The transfer comes amid the fallout from the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his role as House speaker. The political chaos has sparked concerns that U.S. aid for Ukraine could falter under another speaker’s control. McCarthy supported aid for Ukraine, but additional aid was blocked from a short-term funding bill last week amid opposition from some Republicans who moved to boot him Tuesday for working with Democrats to pass the bill.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
President Biden warned that a lapse in U.S. funding for Ukraine “could make all the difference on the battlefield” during a call with allies and partners on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists. Speaking at a news briefing before McCarthy’s removal as House speaker, Kirby said the president had “every expectation” that McCarthy would “keep his public commitment” to secure backing for Ukraine. “A lapse in support will make Putin believe he can wait us out, and that he can continue the conflict,” Biden said, according to Kirby.
Without additional funding, the Pentagon has access to just a few months of support for Ukraine, Kirby said Tuesday. Since the war began in February 2022, Washington has pledged more than $46 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. “But absent additional funding by Congress, eventually you run into a hard stop,” Kirby said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is “convinced” that U.S. and European support for his country will continue. “The United States provides support in these difficult times, and although different opinions have been expressed, the majority support Ukraine, and I am convinced that we will have support in the future as well,” he told Sky TG24 in an interview Wednesday. Zelensky also said he has invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged allies to support Ukraine so the country can “finish the job.” Writing Wednesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Sunak said: “I say this to our allies, give [Zelensky] the tools, the Ukrainians will finish the job.”
Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian freelance journalist, has been missing since she went on a reporting trip to Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine two months ago, raising concerns among family, colleagues and advocates that Russia could be holding her captive.
Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who denounced the Ukraine war on live television, was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to 8½ years in prison, Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported Wednesday. Ovsyannikova was charged with spreading false information about the Russian armed forces after she appeared on state-owned television carrying a sign that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you,” less than a month after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. She escaped house arrest with her 11-year-old daughter last fall. Her lawyer told Reuters in mid-October 2022 that she had moved to an undisclosed European country.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 31 Ukrainian drones over three provinces bordering Ukraine overnight. The ministry’s update, posted Wednesday on Telegram, did not provide any information about any damage or casualties.
It is “highly likely” that Russian air defenses shot down one of their own advanced combat jets in Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said. The incident, which The Washington Post could not independently verify, took place Thursday over the Russian-held city of Tokmak, about 12 miles from the front line, according to the British update Wednesday. It is probably only the fifth time that an Su-35S jet, which the ministry called “Russia’s most advanced combat jet in widespread service,” has been lost since the Russian invasion began, the update said.
Ukraine said its troops have made advances in the south, a target region in their counteroffensive against Russian occupation. Ukrainian Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the Tavria Joint Forces Operation, gave the update in a Telegram post on Tuesday but offered few details. The Post could not independently verify his claims.
Western allies are running low on ammunition to give to Ukraine, senior military leaders warned in a push for increased defense spending in Europe. At the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday, Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, chairman of NATO’s military committee, said defense manufacturers and governments must “ramp up production in a much higher tempo” to cope with “peak demand.” He added that “the bottom of the barrel is now visible” in terms of military stockpiles. British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey echoed that sentiment, saying that Western stockpiles are “looking a bit thin.”
Armenia voted to join the International Criminal Court, further straining ties with its longtime ally, Russia. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March on charges related to the detention and transfer of Ukrainian children. ICC member states are obliged to arrest him if he enters their territory.
Danish beer giant Carlsberg Group said it ended licensing agreements for its brands in Russia after Moscow transferred the management of Baltika Breweries — which had been producing and selling Carlsberg products — to government authorities in July. “We refuse to be forced into a deal on unacceptable terms, justifying the illegitimate takeover of our business in Russia,” the Carlsberg Group said in a news release.
In Ukraine, explosive DIY drones give an intimate view of killing: The predominant attack drones in Ukraine are now equipped with a first-person view, with an operator receiving the drone’s video feed in real time. They are fast, highly maneuverable and relatively cheap — and filling a gap left by a shortage of Western artillery rounds, Alex Horton and Serhii Korolchuk report.
These first-person view (FPV) drones are fashioned by hand from a few hundred dollars’ worth of materials and can annihilate million-dollar equipment.
“It’s a revolution in terms of placing this precision guided capacity in the hands of regular people for a tiny fraction of the cost of the destroyed target,” said Samuel Bendett, a drone expert at the Center for Naval Analyses, a policy institute based in Arlington, Va. “We’re seeing FPV drones strike a very precise spot, which before was really the domain of very expensive, high-precision guided weapons. And now it’s a $400 drone piloted by a teenager.”
Anastacia Galouchka, Dan Lamothe and Siobhán O’Grady contributed to this report.
