Russia-Ukraine War News: Live Updates
Ahead of an expected spring counteroffensive, Ukraine has intensified its diplomatic push this week for aid, asking allies for more support to repel invading Russian forces and rebuild the country’s battered infrastructure.
The appeals have come from Ukrainian officials visiting the United States and Asia, as well as from President Volodymyr Zelensky. The prime minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, is scheduled to meet in Washington on Thursday with Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, who has pledged that the United States would support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”
Mr. Shmyhal said on Twitter on Wednesday that Ukraine had secured an additional $200 million loan from the World Bank that would help restore the country’s power system.
His comments came as Mr. Zelensky hosted a bipartisan Senate delegation in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, on Wednesday and delivered a pointed video message to representatives of Western nations, asking them to increase their support of Ukraine’s economy.
Mr. Zelensky reiterated his plea in the address to finance officials assembled in Washington for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund spring meeting, citing the World Bank’s estimation that Ukraine needs more than $400 billion over the next 10 years to rebuild and that it faces an $11 billion shortfall this year for critical expenditures.
“The world’s potential aggressors are now looking,” Mr. Zelensky said in his video address. “Will you do the right thing?”
Ukraine’s canvassing of the world for support is not limited to its reliable allies. It is pressuring nations that have lingered on the periphery of the conflict to send help. Emine Dzhaparova, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, traveled to New Delhi this week to ask for medicine and medical equipment. Ms. Dzhaparova asked India, a historical ally of Russia’s, to be on the “right side of the war.”
Mr. Zelensky also gave priority to funding for reconstructing Ukraine, appealing to finance officials from the Group of 7 nations to approve a program, which he said cost an estimated $14.1 billion, that would cover those projects.
In his nightly address to Ukrainians, he kept pressing the point for getting additional financing quickly.
“There may be different formats of solutions,” Mr. Zelensky said, “but the faster and more effective the solutions are, the more reliable and long lasting peace after this war will be.”
Ukraine’s power grid has managed to endure despite relentless bombardment, not only surviving, but producing surplus energy, but the country’s depleted air defenses have left the grid vulnerable to more Russian attacks.
In his meeting in Kyiv with three U.S. senators — Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona; Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia; and Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska — Mr. Zelensky reinforced his desire for defense support. Each of the senators, in separate posts on Twitter, denounced President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and vowed to continue aiding Ukraine. It was a bipartisan show of support at a time when some Republican lawmakers and presidential hopefuls have called for cutting back on spending for the war.
“We are fighting for common values — freedom and democracy,” Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday. “Our victory will be decisive for the development of the situation in Europe and throughout the world.”
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