The United States will announce on Wednesday $800 million in new security assistance to help Ukraine deal with Russian forces, which are tightening their grip despite new talks between kyiv and Moscow, described by the Ukrainian president as “more realistic”.
US President Joe Biden is to make the announcement after his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky made a video address to the US Congress. “In total, the president has authorized two billion dollars in security since the beginning of the administration” Biden, said a White House official.
Washington has already supplied Ukraine over the past year with about 2,600 Javelin anti-tank weapons and more than 600 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, he added.
Mr. Zelensky is scheduled to speak at 9 a.m. EDT to US lawmakers, who regularly urge President Biden to toughen up on Russia.
The Ukrainian president should once again call for the establishment of a no-fly zone over his country, a measure supported by several elected members of Congress, but which the American president has so far rejected.
“Imagine your cities bombarded, surrounded,” Mr. Zelensky launched on Tuesday before Canadian parliamentarians, again calling for this no-fly zone.
American elected officials from both camps are also urging Joe Biden to facilitate the delivery of Polish Mig-29 planes to Ukraine, which Washington has opposed a definitive refusal.
“The Russians have already killed 97 children” by bombing “schools, hospitals, homes”, Mr. Zelensky had again affirmed in front of the Canadian deputies who cheered him on their feet for several minutes.
“Dangerous Time”
Despite these calls for help, Russian fire against several Ukrainian cities has intensified, especially in kyiv, which is experiencing a “dangerous moment”, according to its mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Several loud explosions were heard again at dawn on Wednesday in the capital, AFP noted.
Thick columns of black smoke were observed shortly after in the sky of the city, like the day before, where several Russian strikes had hit residential buildings.
No assessment or details were given immediately by the local authorities, while the press was not allowed to circulate in the city, under tension, because of the curfew.
On Tuesday, at least four people were killed and around 40 others rescued in an apartment building in a western district of kyiv, Svyatoshin, after a Russian strike which caused a fire, according to local authorities. At least two other attacks left several people injured in the city.
“We are holding on”, assured Tuesday, before the curfew, Vlad Volodko, 26, in front of a supermarket where the inhabitants formed long queues in order to make reservations.
kyiv, which Russian forces are trying to encircle, has been emptied of at least half of its population of 3.5 million since the start of the conflict on February 24.
In Mariupol, another martyr city in southeastern Ukraine, the situation remains dramatic, but some 20,000 civilians were able to leave this port city on Tuesday in 4,000 cars, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
All described a grueling journey during which they were forced to drive off the road to avoid Russian troops and checkpoints, in constant fear of enemy fire.
“Charred Car”
“As we were moving forward, we saw a charred car. The soldiers told us it exploded with a woman inside after hitting a mine an hour before we got there,” said Mykola, who fled Mariupol with his wife and two children.
Russia is expanding its offensive to the whole of Ukraine, now also targeting the West.
After strikes on a military base near Poland on Sunday, a strike on Monday against a television tower near Rivne (northwest) left 19 dead, according to local authorities on Tuesday.
In this context of intense strikes, negotiations between Moscow and kyiv, which began on Tuesday, should resume on Wednesday, in the hope of stopping the carnage.
The Ukrainian president brought some hope on Tuesday, judging that the positions were now “more realistic”.
However, he acknowledged, “still more time is needed for decisions to be in Ukraine’s interest. He also made a gesture to Moscow, saying he was ready to give up his country’s membership in NATO, a casus belli for Russia.
Not enough, however, to bend Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a press release published after his meeting on Tuesday with the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
During this conversation, Mr. Putin “stressed that Kyiv did not show a serious commitment to finding mutually acceptable solutions”, according to this press release.
Turkish mediation
Mediation efforts by Turkey, a member of NATO but which refused to join the sanctions against Moscow, are also continuing. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu is in Moscow, where he will hold talks on Wednesday, then travel to Ukraine on Thursday to seek a ceasefire, according to Ankara.
Westerners also want to reaffirm their unity and their commitment alongside Ukraine.
kyiv received the visit of the Polish, Czech and Slovenian Prime Ministers on Tuesday. MM. Mateusz Morawiecki, Petr Fiala and Janez Jansa met the Ukrainian president to whom they pledged their support. “We will never leave you alone. We will be with you because we know that you are fighting not only for your freedom, for your own home and for your safety, but also for us,” Morawiecki said on Twitter.
This is the first visit by foreign leaders to kyiv since the Russian attack began on February 24.
At the same time, Warsaw called for the establishment of a NATO “peace mission”, “protected by the armed forces” to come to the aid of Ukraine. The subject could be discussed at an extraordinary NATO summit scheduled for March 24 in Brussels.
Joe Biden will go there to reaffirm the “ironclad commitment” of the United States to its allies, according to the White House.
And, unable to intervene militarily, the West continues to toughen its sanctions.
The European Union will deprive Russian oligarchs of luxury sedans, champagne and other high-end items, via a fourth package of sanctions that came into force on Tuesday. The UK followed suit, adding punitive vodka tariffs and additional asset freezes.
Counter-penalties
Moscow responded with counter-sanctions targeting Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several members of their governments.
Russia is also seeking to advance a “humanitarian” draft resolution before the UN Security Council, which could be put to a vote on Thursday.
The Russian text, obtained by AFP, expresses the Security Council’s “deep concern” “at reports of civilian casualties, including children, in and around Ukraine”.
As it stands, it is unlikely to garner the necessary votes. This text which “does not call for an immediate end to hostilities” is “a joke”, reacted a Western diplomat on condition of anonymity.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will deliver its verdict on Wednesday in a procedure launched by kyiv, which asks the highest court of the UN to order Moscow to immediately stop its invasion of Ukraine.
In almost three weeks of war, more than three million people have fled Ukraine, mostly to Poland, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Including 1.4 million children, or “virtually one child per second”, according to UNICEF.