Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his American counterpart today for the new aid package to his country, which was approved by the House of Representatives and is expected to reach “quickly” the soldiers facing difficulties at the front.
According to Biden, this contribution of almost $61 billion, which Congress is expected to release soon, will cover “Ukraine’s urgent needs, on the battlefield” and in the area of air defense.
That aid, which remained blocked by internal political wrangling in Washington, was greeted with relief in Ukraine, where the situation on the frontline has worsened significantly in recent weeks.
Against a larger and better equipped Russian army, the Ukrainian troops were forced to lose ground. Russian forces are claiming control of yet another community in eastern Ukraine today.
In their phone conversation, Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “grateful to Joe Biden for his unwavering support for Ukraine.” He said he was looking forward to a “quick and strong assistance”, which would “strengthen our anti-aircraft defences, as well as our long-range shots and artillery”.
Biden, for his part, promised that this new aid would be provided “quickly” once the US Senate votes on it in turn, after the House of Representatives on Saturday.
They destroyed a television tower in Kharkiv
Shortly before that conversation, a Russian strike destroyed a television tower in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which is close to the border and has been an increasingly frequent target of bombings in recent weeks.
Almost 240 meters high, the metal structure was cut in two and the top section collapsed, according to an AFP reporter. The tower was already damaged in March 2022, at the beginning of the Russian invasion.
According to the regional governor Oleh Sinekhubov, this attack did not cause any casualties but only “disruptions in the digital television signal”.
Zelensky said, during the phone conversation with Biden, that this blow is indicative of Russia’s “clear intention to make the city uninhabitable”.
One of the officials of the Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine, Vladimir Saldo, expressed his satisfaction via Telegram at the “destruction of the enemy’s means of communication and propaganda”.
Images taken shortly after the impact and posted on social media showed the top part of the tower collapsing in a cloud of gray smoke.
Kharkiv, home to nearly 1.4 million people before the war, has been the target of several bombings in recent weeks. Energy infrastructures were mainly targeted, resulting in major power outages at the end of March.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy went to the recently opened defense lines in this area in early April, as the front is almost forty kilometers from Kharkiv.
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