Joe Biden has visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, defying threats of Russian missile attacks, to announce a new package of additional US weapons supplies worth $500m (£415m), as Ukraine prepares to mark the sombre anniversary of last year’s full-scale Russian invasion. The US president, closely surrounded by a large security detail, was escorted by his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on a walkabout around central Kyiv as air sirens could be heard, confirming rumours of a visit that had been circulating during the morning.
Biden got a short first-hand taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year as air raids sirens sounded over the capital as he and Zelenskiy were exiting the gold-domed St Michael’s Cathedral. In a post on his social media channels, Zelenskiy welcomed Biden to Kyiv posting a photograph of the two men standing in front of Ukrainian and US flags. “Joseph Biden, welcome to Kyiv! Your visit is an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians,” he said on Telegram.
The visit came as it was disclosed that Biden would announce an additional $500m in military aid including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems, and air surveillance radars in the coming days. The timing – before a planned address by Vladimir Putin – was seen as a deliberate rebuke of the Russian president. In a statement issued by the White House, Biden said he was in Kyiv to reaffirm the US’s “unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity”.
Zelenskiy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine” that haven’t been supplied before. But he did not detail any new commitments.
The visit came as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels. The 27-nation bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the EU needs to ensure that Ukraine has enough ammunition to continue its fight against the Russian invasion. “It is the most urgent issue. If we fail on that, the result of the war is in danger. The Russian artillery shoots about 50,000 shots a day, and Ukraine needs to be at the same level of capacity. They have cannons but they lack ammunition.”
Japan will pledge a new £4.6bn financial aid package for Ukraine, the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has announced. Kishida, speaking at a global forum in Tokyo, also said he would mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by hosting an online Group of Seven (G7) summit with Zelenskiy.
Turkey is not exporting products that could be used in Russia’s war effort, foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Monday, after US warnings this month about exports of chemicals, microchips and other items.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Monday in Ankara that Washington strongly supports Sweden and Finland’s quick Nato accession. Turkey has been an obstacle to ratifying their membership.
China will never accept the US pointing fingers at Sino-Russia relations, the Chinese foreign ministry said at its regular news briefing on Monday. The comments came after Blinken suggested China may be ready to supply Russia with arms. China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, is expected in Moscow on Monday.
Zelenskiy has warned that there will be a “world war” if China decides to support Russia in its war on Ukraine. Speaking ahead of a visit by China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, to Moscow on Monday, Zelenskiy said Kyiv would like Beijing “to be on our side” in an interview with Die Welt. “If China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that,” he said.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said she told Chinese diplomats that Beijing is “responsible for world peace” and must not ship any weapons to Russia. Baerbock, speaking to journalists in Brussels on Monday, said she had raised the issue during the Munich security conference last week.
Russia poses a clear military threat in Sweden’s immediate area but its forces are largely tied up in the war in Ukraine, the Swedish military intelligence and security service (Must) said on Monday. “The European security order as we know it has ceased to exist … and with that the risks for Swedish security have also increased,” Lena Hallin, head of Must, told a news conference.
Ukraine’s military is inflicting “extraordinarily significant” losses on Russian forces near the town of Vuhledar in the eastern Donbas region, Zelenskiy had said on Sunday in his nightly video address. Zelenskiy referred to several towns in Donbas, saying “the more losses Russia suffers there … in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna – the faster we will be able to end this war with Ukraine’s victory”.
The head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has acknowledged a “major problem” with ammunition supplies for his fighters, accusing Russian officials of deliberately denying his fighters sufficient ammunition. In an emotional seven-minute-long audio message published on his official Telegram channel, he said he was required to “apologise and obey” to someone “high up” who he has a “difficult relationship with” in order to secure ammunition.
Ukrainian troops are preparing to defend one of the possible targets of a new Russian offensive in the eastern Donetsk region as Russia threatens to capture Bakhmut. Ukrainian soldiers near the small town of Siversk described being outgunned. “If they occupied Bakhmut, then we would be semi-encircled, because on the left side we have the Siverskyi Donets River, and the enemy will advance from the right, and it is possible to cut us off if they reach the Bakhmut highway,” said the deputy Siversk battalion commander.
The Kremlin has described Russia’s relations with Moldova as “very tense” and accused its leaders of pursuing an “anti-Russian” agenda. Moldova’s parliament last week approved the formation of a new pro-western government led by the new prime minister, Dorin Recean, who has vowed to pursue a pro-European path and also called for the demilitarisation of the breakaway region of Transnistria in the east of Moldova. The Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, has accused Moscow of plotting to topple the country’s leadership, stop it joining the EU and use it in the war against Ukraine.
Three people were killed by shelling near the southern Ukrainian city of Berislav on Sunday morning, according to local officials. The regional military administration said Russian forces struck the village of Burgunka with “massive artillery fire” and that one of the shells hit the yard of a family home.
Zelenskiy and Emmanuel Macron, spoke by phone on Sunday and discussed strategies, including what the Ukrainian leader described as joint decisions ahead of this week’s anniversary of Russia’s invasion of his country. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said he thanked the French president “for understanding our needs and for expressing jointly that we cannot waste any opportunity or a single week in our defence against Russian aggression … We also discussed important decisions that we are planning for this week – for our year of resistance.”
France has said it would deliver the AMX-10 light armoured vehicles it has promised to Ukraine “by the end of next week”. Macron added in an interview that he wants Russia to lose the war but he does not want to see it “crushed”.
The Ukraine war will have cost the German economy about €160bn (£142bn), or about 4% of its gross domestic output, in lost value creation by the end of the year, the head of the German chambers of industry and commerce said.
