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Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, told the speaker of the US House of Representatives during a phone call on Thursday that it was vital for Congress to pass a new military aid package for Ukraine. Mike Johnson, the speaker, has held up a bill for months that would supply $60bn in military and financial aid.

“We recognise that there are differing views in the House of Representatives on how to proceed, but the key is to keep the issue of aid to Ukraine as a unifying factor,” Zelenskiy said.

He said he briefed Johnson about the situation on the battlefield and also spoke about “the dramatic increase in Russia’s air terror”. The Ukrainian military later said that its top commander, Oleksander 
Syrskyi, spoke to the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Charles Brown, about battlefield issues.

Zelenskiy, in a CBS interview, has warned that Putin will push Russia’s war “very quickly” on to Nato soil unless he is stopped in Ukraine. 

He acknowledged that his troops are not prepared to defend against another imminent major Russian offensive, and highlighted the urgency for American Patriot missile defence systems and more artillery.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/m...off-crimea