Live blog: Biden urges House Speaker to bring Ukraine aid bill to floor

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

2009 GMT — US President Joe Biden has urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to "immediately" bring a Ukraine aid bill to the floor.

"I urge Speaker Johnson to bring it to the floor immediately," Biden said at a news conference.

"I call on the speaker to let the full House speak its mind and not allow a minority of the most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on, even from being voted on. This is a critical act for the House to move this bill."

More updates 👇

2007 GMT — Ukraine defence minister, new armed forces chief inform Western generals of Kiev's plans

Ukraine Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and newly appointed armed forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi discussed Kiev's military plans for 2024 with the supreme commander of the NATO Armed Forces in Europe and the commander of the Security Assistance Group Ukraine, Umerov said on Facebook.

Umerov, in his Facebook posting, said he and Syrskyi had "a clear and substantive conversation" with General Christopher Cavoli and Lieutenant General Antonio Aguto.

"We discussed our military plans for 2024," Umerov said. "The Commander-in-Chief announced the priorities. Among them are the optimisation of the structure of the Armed Forces, improvement of the quality of training of our military, additional staffing of existing brigades and creation of new ones, supplying of regular needs in weapons and equipment."

The parties also discussed Ukraine's need for more electronic warfare equipment to combat Russian drones and the importance of rotating the fighters on the front lines, Umerov said without providing any details.

1643 GMT — Ukraine needs $9B to rebuild war-damaged cultural sites — UN

Russia - Ukraine war has caused around $3.5 billion worth of damage to Ukraine's heritage and cultural sites, a United Nations agency said.

Culture, tourism, and entertainment have lost a combined $19 billion in revenues since the Russian attack in February 2022, the UN's educational, scientific and cultural organisation UNESCO said.

Ukraine will need nearly $9 billion over the next decade to rebuild its cultural sites and tourism industry following the war, the agency said.

According to UNESCO, which used satellite images to assess the damage, some 5,000 sites have been destroyed, including more than 340 sites such as museums, monuments, libraries and religious venues.

"The cathedral of Odesa is one example of a site that was gravely damaged," Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, who heads the UNESCO office in Ukraine, said. "It's a symbol of all the community … with deep spiritual and historical meaning."

1631 GMT — Putin's suggestion of Ukraine ceasefire rejected by US: sources

Putin sent signals to Washington in 2023 in public and privately through intermediaries, including through Moscow's Gulf partners in the Middle East and others, that he was ready to consider a ceasefire in Ukraine, three Russian sources with knowledge of the discussions said.

"The contacts with the Americans came to nothing," a senior Russian source with knowledge of the discussions in late 2023 and early 2024 said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

A second Russian source with knowledge of the contacts said that the Americans told Moscow, via the intermediaries, they would not discuss a possible ceasefire without the participation of Ukraine and so the contacts ended in failure. A third source with knowledge of the discussions said: "Everything fell apart with the Americans." The source said that the Americans did not want to pressure Ukraine.

A US source denied there had been any official contact and said Washington would not engage in talks that did not involve Ukraine.

1606 GMT — IMF launches new trust fund to support Ukraine's economic reforms

The International Monetary Fund said it had formally launched a new trust fund to help support Ukraine's economic and financial reforms over the next five years, with a goal to raise $65 million from donor countries.

The Ukraine Capacity Development Fund was launched in Kiev with initial resources of $16.5 million provided by the Netherlands, Slovakia, Latvia, Japan and Lithuania.

The fund's initial work plan calls for $27.5 million to support core areas of Ukraine's reform agenda, the IMF said, adding that these are aligned with Ukraine's $15.5 billion Extended Fund Facility loan program.

The resources will help cover IMF capacity development operations over the 2024-2028 period, the global lender said.

1227 GMT — Zelenskyy 'grateful' to US senate for backing more aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked US senators for passing $60 billion in aid for Kiev, even as the bill looked likely to face resistance from House Republicans.

Zelenskyy said on social media he was grateful to "every US Senator who has supported continued assistance to Ukraine as we fight for freedom, democracy, and the values we all hold dear."

1000 GMT — Russia relying on old stocks after losing 3,000 tanks in Ukraine: military research centre

Russia has lost more than 3,000 tanks during its invasion of Ukraine but has enough lower-quality armoured vehicles in storage for years of replacements, a leading research centre said.

Ukraine has also suffered heavy loses since the war began in February 2022, but Western military replenishments have allowed it to maintain inventories while upgrading quality, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual Military Balance report.

"Moscow has been able to trade quality for quantity though, by pulling thousands of older tanks out of storage at a rate that may, at times, have reached 90 tanks per month," said the report, a key reference tool for defence analysts.

