Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a summary of today’s stories:
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda blamed a hammer attack on Leonid Volkov, the top aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who lives in Lithuania, on Moscow, saying it was clearly pre-planned and ties in with other provocations against the Baltic nation. Addressing Russian president Vladimir Putin, Nauseda said: “I can only say one thing to Putin – nobody is afraid of you here.”
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has warned that the war in Ukraine could spin out of control due to the actions of countries in the west. She told Reuters she believed the west was walking “on the edge of the abyss” and pushing the world to the edge too with its actions over Ukraine.
Russia has claimed to have thwarted a drone attack on a thermal power plant in Belgorod, according to state-owned Russian news agency Tass. The agency quotes State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein saying: “When [Ukrainian forces were] trying to break through the state border in the Belgorod region, military personnel and employees of the Russian Guard did an excellent job … six attack drones were neutralised, including when approaching the Belgorod thermal power plant.”
Ukrainian justice minister Denys Maliuska said on Wednesday that he had received “quite optimistic” messages from lawmakers in the US House of Representatives and Senate about the passage of a bill that would provide aid for Ukraine. “What we call for is to put aside any divisions or political disputes aimed at internal needs, since we see that in both camps – Republicans and Democrats – they all agree that support shall be provided,” Maliuska told reporters during a news conference at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington.
Vladimir Putin signalled that he intends to boost forces along the country’s border with Finland. The Russian leader criticised Finland and Sweden’s Nato accession and said: “This is an absolutely meaningless step [for Finland and Sweden] from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests. We didn’t have troops there [at the Finnish border], now they will be there.”
European lawmakers are stepping up calls for the return of Ukrainian children who had been forcibly moved to Russia. “At least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia or relocated to Belarus,” said Michaela Šojdrová, a Czech centre-right member of the European parliament.
Ukrainian minister: 'quite optimistic' messages from US politicians about Ukraine aid bill
Ukrainian justice minister Denys Maliuska said on Wednesday that he had received “quite optimistic” messages from lawmakers in the US House of Representatives and Senate about the passage of a bill that would provide aid for Ukraine, Reuters reports.
“What we call for is to put aside any divisions or political disputes aimed at internal needs, since we see that in both camps – Republicans and Democrats – they all agree that support shall be provided,” Maliuska told reporters during a news conference at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington.
Maliuska said he and deputy justice minister Iryna Mudra met with a large number of lawmakers during their visit to Washington, but not with house speaker Mike Johnson.
He said they were reassured that US lawmakers understood the stakes involved for Ukraine’s two-year struggle to repel Russian forces and warned that failure to secure the funds would result in “a disaster on the battlefield.”
He said he expected US assistance to be provided in the short term, and that it was essentially a matter of resolving certain technical issues.
Asked about a proposal to transform $8.5bn of the $61bn in direct budget assistance proposed for Ukraine into a loan, instead of a grant, Maliuska said the final decision would be up to the finance ministry. He said Kyiv would clearly prefer a grant, but would probably accept was offered.
“If this sort of discussion will delay the process of the provision of financial assistance, then let’s put the discussion aside and take whatever is given,” he said.
