Ukraine awaits new US aid and air defence as Zelenskiy returns from Washington

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned to Kyiv after a whistlestop visit to Washington, as the United States was expected to approve a further $45 billion (€42 billion) in military, economic and humanitarian aid for his embattled country.

As Russian missiles continued to pound eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s envoy to Washington said Mr Zelenskiy’s high-profile visit showed that neither Kyiv nor the White House wanted peace, and he accused the US of fighting a proxy war against the Kremlin.

“I am in the office. We are working for victory,” Mr Zelenskiy said in a brief video posted on social media on Friday morning, two days after he met US president Joe Biden in the White House and told Congress that “your money is not charity … It is an investment in the global security and democracy”.

The US has already pledged about $50 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched full-scale war against its neighbour in February, and the House of Representatives was expected to pass the new $45 billion package as part of a bigger spending bill that the Senate approved on Thursday.

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During Mr Zelenskiy’s visit, the White House announced $1.85 billion in military assistance that will include an advanced Patriot air defence system, which Ukraine requested amid devastating Russian rocket attacks on its national grid.

“The meeting with President Biden and the speech of the head of our state in Congress demonstrated an unprecedented level of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. America has clearly stated that it will support us until victory. This is a consolidated opinion of all political powers of the United States and the American people,” Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting on Friday.

Blackouts continued across much of Ukraine as Russian forces shelled eastern and southeastern regions, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Moscow’s forces had already “made significant headway towards the demilitarisation of Ukraine”.

Russia says its all-out invasion of Ukraine – which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions – is intended to “denazify” the pro-western democracy, protect its Russian speakers and stop it becoming a base for Nato troops and arms.

Ukraine says it is a genocidal war of conquest that should end with Moscow’s political and military leaders being tried for war crimes.

“Zelenskiy’s visit and the conversations he held in Washington showed that neither the [Biden] administration nor Kyiv are ready for peace but are focused on war,” Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told the Tass news agency.

“Political commentators on all [US] TV channels say that the US proxy war against the Russian Federation must be intensified…Today, everything is being thrown into the furnace of hatred against us: money, weapons, intelligence, use of US military satellites for the fight against the Russian armed forces,” he added.

Mr Antonov said the West demanded that Russia “stop the special military operation. Second, withdraw troops from all pseudo-Ukrainian territories. Third, to pay reparations as compensation for damage to Ukraine. In this situation, we have nowhere to retreat… We must go only forward”.