraine in a bilateral meeting with Zelensky on Friday.
“You know, you haven't bowed down, you haven't yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, is just remarkable—and we’re not going to walk away from you,”Bidentold the Ukrainian president.
“I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what’s going to pass, in terms of funding, because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money from some of our very conservative members who were holding it up, but we got it done.”
Biden took the opportunity to tout Friday's funding announcement, as well as the additional funding surged to Ukraine since he signed the supplemental in April.
“Since then, including today, I've announced six packages of significant funding—today I’m also signing an additional package for $225 million to help you reconstruct the electric grid,” he said.
"Europe is no longer a continent of peace," Zelensky tells French parliament
From CNN's Christian Edwards
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the return of fascism in Europe, 80 years after D-Day, the Allied invasion of France which laid the foundations for the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
"Unfortunately, we live in a time when Europe is no longer a continent of peace. And at a time when Nazism is unfortunately making a comeback," Zelensky told the French National Assembly in Paris Friday.
Zelensky had joined other world leaders and veterans in marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, northwest France, on Thursday, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine rages on.
"Once again in Europe, cities are being completely destroyed and villages are being burnt down. Once again in Europe, filtration and deportation camps are appearing, and hatred, which has become a new Russian cult," Zelensky told French lawmakers Friday.
British PM Rishi Sunak apologizes for skipping D-Day commemorations to campaign for election
From CNN's Rob Picheta
Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has apologized for leaving the80th anniversary commemorationsof D-Day early in order to film a TV interview, a decision that prompted incredulity and further derailed his floundering general election campaign.
Sunak attended the first part of the commemorative events in Normandy, France, on Thursday, but skipped the international ceremony at Omaha Beach, which was attended by other world leaders and veterans of the Allied operation in 1944.
The UK was represented at the international ceremony by David Cameron, Sunak’s foreign secretary and a former prime minister, who took photographs alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden.
Also in attendance was Labour leader Keir Starmer, who was filmed speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the event. Labour was quick to condemn Sunak’s decision to skip the events, and the gaffe dominated British news coverage of the election on Friday.
British PM Rishi Sunak apologizes for skipping D-Day commemorations to campaign for election | CNN
Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy grid inflict "unprecedented scale of destruction"
From CNN’s Svitlana Vlasova
Large swaths of Ukraine are facing rolling and emergency blackouts as the country grapples with historic low energy capacity due to Russian strikes targeting critical infrastructure.
Nearly half of Ukraine’s available capacity has been damaged or destroyed, according to Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.
“We are dealing with an absolutely unprecedented scale of destruction. And the deficits that we have in the power system now, which are not even covered by the fairly powerful imports that come from Europe to Ukraine, are precisely the result of this destruction,” Kudrytskyi told local media.
The destruction means Ukraine is facing a historic low energy generation capacity, he said, and announced electricity consumption limits in all regions of Ukraine.
“The main reason for the restrictions is the consequences of six enemy missile attacks on Ukrainian power plants. Due to significant damage, they cannot produce as much electricity as before the attacks,” he explained.
Ukraine has imported energy from neighboring Poland, Romania and Moldova. It has also received emergency assistance from Poland, but Kudrytskyi warned these measures are insufficient.
Biden set to make case for democracy from scene of American heroism
From CNN's Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak
US President Joe Biden is set to present a case for democracy Friday against the backdrop of a key turning point for allied forces in World War II – setting up a dramatic moment with war once more on Europe’s doorstep and teeing up a domestic contrast with his political rival.
Biden will travel to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France, on Friday – a site separating the Omaha and Utah beaches where American Army Rangers scaled steep cliffs to secure positions against the Germans – for a speech on the power of democracy invoking the symbolism of the location.
The speech will stand out as a call to modern-day action against an isolationist streak seeping into American politics and a rise of authoritarianism around the world.
Eighty years after the allied landings, the president will draw a “throughline” from World War II to today in his remarks, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. But the subtext of the speech is also likely to be aimed at former President Donald Trump.
“He’ll talk about the stakes of that moment – an existential fight between dictatorship and freedom. He’ll talk about the men who scaled those cliffs and how they… put the country ahead of themselves. And he’ll talk about the dangers of isolationism and how if we back dictators, fail to stand up to them, they keep going, and ultimately, America and the world pays a greater price,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Zelensky compares Kyiv’s struggle and World War II, in speech to French lawmakers
From CNN’s Joseph Ataman in Paris
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky drew parallels between World War II and his country’s battle against Russia in an address to French lawmakers in Paris Friday.
“Hitler crossed red line after red line, Putin does the same,” he said, adding that Ukrainians were the heirs of the Allied fighters of WW2.
His speech was greeted rapturously by the French National Assembly, with lawmakers giving him a standing ovation. In the opening months of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Zelensky addressed the French National Assembly by video.
“France, I thank you for being at our side to defend life,” he said in French.
On Thursday, Macron announced that Paris and Kyiv will sign an agreement for France to provide Ukraine with Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets.
Macron says France will supplyMirage2000 fighter jets to Ukraine
From CNN’s Joseph Ataman in Paris
Following Thursday's D-Day commemorations, French President Emmanuel Macron said France will begin supplying Ukraine withMirage2000-5 fighter jets.
The delivery program will begin following the signing of an agreement with Ukraine’s president on Friday in Paris, Macron said in an interview with French broadcaster TF1.
TheMirage2000-5 fighter jet is a multirole jet that been in service for some 25 years, with air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. TheMiragejet has been successfully exported by France to several countries and broadly offers a similar capacity to the American-made F-16 jet.
Macron said that he proposed to begin training pilots on the aircraft from this summer, with training taking around 6 months. France is already providing basic flight training to Ukrainian pilots as part of the F-16 supply program.
The French leader said that he hoped to build a similar coalition of countries that could provide Ukraine with their ownMiragejets. Both Greece and the UAE haveMirage2000-5 jets in their air forces.
Russia attacks Ukraine's critical infrastructure, including in Kyiv region
From CNN's Svitlana Vlasova and Alex Stambaugh
Russia attacked Ukraine's critical infrastructure overnight into Friday, targeting at least nine regions including the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukraine's air defenses shot down 48 out of 53 attack drones launched by Russia and all five cruise missiles launched, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram.
They were shot down in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Khmelnytskyi regions, he said.
At least one person died and four injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region; four others were injured in the Kherson region and six others in Dnipropetrovsk, local officials said.
In Kyiv region, a fire broke out at an industrial facility, but there were no casualties and responders are working to try to extinguish the fire, the head of Kyiv region military administration said.
