Zelenskyi campaigns in the US Congress for new military aid for Ukraine

This is Selensky's third visit to Washington. According to the majority leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, it will also be his "most important". A press conference by Zelensky and Biden was scheduled for 10.15 p.m. (CET).

The stakes are high for Zelensky: Washington is Kiev's most important supporter in the war against the Russian invasion forces. Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022, the USA has provided or pledged military aid to Ukraine amounting to more than 44 billion dollars.

However, the opposition US Republicans rejected a financial package worth 106 billion dollars (99 billion euros) presented by Biden last week. It includes 61.4 billion dollars in aid for Ukraine.

Among other things, the Republicans are demanding further concessions on US immigration policy and securing the border with Mexico. Zelenskyi therefore also wants to meet the Republican Chairman of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, during his visit to Washington.

On his arrival in the US capital on Monday, the Ukrainian president issued an urgent warning against the expiry of US aid: delays to this aid were "dreams come true" for Russian head of state Vladimir Putin.

"Putin must lose", said Selenskyj in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington. Politics must not "betray" the Ukrainian soldiers. If the free world hesitates, "the dictatorships will be happy".

According to the Kremlin, the US financial aid for Ukraine has not yet had the desired effect. "The tens of billions of dollars that have been pumped into Ukraine have not helped it to achieve success on the battlefield," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

In an interview with Russian state television on Sunday, Putin said that Ukraine was "running out of weapons" because its own arms industry was unable to produce enough. "If there is no own base, no own ideology, no own industry, no own money, nothing of our own, then there is no future. And we have one," said Putin.

US President Biden had warned the Republicans that Putin would not cease his attacks in the event of a Russian victory in Ukraine, but could even attack a Nato country. Ukraine aid could therefore not be delayed any longer.

Republican Senator J.D. Vance from the far-right wing of the party dismissed these warnings as "absurd". There should be no "blank check" for Ukraine, said Vance, adding: "What will 61 billion US dollars achieve that 100 billion US dollars have not?"

Meanwhile, the Russian army made significant progress in the partially Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia. "Our units have advanced significantly north-east of Novopokrovka," said the local governor appointed by Russia, Yevgeny Balitsky, on the online service Telegram. The Ukrainian army, however, spoke of Russian attacks that had been repelled.

The village of Novopokrovka is located north-east of Robotyne. The Ukrainian army captured the village in August and hoped to achieve a breakthrough towards the Sea of Azov further south as part of its counter-offensive launched in June. However, the Ukrainian armed forces have made little progress so far.

According to the Ukrainian army, Moscow is stepping up its attacks along the entire front. In particular, Russia has launched a "massive offensive" with armored vehicles near the industrial city of Avdiivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which has been embattled for two months.

However, Russian attacks have apparently also increased in other areas. For example, Ukraine's largest mobile phone provider Kyivstar described a large-scale hacker attack on its network as an "act of war" on Tuesday. The company spoke on state television of a "war that is taking place not only on the battlefield, but also in virtual space".

More than 24 million users were affected by the resulting temporary disruptions. In addition to the country's largest bank, PrivatBank, the authorities in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy also reported outages, including air alarms. The Ukrainian secret service SBU declared that it was investigating the attack. "One of the versions currently being investigated is that the intelligence services of the Russian Federation could be behind this hacker attack."