Russia's stored inventories mean Moscow "could potentially sustain around three more years of heavy losses and replenish tanks from stocks, even if at lower-technical standard, irrespective of its ability to produce new equipment," the report said.

"The situation underscored a growing feeling of a stalemate in the fighting that may persist through 2024," the Military Balance said.

0900 GMT — Russia preparing for military confrontation with West: Estonia

Russia is preparing for a military confrontation with the West within the next decade and could be deterred by a counter build-up of armed forces, Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service said.

A growing number of Western officials have warned of a military threat from Russia to countries along the eastern flank of NATO, calling for Europe to get prepared by rearming.

The chief of the intelligence service said the assessment was based on Russian plans to double the number of forces stationed along its border with NATO members Finland and the Baltic States of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

0744 GMT — Russia buys Starlink terminals in 'Arab countries': Ukraine

Russian forces are buying Starlink satellite internet terminals in "Arab countries" for use on the battlefield, Ukraine's military spy agency said.

The Elon Musk-owned service has been vital to Kiev's battlefield communications, but Ukrainian officials have said Russian forces are also increasingly relying on it during their nearly two-year-old invasion.

The defence ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) released what it said was an audio intercept of two Russian soldiers discussing buying units from Arab providers for around $2,200 each.

0736 GMT — Russia warns of 'tough response' if West seizes assets

Russia has warned the West that Moscow would be very tough if the United States and European Union seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry, blocking around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.

The EU on Monday adopted a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, in a first concrete step towards the bloc's aim of using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

"This is theft: It's the appropriation of something that doesn't belong to you," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik radio, TASS reported.

Zakharova said the response from Moscow would be "extremely tough" as Russia felt it was essentially dealing with thieves.

"Considering that our country has qualified this as theft, the attitude will be towards thieves," Zakharova said. "Not as political manipulators, not as overplayed technologists, but as thieves."

Russia has said that if its property is seized then it will seize US, European and other assets in response.

0455 GMT — US Senate votes to advance $95B Ukraine aid bill

The US Senate cleared a series of procedural hurdles for a $95.3B aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Senators voted 66-33, exceeding a 60-vote margin to send the bill to the Republican-led House.

The measure includes $60B in funding for Ukraine, while another $14B would go to support Israel and US military operations in the region and more than $8B would go to support US partners in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan.

It also allots nearly $10B for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

0144 GMT — US House speaker rejects Senate's Ukraine aid bill as written

US House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated that his Republican-led chamber would not take up a Senate bill to provide billions in additional aid to Ukraine and Israel.

The $95B security package does not include changes to US immigration policy after a previous Senate text that encompassed both issues failed.

"Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters," Johnson said in a statement.

0136 GMT — Kremlin, Musk deny Russian army using Starlink

The Kremlin rejected Ukraine's claims that Russian troops fighting on the frontline were using Starlink internet terminals.

"It cannot be officially supplied here and is not officially supplied here," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Accordingly, it cannot be officially used here in any way," he added.

Elon Musk also rejected Kiev's claims.

"My companies have probably done more to undermine Russia than anything," Musk said during a streamed session on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticising US funding to Ukraine.

Musk maintained that SpaceX had taken away two-thirds of Russian space launch business and that "Starlink has overwhelmingly helped Ukraine."

2300 GMT — Russia strikes Dnipro with drones, missiles: Ukraine

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched a missile and drone attack on the central city of Dnipro, and the mayor said infrastructure had been hit.

Dnipro came under attack from a missile and four groups of drones approaching from the south, east and north, the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Air raid alerts were subsequently lifted.

Mayor Borys Filatov said infrastructure had been hit, but gave no further details.

Suspilne public television quoted the water authority as saying power cuts had closed a pumping station, and supplies were cut to certain districts.

2200 GMT — Russia imposes sanctions on 18 UK nationals

Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow introduced retaliatory sanctions against 18 British citizens, including academics.

"In response to the confrontational policy that London maintains, working to demonise our country, fabricating anti-Russia narratives to reduce Moscow's influence in the international arena, and further pumping the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev full of weapons, a decision has been made to extend Russia's stop-list to include members of Great Britain's military and political establishment, as well as its scientific and academic community," the ministry said in a statement.

It also shared the name list, which includes the British Prime Minister's special envoy for the Western Balkans, Stuart Peach, Deputy Defence Secretary James Cartledge, Deputy National Security Adviser Sarah McIntosh and Commander of the Submarine Forces Simon Ashkit.

For our live updates from Monday, February 12, click here.