Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Washington on Tuesday to meet President Joe Biden and make his case to Republicans who oppose new allocations while already budgeted aid is set to expire in a few weeks. In a flurry of diplomatic activity following the White House announcement, an aide to Mike Johnson announced that the new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives – who has sought to tie aid to Ukraine to funding for US border security – would meet on Tuesday with the Ukrainian President will meet. Last week, Republican senators blocked $106 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine and Israel in retaliation for excluding immigration reforms they had demanded as part of the package.
“A Russian victory in Ukraine would represent a threat to its European neighbors.” This was emphasized by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in an interview with the French newspaper Le Parisien. “Support for Kiev – he added – must remain unshakable.” Financial aid to Ukraine and the start of negotiations on Kiev's accession to the EU will be two central topics of the next European Council, scheduled for next Thursday and Friday. Hungary's veto is currently weighing heavily on both points.
The war in Ukraine, what is there to know?
dossier – Traces of war
Live news from the Ukraine-Russia conflict
03:54
Kiev: Russian rockets fired, falling debris damages at least one building
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the overnight attack on the capital and later said that the Russian missiles had been destroyed by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles but that the falling debris had damaged residential buildings in several districts. In a message on Telegram, Klitschko himself specified that the emergency services intervened in three districts, particularly in Holosiivskyi, in the area southwest of Kiev, where parts of a Russian rocket hit the roof of a palace.
03:36
Explosions in Kiev, anti-aircraft alarm in the Ukrainian capital
Witnesses from the Portal agency report explosions in Kiev. Immediately afterwards, the military authorities in the Ukrainian capital declared an anti-aircraft alert.