In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said Joe Biden’s administration would provide $2 billion in long-term foreign military funding to Ukraine and its 18 neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners “most at risk for future Russian aggression”. Pending approval by the US Congress, about $1 billion of that will go to Ukraine and the rest will be shared between Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. “We know this is a pivotal moment, more than six months after Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counteroffensive is now underway and proving effective,” Blinken told Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy. Front Burner24:58 Inside Ukraine — a country living with war The view of the war from inside Ukraine varies depending on where you are. For two weeks, CBC News senior correspondent Susan Ormiston has been criss-crossing the country where war has become a normal part of life for some. In the capital of Kiev, businesses are reopening, communities are rebuilding and some who fled at the start of the war have returned. Meanwhile, in Kherson and Kharkiv, heavy fighting continues as Ukraine’s counter-offensive reportedly escalates. The Ukrainians say they are making good progress, but Russia denies this, saying Ukraine is suffering heavy casualties. A constant media blackout makes it difficult to get a clear picture. Today on Front Burner, Susan Ormiston shows us the complex reality in Ukraine as the war continues. “We are grateful for the badge, for this tremendous support that you provide on a daily basis,” replied Zelensky. The amount is separate from a $675 million package of heavy weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles just for Ukraine that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced earlier Thursday at a conference in Ramstein, Germany. This pack includes shells, artillery ammunition, Humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems and more. The contributions bring total US aid to Ukraine to $15.2 billion since President Joe Biden took office. . pic.twitter.com/RN2OdaGrmR —@DeptofDefense Austin, attending a meeting of the Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine, said “the war is at another critical moment,” with Ukrainian forces launching their counteroffensive in the southern part of the country. He said “we are now seeing the proven success of our joint efforts on the battlefield.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, also at the German meeting, urged Western nations to keep faith in their efforts to support Ukraine during some harsh winter months, saying “there is no sign that Russia is abandoning its goal of take control of Ukraine.” “I understand that many people are frustrated and really feel the pain in the NATO countries with the rising energy prices, the cost of living,” Stoltenberg said. “But at the same time, we must remember that the price we pay is measured in money … while the price Ukrainians pay is measured in lives lost every day.”
Profits in Ukraine, evacuations in Kharkiv
Fighting between Ukraine and Russia has intensified in recent days, with Ukrainian forces launching a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas in the south and east. According to a report released Wednesday by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv are “likely taking advantage of the redeployment of Russian forces” in areas near the occupied southern city of Kherson “to carry out an opportunistic but extremely effective counterattack” in the province. Firefighters search through the rubble after a rocket attack in Kharkiv on Tuesday on an apartment. A US think tank said the redeployment of Russian troops in southern Ukraine had allowed Ukrainian fighters to make gains in Kharkiv in the north. (Sergei Bobok/AFP/Getty Images) Ukrainian forces advanced at least 20 kilometers into Russian territory in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday, the report said. Zelensky in his nightly video speech on Wednesday also mentioned success in the Kharkiv region, but did not elaborate on its scope. Vitaly Ganchev, the Moscow-backed mayor of the city of Kupiansk in a Russian-held region of Kharkiv region, said on Thursday that authorities had begun evacuating women and children from the city and nearby areas due to relentless Ukrainian shelling.
Concerns about nuclear plants remain high
Meanwhile, tensions continued to simmer around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of threatening nuclear destruction by bombing near the facility. The towns of Nikopol and Marhanets, which face the plant across the Dnieper River, came under overnight Russian shelling that damaged apartment buildings, a school, some industrial facilities and power lines, said Valentyn Reznichenko, its governor. Dnipropetrovsk province. WATCH l ‘Every night there is shelling’: CBC reports from southern Ukraine:
Months of surviving shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine
Frequent shelling has driven out much of the population of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, a city on the country’s southern coast. Those who remain survive with the help of foreign aid. They say they are scared, but hopeful. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged residents of Russian-held areas near the power plant to evacuate, adding that Ukrainian authorities have urged the Russians to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of area residents, but have received no response. Ukraine’s Enerhoatom, which oversees the country’s nuclear power plants, said workers at the Zaporizhzhia plant were continuing repair work Thursday to restore at least one of seven power lines at the plant, which continued to operate with just one of the six reactors operating to feed the pumps of the cooling system. Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry rescuers help a woman put on protective clothing during an emergency training session for nuclear civilians in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. Ukraine has called for an international mission to be installed at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and for the population to evacuate the area amid fears of a nuclear accident. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images) Enerhoatom chief Petro Kotin accused Russia on Thursday of trying to “steal” Europe’s largest nuclear power plant by cutting it off from Ukraine’s electricity grid, in comments to The Associated Press. “We’re trying to keep this unit running as long as possible, but eventually it will have to shut down and then the station will switch to diesel generators,” he said, noting that such generators are “the station’s last line of defense before a radiation accident. “
Ukraine admits to shelling Crimea with rockets
The head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Raphael Grossi, warned that “something very, very catastrophic could happen” at the Zaporizhia plant and called on Russia and Ukraine to establish a “nuclear safety buffer zone” around from. Kotin said the IAEA’s proposals to improve security at the plant can only be implemented if Russian troops leave and are replaced by a peacekeeping force. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s army chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyy, acknowledged in an article published on Wednesday that explosions and fires at air bases in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula last month were caused by a “successful series of rockets at airfields Crimean bases. “ It was the first official acknowledgment of responsibility for the attacks by Ukrainian authorities.
