British foreign secretary David Cameron urged US lawmakers to approve fresh aid for Ukraine, one day after Senate Republicans blocked a funding bill for Kyiv. “I’m not worried about the strength and unity and consensus and bravery of the Ukrainian people … I’m worried that we’re not going to do what we need to do,” Cameron told the Aspen Security Forum in the US capital.
The Biden administration is considering getting behind new restrictions on who can seek asylum and an expanded deportation process to secure new aid for Ukraine and Israel in a supplemental funding bill, a source familiar with discussions told Reuters. The White House and congress are racing to strike a deal that would deliver military aid to the two allied nations while discouraging illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border with only a week until lawmakers depart for a Christmas break.
French President Emmanuel Macron met Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán in a bid to break the deadlock ahead of an EU summit after the Hungarian leader threatened to block Ukraine’s accession talks. Macron welcomed Orban at the Élysée Palace for a working dinner to discuss, according to the French presidency, “several subjects” on the agenda for the EU summit next week, including “various aspects of European support for Ukraine”.
Ukraine began using train platforms to bypass a border blockade by Polish truck drivers, Ukrzalynitsya, Ukraine’s rail network, said. The first train deployed in the operation moved 23 trucks across the border from Ukraine into Poland, a statement said.
The UK and US accused Russian security services of engaging in a sustained cyber-espionage campaign against top politicians, journalists and NGOs. The UK foreign ministry said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind “unsuccessful attempts to interfere in UK political processes” and said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to London about the issue.
Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged $4.5bn to Ukraine, including $1bn in humanitarian aid to help support the war-torn country’s recovery effort in an online summit of leading industrial nations. The $1bn humanitarian aid includes funding for generators and other power supplies, as well as measures to clear mines planted by Russia, the foreign ministry said. The remaining $3.5bn includes funding for credit guarantees for World Bank loans to Ukraine.
Ukraine told residents to save energy after a power plant near the frontline was hit by shelling, in the first such warning this winter. Officials had warned for months Moscow was planning to step up strikes on energy infrastructure, after attacks on the power grid last year led to widespread blackouts.
Kyiv has agreed with two American firms to jointly manufacture vital 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine, a Ukrainian minister said, although production will not start for at least two years. “We have agreements with two leading American companies to jointly produce, in Ukraine, 155-calibre ammunition,” Oleksandr Kamyshin, minister for strategic industries, said in televised comments.
Lawmakers in Russia set the country’s 2024 presidential election for 17 March, moving Vladimir Putin a step closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, voted unanimously Thursday to approve a decree setting the date.
Russian forces relied heavily on aerial attacks in their slow-moving campaign to win control of eastern Ukraine and resorted to new smaller attack groups in pressing to capture the beleaguered town of Avdiivka. “For the second day in a row, occupying forces have been actively using kamikaze drones and aviation. And the number of combat clashes has significantly increased,” Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun told national television.
