PARIS, France — U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly apologized to Ukraine for a monthslong holdup in American military assistance that let Russia make gains on the battlefield, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for bipartisan U.S. support 'like it was during World War II.'

Speaking in Paris a day after they attended 80th anniversary events of D-Day in Normandy, Biden apologized to the Ukrainian people for the weeks of not knowing if more assistance would come while conservative Republicans in Congress held up a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine for six months.