Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

WASHINGTON and KYIV, Ukraine — The Biden administration is making it easier for refugees fleeing Russia's war on Ukraine to come to the United States from Europe. It also plans to send $800 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, the president announced Thursday morning.

Diplomacy

• President Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million in military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, but he also warned Congress will need to approve additional assistance. The new military assistance package includes much needed heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition, and drones for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden had previously approved for Ukraine.
• Biden said that $13.6 billion approved last month by Congress for military and humanitarian assistance was "almost exhausted."
• The Biden administration is launching a program next week allowing Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion of their home country to come to the United States temporarily if they have American sponsors.
• The Kremlin said peace talks with Ukraine were continuing, but that Moscow was still awaiting Kyiv's response to a proposal it had handed over. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he had not seen or heard of the document.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said any peace talks were likely to fail, compared holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiating with a crocodile.
• Finance officials from Britain, the United States and Canada walked out of a meeting of the world's top 20 economies, the G20, as Russian representatives spoke.
• The prime ministers of Spain and Denmark visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a "global security initiative" that upholds the principle of "indivisible security" — the concept, which Russia endorses, that no country may strengthen its own security at others' expense.
• Italy's ecological transition minister said his country could start being independent from Russian gas by the second half of next year.
• Britain added more military figures and defense companies to its list of Russian sanctions targets.

Fighting

• Ukraine's deputy prime minister said an agreed humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal factory had not worked as planned, blaming Russian forces. She said 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers needed to be brought out immediately.
• Putin said the remaining Ukrainian troops were free to lay down their weapons and surrender.
• Russian forces are advancing from staging areas in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region toward Kramatorsk, which continues to be hit by rocket attacks, the UK Ministry of Defense tweeted in a regular bulletin. Russian warplanes are providing close air support to the offensive, and trying to suppress and destroy Ukrainian air defenses, it said.
• The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, said it was under intense bombardment.

Economy

• G7 finance ministers said they have provided and pledged together with the international community additional support to Ukraine exceeding $24 billion for 2022 and beyond, adding they were prepared to do more.
• World Bank President David Malpass said the food security crisis caused by the war was likely to last months and perhaps into next year.

Quotes

• "Russia likely desires to demonstrate significant successes ahead of their annual 9th May Victory Day celebrations. This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date." — British Ministry of Defense bulletin
• "I cannot support the decision of Wimbledon, I think it is crazy. When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good." — World No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic on the Grand Slam tournament's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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