“If Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war” against Russia, declared, in a serious tone, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an exchange this Sunday, April 7 by videoconference with ambassadors for the government fundraising platform, United24.
The American program of military and economic assistance to kyiv amounting to $60 billion, aid wanted by Joe Biden, has been blocked in Congress since last year due to opposition from the Republican camp supporting Donald Trump. Its adoption is suspended at the goodwill of the ex-president’s supporters in the House, who refuse to examine the text as it stands due to a dispute over the regulation of immigration in the United States.
“Without this support, it will be difficult for us to win, or even survive” as a country, he said, according to a video of his intervention posted on his social networks. “If Ukraine loses the war, other states will be attacked,” the Ukrainian president further warned, estimating that Russia would then strongly raise the nuclear threat to scare Western societies.
Ukrainian soldiers forced to save ammunition
In recent days, Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken on several occasions to demand “rapid adoption” of this new aid package, deeming it “vital” for Ukraine. “I stressed the vital need for the United States Congress to quickly adopt a decision aimed at further supporting our state,” he had already stated on Saturday April 6 on the social network X.
The president has been loudly demanding from his Western allies – including the United States, his main military support – for several months more ammunition for his men engaged on the front and more air defense systems. While awaiting a decision, Ukrainian soldiers are forced to save their ammunition and face a Russian army which has repelled kyiv’s counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.
Russian push in the East
The Russian army, more numerous in number, is gradually pushing forward on the eastern front, in the Ukrainian Donbass, and has regularly struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, plunging thousands of civilians into darkness. This Sunday, Russian bombings left three dead in the southern region of Zaporizhia and one in Koupiansk, in the east, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The situation around Chassiv Iar, a small town located west of Bakhmut and target of Russian attacks, is “difficult and tense”, the Ukrainian army said this Sunday, which however affirmed that the Russians had been “repulsed “. This city, perched on a height, extends less than 30 kilometers southeast of Kramatorsk, the main city in the region under Ukrainian control and an important railway and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.
Russia also announced this Sunday that it had destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones above its border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk, regularly affected by attacks from kyiv. In Russia, near the Ukrainian border, a young girl was killed when shrapnel fell on the car in which she was with five other people, all injured to varying degrees, the governor said. from the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.