Russia launches new missile strike on Kyiv; Zelensky heads to Nordic countries after US aid bid fails

14 Dec 2023

Ukraine said Russia targeted its capital city with missiles for a second time in three days as President Volodymyr Zelensky departed the US where he failed to unlock aid for the war effort.

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders said the Netherlands should cut its military support to Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to secure aid from key Western allies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left Washington without persuading Republican lawmakers to approve $61-billion in aid vital to supporting his troops as Russia’s invasion heads toward a third year. He is in Norway on Wednesday to meet Nordic leaders as the European Union wrangles over a four-year €50-billion support package for Kyiv.

Russia attacks Kyiv with missiles after Zelensky leaves US

Ukraine said Russia targeted its capital city with missiles for a second time in three days as Zelensky departed the US where he failed to unlock aid for the war effort.

Air defences shot down all 10 of the S-400 anti-aircraft and Iskander cruise missiles fired at Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said that the target was critical infrastructure as winter set in. “We know what they’re striking,” he said on Telegram, without elaborating.

Zelensky left Washington without persuading Republican legislators to approve $61-billion in aid vital to supporting his troops as Russia’s invasion heads toward a third year. He is in Norway on Wednesday to meet Nordic leaders as the European Union wrangles over a four-year €50-billion support package for Kyiv.

“President Biden and I just agreed to work on increasing the number of air defence systems in Ukraine, and the terrorist state demonstrated how critical this decision is,” Zelensky said in a post on his Telegram channel.

Falling debris injured 53 people, of whom 20 were hospitalised, including two children, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Residential houses and cars were damaged in several districts of Kyiv, mostly on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, according to the city’s military administration.

The attack on Kyiv followed a drone barrage targeting the southern city of Odesa and the surrounding region. Ten Shahed UAVs were shot down late on Tuesday, local Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. Two people were injured and several civilian targets were damaged, Kiper said.

Zelensky’s appeal for Ukraine aid fails to break GOP demand for border deal

Zelensky came to Congress on Tuesday to appeal for more aid to resist Russia’s invasion, and Republican leaders told him to first wait for an elusive US deal on immigration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he told Zelensky that Republicans “stand with him and against Putin’s brutal invasion” but would not send more aid until Democrats accepted “a transformative change” in US immigration and border policies.

Republican demands for tough measures to stem a surge in migration across the US-Mexico border have delayed new Ukraine assistance for months.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s top-ranking Republican, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, said after a private session Zelensky held with senators that he would prefer to send the aid this month, but congressional approval was likely to slip to early January as the border talks continue.

“The house is not on fire,” Wicker said of Ukraine’s need for ammunition and other weaponry.

President Joe Biden, who met Zelensky later on Tuesday at the White House, said he had signed a $200-million drawdown, the latest package of military aid for Ukraine, even as he urged legislators to pass supplemental funding.

“We’re going to stay at your side,” Biden said at the start of their meeting, adding that legislators from both parties understood “the very real fight that’s going on right now”.

“I don’t want you giving up hope,” he told Zelensky.

Zelensky said he intended to speak to Biden about access to $300-billion in frozen assets, which he said should be used to help Ukraine.

Zelensky to meet Nordic leaders vowing support for Ukraine

Zelensky arrived in Oslo to meet some of his strongest supporters, having left Washington without a clear commitment on $61-billion in aid.

The meeting with Nordic leaders was intended to prepare for a European Union summit starting on Thursday where more funds are at stake, Ukraine’s president told reporters on Wednesday at a joint news conference with Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

“We are preparing for our joint work with our partners today in the summit,” Zelensky said. He underscored the importance of European unity in supporting Ukraine, saying, “You can’t win without help. But you can’t lose, because that is the only [thing] you have, this is your country.”

In addition to Gahr Store, Zelensky is set for talks with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir.

The five penned a letter to the editor published earlier on Wednesday in the Financial Times, urging other nations to commit to a united front in supporting Ukraine against Russia’s war and warning that a failure to help Kyiv risked worsening the security in Europe for decades.

“We must continue to stand united against Russia’s illegal and immoral war just as we have done since the invasion,” the leaders wrote. “Otherwise we risk a world with less freedom and less security for decades, if not generations, to come.”

Their letter comes on the cusp of an EU summit where a €50-billion funding proposal for Ukraine is being held up by Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is bargaining over the aid package to unlock money withheld from Budapest over democratic backsliding.

Wilders-led Dutch government may cut military support to Ukraine

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders said the Netherlands should cut its military support to Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to secure aid from key Western allies.

“We believe we shouldn’t give military support to Ukraine while we are unable to defend our own country,” Wilders said during a debate in parliament on Wednesday.

Centre-right New Social Contract, or NSC, and the Farmer-Citizen Movement, two of his potential coalition partners, also voiced hesitance about Ukraine’s European Union membership and additional financial support to Kyiv.

The Netherlands has been a key ally of Ukraine as its fight against Russia drags toward a third year. Under outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s leadership, the country has sent important air defence systems and is taking the lead in training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. Rutte has become the front-runner to take over as Nato chief when Jens Stoltenberg steps down next year.

Yandex founder seeks sanctions removal after condemning Russia’s invasion

Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh shouldn’t have been sanctioned after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, as he was never close to the Russian president and has blasted Russia’s aggression toward its neighbour, a European Union court was told.

“This is not about another businessman who built his wealth on the wave of privatisation and state contracts,” William Julie, a lawyer for the tech magnate, told the EU’s General Court.

Volozh took the “hugely courageous step” in August to condemn “the government’s ‘barbaric’ war against Ukraine” and now lives under “the permanent threat of retaliation” from Russia, Julie told judges at a hearing on Wednesday.

Yandex, Russia’s leading search engine, has been registered in the Netherlands since 2007, but has come under intense pressure both in Russia and abroad since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion. Volozh resigned as the company’s chief executive officer after the EU sanctioned him last year for Yandex’s role in promoting Russian propaganda and disinformation about the war.

Read More: Yandex founder condemns Russian war as deal to split firm stalls

Yandex plans to sell its entire Russian business, including the nation’s most popular search engine. Volozh’s criticism of the war had made potential investors wary of a partnership with the Dutch-domiciled parent company.

“Russia is now a country that he will never be able to return to,” said Philip Goeth, another lawyer for Volozh. It was wrong to say “he is a major shareholder of Yandex”, because he holds no legal ownership or any control over the company and transferred legal title over an 8.6% economic interest in Yandex NV to an independent trustee, the lawyer said.

“It would simply be wrong to conclude that a man who is now considered as an enemy” of the state “is involved in economic sectors in Russia,” Goeth said.

A lawyer for the EU rejected such arguments as false, saying that at the time he was a leading businessman and remains so today.

US sanctions Russia’s wartime dealmaker in strike at ‘oligarch’

The US has sanctioned businessman Ivan Tavrin, who benefited from his position as an unpenalised investor to become Russia’s biggest wartime dealmaker.

The US Treasury also sanctioned companies affiliated with Tavrin, the former head of a Russian mobile firm. Describing him as an “oligarch,” it said he was being penalised for “operating or having operated in the accounting sector of the Russian Federation economy.”

Since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Tavrin has spent more than $2-billion on companies, including Prosus’ local classified business Avito and the Russian business operations of Henkel. The Treasury’s decision to sanction him indicates the US is willing to target Russia’s new business elite who emerged during the war, leapfrogging billionaires that had traditionally dominated the market. DM

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