Updated October 5, 2023 at 5:37 a.m. EDT|Published October 5, 2023 at 2:27 a.m. EDT
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a bilateral meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office on Sept. 21. (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post)
President Biden said he “does worry” that the disarray in Congress following the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) could impact the prospects for delivering aid to Ukraine.
Biden told reporters the United States could “support Ukraine in the next tranche,” after a stopgap funding bill was signed over the weekend but did not include financial aid for the war effort. Biden told reporters the U.S. could find funding for Ukraine by “another means” if turmoil in Congress continued, but did not elaborate further.
Despite the tumult, Biden said there was still a “majority of members of the House and Senate in both parties who have said that they support funding Ukraine.” He added that he would be making a “major speech” on the issue soon, without giving a time frame. “It’s critically important for the United States and our allies that we keep our commitment,” Biden said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Thursday in Granada, Spain, to attend the European Political Community summit along with European leaders. The meeting is expected to focus in part on Ukraine. “Our joint goal is to ensure the security and stability of our common European home,” Zelensky tweeted. Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
Zelensky said that any pause in U.S. funding would help Russia. “I feel that there is support in the United States,” he told Italy’s Sky TG24 on Wednesday. “I know that there is one hundred percent support from the White House; there is great support in the Congress.” Biden has previously warned that a lapse in U.S. funding for Ukraine “could make all the difference on the battlefield,” in a call with allies, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
Public support for continued U.S. aid to Ukraine has marginally declined over the past year with a clear partisan split, according to a Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey. It found 63 percent of adults support providing additional arms and military supplies to the Kyiv — 50 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Democrats — down from 65 percent last November and 72 percent last July 2022. Support for aid among Republican voters has fallen 18 percentage points since July 2022, compared with a 2 percentage point fall among Democrats.
The Granada summit will reinforce European ties with Kyiv, as European leaders from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and others attend. Europe will continue to provide “unwavering support to Ukraine,” said Charles Michel, President of the Euriopean Council. Zelensky said his focus at the meeting will be on “the Black Sea region as well as our joint efforts to strengthen global food security … Ukraine’s key priority, particularly as winter approaches, is to strengthen air defense.”
The U.K. said it gathered intelligence suggesting Russia may be using sea mines to disrupt civilian shipping in the Black Sea to deter the export of Ukrainian grain. The information was “declassified” by Britain’s Foreign Ministry to deter Moscow from “openly sinking civilian ships,” and “falsely laying blame on Ukraine.” Foreign Minister James Cleverly said it demonstrated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “total disregard for civilian lives.”
FIFA will allow Russian youth soccer teams to compete in the men’s and women’s Under-17 World Cups, lifting a suspension put in place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The decision, made at a meeting of the FIFA Council on Wednesday, followed the Union of European Football Associations lifting the same suspension last month for its competitions, which function as qualifiers for the World Cups. The Russian teams must play under the name “Football Union of Russia” rather than “Russia” and wear neutral colors, without inclusion of their national flag, national anthem, and national-team kit and equipment.
A Ukrainian freelance journalist, who has been missing since she went on a reporting trip to Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine two months ago, could be a captive, her family, colleagues and advocates fear. The Post reported on concerns for Victoria Roshchyna, who was last heard from Aug. 3.
Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate posted a video on Telegram which it said depicted Ukrainian troops landing in Crimea and inflicting fire damage. The video, posted Wednesday, has not been independently verified by The Post. Ukrainian spokesperson Andriy Yusov stated that Special Forces landed on Russia-occupied Crimea, attacked Russian forces, and retreated after completing their task, according to the Institute for the Study of War. But Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed on Telegram that it had stopped an attempt to penetrate into Crimea by a Ukrainian group traveling on high-speed boats and Jet Skis.
Russia said it shot down 31 Ukrainian drones over three provinces bordering Ukraine on Wednesday night. The Defense Ministry’s update, posted on Telegram, did not provide information about any damage or casualties.
Has the war in Ukraine changed Macron? Allies would love to know: Since Russia invaded Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has drawn ire for clinging to the idea that President Putin could be talked down. In past years, before the war’s outbreak in February last year, Macron had expressed ambivalence toward NATO. But some wonder whether the war has changed his political view, Emily Rauhala reports from Paris.
The question will loom large this week as European leaders gather in Spain to discuss how to bring Ukraine and other countries closer in the months ahead.
Marisa Iati contributed to this report.
This post was modified on 2023-10-05 09:59:28