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13-03-2024, 12:06 PM
Ukraine war briefing: Biden scrapes together $300m more for Ukraine weapons. Poland’s PM warns Mike Johnson of blood on his hands from stalled aid; anti-Putin fighters stage raid into Russia. What we know on day 749. Pentagon will rush about $300m in weapons to Ukraine after finding cost savings in its contracts, White House has announced replenishment comes under a presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, to send equipment to Ukraine and then sign contracts to order replacements.
Efforts to get US funds for weapons is still remained stalled in Representatives, House. The Democrats are gathering signatures for a “discharge petition”, which can circumvent the speaker, Mike Johnson, who is preventing the House from considering e $95bn package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The grouping of centrist Republicans has launched a separate discharge petition for a smaller $66bn bill that would include US-Mexico border security provisions.
Poland’s PM, Donald Tusk, warned Johnson on Tuesday that fate of millions of people & “thousands of lives” depend on whether Johnson allows the vote. “This is not some political skirmish that [only] matters on the American political scene. Mr Johnson’s failure to make a positive decision will cost thousands of lives. He takes personal responsibility for that,” Tusk said after he and the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, met at the White House with Joe Biden, the US president. Johnson’s office declined comment, and earlier, after Johnson met Duda, his office issued a statement that did not address Ukraine funding.
Ukraine has targeted Russian energy facilities in one of its largest cross-border drone and rocket attacks of the war. One attack hit an oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region that produces nearly 6% of Russia’s total refined crude. Another hit an oil depot in the city of Oryol.
Videos online showed a major blaze at the Lukoil Norsi oil refinery near Nizhny Novgorod. An industry source said the main crude distillation unit (AVT-6) at Norsi was damaged, disrupting at least half of the facility’s production. Nizhny Novgorod is nearly 1,000km (620 miles) from the Ukrainian border and lies about 400km (250 miles) to the east of Moscow. Strike is the latest evidence of Ukraine’s growing ability to target critical infrastructure deep into Russian territory.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/m...ne-weapons
Efforts to get US funds for weapons is still remained stalled in Representatives, House. The Democrats are gathering signatures for a “discharge petition”, which can circumvent the speaker, Mike Johnson, who is preventing the House from considering e $95bn package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The grouping of centrist Republicans has launched a separate discharge petition for a smaller $66bn bill that would include US-Mexico border security provisions.
Poland’s PM, Donald Tusk, warned Johnson on Tuesday that fate of millions of people & “thousands of lives” depend on whether Johnson allows the vote. “This is not some political skirmish that [only] matters on the American political scene. Mr Johnson’s failure to make a positive decision will cost thousands of lives. He takes personal responsibility for that,” Tusk said after he and the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, met at the White House with Joe Biden, the US president. Johnson’s office declined comment, and earlier, after Johnson met Duda, his office issued a statement that did not address Ukraine funding.
Ukraine has targeted Russian energy facilities in one of its largest cross-border drone and rocket attacks of the war. One attack hit an oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region that produces nearly 6% of Russia’s total refined crude. Another hit an oil depot in the city of Oryol.
Videos online showed a major blaze at the Lukoil Norsi oil refinery near Nizhny Novgorod. An industry source said the main crude distillation unit (AVT-6) at Norsi was damaged, disrupting at least half of the facility’s production. Nizhny Novgorod is nearly 1,000km (620 miles) from the Ukrainian border and lies about 400km (250 miles) to the east of Moscow. Strike is the latest evidence of Ukraine’s growing ability to target critical infrastructure deep into Russian territory.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/m...ne-weapons
