Ukraine updates: Kyiv 'ran out' of missiles to defend plant

The White House has indicated it could accept a Republican proposal to pass military aid bills for Ukraine and Israel separately.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the lower house of Congress would vote this week on the bills after months of opposition from hardline members of his party.

"It does appear at first blush that the speaker's proposal will in fact help us get aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "But we're waiting to get a little bit more detail before we say one way or the other."

The White House had previously urged for a single bill for a combined $95 billion (€89.4 billion) package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

Kirby added that President Joe Biden had said that "we need to see the House move this week."

Kyiv has warned of ammunition and missile shortages and pleaded for more aid from its allies to help it fend off Russia's invasion.

Israel is fighting an offensive in the Gaza Strip against the Hamas militant Islamist group.

Ukraine said it had identified nearly 37,000 people, including military personnel, unaccounted for since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022 and warned that the actual number could be "much higher." 

With Russian forces still occupying about a fifth of the country and neither side regularly releasing data on military casualties, it is difficult to calculate the exact number of missing.

Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said Ukraine and the Red Cross had identified about 1,700 people "illegally detained" by Russia, which he accused of "abducting civilians" since 2014 when fighting with Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country broke out.

Human rights groups have accused Russia of forced disappearances and abducting children in occupied areas, accusations the Kremlin has rejected.

In a rare statement on military losses, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in February that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the first two years of the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed into law a bill revising army mobilization rules, according to the parliament's website.

The law will take effect a month after its official publication. It requires men to update their draft information with authorities, increases payments to those who volunteer and adds new penalties for draft evasion.

In addition to fines for failure to comply with draft notices, in most cases, a draft evader's driver's license will be revoked.

Zelenskyy recently introduced another law lowering the age for military reservists from 27 to 25. This allows men between the ages of 25 and 60 to be drafted. Women are free to volunteer for military service.

More than 1 million men and women serve in Ukraine's armed forces — military, national guard and border guards — but the country desperately needs more troops to rotate its exhausted frontline units.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to exert influence over Russia to end the "senseless" war in Ukraine, adding that both leaders rejected attacks on nuclear facilities.

Following a meeting with Xi, Scholz said on X, formerly Twitter, that "China's word carries weight in Russia."

"I have therefore asked President Xi to influence Russia so that Putin finally calls off his senseless campaign, withdraws his troops and ends this terrible war," he said, adding that Xi had agreed to back a peace conference on the war in Switzerland.

Scholz also said that both leaders had rejected attacks on nuclear facilities after attacks against Europe's largest such station, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Both Moscow and Kyiv have blamed one another for the attacks.

While China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticized for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

China and Russia have stepped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years, with their strategic partnership only growing closer since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine's grain harvest is likely to fall to about 52 million metric tons this year from 58 million tons in 2023, mostly due to an expected smaller sowing area, the farm ministry said on Tuesday in its first official harvest forecast for 2024.

The ministry said last month that the sowing area for corn was likely to drop 4.5% to 3.863 million hectares this year from 4.043 million in 2023.

Farmers may also reduce the area sown for spring wheat and sunflowers, but are tipped to increase it for spring barley and soybeans.

The ministry's crop forecast shows the country could harvest 27 million tons of corn, 19 million tons of wheat and 5 million tons of barley this year.

Ukraine has not published final 2023 harvest results. The latest figures put the wheat harvest at around 22.5 million tons, with farms also harvesting 5.9 million tons of barley and 28.2 million tons of corn. 

Russia was able to destroy a key power plant because of a lack of air defense missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The Trypilska thermal power station, one of the biggest suppliers of electricity to the Kyiv region, was destroyed by Russian missiles on April 11.

"There were 11 missiles flying. We destroyed the first seven, and four (remaining) destroyed Trypilska. Why? Because there were zero missiles. We ran out of missiles to defend Trypilska," Zelenskyy said in an interview with American broadcaster PBS.

Zelenskyy has previously warned that Ukraine has already had to make tough choices about what to protect, and said his country could run out of defensive missiles altogether if Russian attacks continue apace.

For three and a half weeks, Russia has carried out near-constant attacks on Ukraine's power grid, leaving more than a million people without electricity.

Western allies have been reluctant to send additional air defense systems to Ukraine. Kyiv says it needs 25 Patriot systems to adequately cover its territory. Germany promised to deliver another Pariot defense missile system after Kyiv had made an urgent appeal.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius regarding Ukraine, according to a statement by the White House.

The two discussed their ongoing support for Ukraine against Russiam invasion and ensured continued "strong support for Ukraine."

The US defense secretary praised Germany's contribution for supporting Ukraine, saying:  "The United States and Germany will continue to work together alongside international partners to ensure strong support for Ukraine."

The German and American top officials also discussed Iran's aerial attack on Israel at the weekend, according to the statement. Iran said the attack was retaliation to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic stationon April 1. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed peace in Ukraine with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Beijing. 

"My meeting with President Xi will also focus on how we can contribute more to a just peace in Ukraine," Scholz said on social media platform X before the event, adding that this follows "intensive exchanges" between their governments.

In response, Xi urged all involved parties to work together to restore peace and to keep the situation from escalating further. 

He emphasized China's support for all peace initiatives, including the organization of an international peace conference recognized by both Russia and Ukraine.

The German chancellor is wrapping up a three-day trip to China. Read full article here.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to display the same "unity" toward Ukraine as they did toward Israel when they thwarted an Iranian aerial attack on Saturday night.

"The entire world witnessed allied action in the skies above Israel and neighboring countries," Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Monday. "It demonstrated how truly effective unity in defending against terror can be when it is based on sufficient political will."

The Ukrainian president urged for similar solidarity for Ukraine, which, like Israel, is not a NATO member.

"European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles, he said. "Terror must be defeated completely and everywhere, not more in some places and less in others."

Zelenskyy highlighted Ukraine's need for urgent air defenses to counter Russian air attacks. A difficulty in resupplying Kyiv with ammunition has had an impact on the battlefield, NATO officials have said.

The US House of Representatives will vote this week on separate aid bills for Israel and Ukraine, Speaker Mike Johnson said late on Monday.

The announcement comes after Johnson stalled a vote for months on the US Senate's combined $95 billion (€89.52 billion) package passed in February, which included funds to help Ukraine in its war against Russia's invasion.

"We know that the world is watching us to see how we react," Johnson said. "They're watching to see if America will stand up for its allies and in our own interest around the globe. And we will." 

Johnson said votes on passage might be around late Friday.

This move comes after Iran's recent missile and drone attack on Israel prompted urgent responses from US allies. 

Johnson proposed to separate the Senate-passed bill into four separate bills that will also address funds to Taiwan and US national security priorities in the Indo-Pacific. 

"We won't be voting on the Senate supplemental in its current form," Johnson told reporters, "but we will vote on each of these measures separately in four different pieces."

Earlier on Monday, the White House ruled out any bill that only contained aid for Israel, saying that a "standalone would not help Israel and Ukraine."

While the White House and Senate Democrats have pushed for immediate action, emphasizing the strategic importance of the aid, Johnson's hands were forced by conservatives fiercely opposed to aiding Ukraine.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, threatening to push to oust him as speaker, said her message to the speaker was, "Don't fund Ukraine."

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine, leading to Kyiv's first territorial losses in months, exacerbated by ammunition shortages.

Over the weekend, Ukraine's military chief said facing Russia's fresh offensive the situation in the country's east has "significantly worsened in recent days."

ss/ab (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)