Biden promises to provide Ukraine with further military help "quickly."

Biden promises to provide Ukraine with further military help "quickly."

Following the US senators' passage of a $61 billion (£49 billion) assistance package, Joe Biden informed Volodymyr Zelensky that he would "move quickly" to deliver Ukraine further military help.

Following months of political impasse in the chamber, the House of Representatives adopted the measure on Saturday.

If senators pass the package as predicted on Tuesday, Mr. Biden vowed "significant" help for Kyiv, including more air defenses.

The guarantees coincide with the destruction of a Kharkiv TV tower by Russian strikes.

Video captured the red-and-white skyscraper in the eastern Ukrainian city, which is just 19 miles (30 km) from the Russian border, falling moments after Russian missiles struck it on Monday afternoon.

Regional Governor Oleg Syniehubov posted on social media that staff members were in a shelter at the time of the incident, despite local authorities claiming there were no injuries.

However, Mr. Syniehubov said that the assault had interfered with local television transmissions.

Russian soldiers have been attacking Kharkiv from the air nonstop for the last several weeks. President Zelensky said that it was "Russia's clear intention to make the city uninhabitable" in a social media post after the strike.

He went on to say that he had alerted President Biden of the strike, claiming that it had occurred just before their Monday conversation.

President Biden stated his administration's "lasting commitment to helping Ukraine as it defends its freedom against Russian aggression" in a White House readout of the conversation.

Additionally, according to the White House, Mr. Biden pledged to assist Ukraine's efforts to "maintain financial stability, build back critical infrastructure suffering Russian attacks, and support reform as Ukraine moves forwards on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration".

The aid package, which the House passed on Saturday, consists of "forgivable loans" worth over $9 billion (£7.28 billion) in economic assistance that is forgiven and does not need repayment.

US House approves significant $61 billion assistance package for Ukraine, which may aid Kyiv in reversing Russia's progress.

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Mr. Zelensky applauded Mr. Biden's remarks, while Mykhailo Podolyak, the head of Ukraine's top assistant, said that the recently increased US assistance had provided much-needed encouragement to the war-weary country.

However, Moscow has gained a lot of momentum in the fight in recent weeks and has won many battles in the nation's east.

And Mr. Zelensky has issued a warning, stating that before May 9th, Victory Day, a state holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, Russia is probably going to go for a significant military victory.

He proposed that Moscow try to take control of the little Donetsk area town of Chasiv Yar before the vacation. Just west of Bakhmut, a destroyed city that Russia took control of last year after months of brutal combat, is Chasiv Yar.

Military leaders in Kyiv have said that if Moscow's troops were to take control of Chasiv Yar, which has been all but abandoned by its pre-war population, they would provide a route towards the cities that the Ukrainians control—Kostynivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk.

Additionally, the Donetsk region's Novomykhailivka town was reportedly taken over by Russia's defense ministry on Monday. Although Ukrainian defense authorities previously said that their troops had stopped Russian advances on the settlement, the BBC is unable to independently verify the allegation.

The chief of military intelligence in Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said to the BBC's Ukrainian service on Monday that the next weeks would present "a rather difficult situation" for Kyiv's troops.

The Russian takeover of the town of Avdiivka, Lt Gen Budanov said, was "a real success" for them. He did, however, add that while the combat scenario for Ukraine would deteriorate over the next several weeks, it wouldn't be "catastrophic".

He went on, "Armageddon will not occur."

On Monday, President Biden also talked with Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission.

According to an official transcript of the conversation, Ms. von der Leyen's office said that the two spoke about "their steadfast support for Ukraine as it defends against Russian aggression" and "the manner in which sustained international support is vital to Ukraine's fight for freedom".

Simultaneously, in Moscow, a Russian citizen received a five-year term of "correctional labor" for his comments to a US newspaper concerning the invasion of Ukraine.

In February 2022, Yuri Kokhovets gave an interview to the US-funded Radio Free Europe that was critical of President Vladimir Putin and the conflict. This led to accusations that he was spreading "fakes about the army."

The Russian citizen who gave a viewpoint to a foreign journalist is the first known victim of prosecution.