Obama to meet with Ukraine's president Thursday
After two days of dealing with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, President Obama revisits another global crisis Thursday: Russia and Ukraine.
Obama will meet Thursday with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a largely symbolic get-together designed to show Russia and the world that the U.S. backs Ukraine as it fights pro-Russian aggression in its eastern lands.
"Maybe the picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words, both in English and Russian," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Poroshenko, who is also seeking military and economic assistance from the United States, will address a joint session of Congress on Thursday morning.
The meeting with Obama is in the afternoon.
The United States and its allies have slapped a series of economic sanction on Russia over President Vladimir Putin's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The Russia-Ukraine issue resurfaces on Obama's agenda two days after he visited Atlanta to discuss the U.S. anti-Ebola plan with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Wednesday, Obama talked about his counterterrorism strategy against the Islamic State with military leaders at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa.