Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at United Nations headquarters. Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Canada, where he is set to deliver an address to Parliament, according to the office of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Zelensky traveled to Ottawa after a whirlwind Thursday in Washington, where he visited the White House for talks with President Biden.
Following Zelensky’s visit, the Biden administration is close to deciding to provide Ukraine with a version of ATACMS tactical missiles armed with cluster bomblets rather than a single warhead, according to several people familiar with the ongoing deliberations, The Washington Post reports.
The Ukrainian military said a missile strike Friday damaged the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Russian-occupied Crimea – the latest in a series of strikes on Russian military infrastructure throughout the peninsula.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
BLACK SEA FLEET STRIKE
The Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, wrote on Telegram that a piece of shrapnel fell near a theater, but he later said there was no further “missile and aviation danger in Sevastopol.” A video posted to social media Friday and verified by Storyful showed smoke rising from the building.
Russian news channels reported that six people were injured when the missile struck the Black Sea Fleet headquarters – though officials have not confirmed the number of wounded. Ukraine’s armed forces called it a “successful attack.” Earlier Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said a Ukrainian missile and two drones were destroyed off the Crimean coast.
ZELENSKY’S TRAVELS
Zelensky will spend Friday in Canada, Trudeau’s office said. After addressing Parliament, Trudeau and Zelensky “will then travel to Toronto, where they will meet with Canadian business leaders to strengthen private sector investment in Ukraine’s future.” Canada has provided more than 8.9 billion Canadian dollars ($6.6 billion) since January 2022, in direct financial aid and military equipment, according to the office.
During Zelensky’s D.C. visit on Thursday, the Biden administration announced a $325 million military aid package for Ukraine.
In his nightly address, Zelensky thanked “both parties, both houses” after his meeting with U.S. congressional leaders. Zelensky said he had “very frank, detailed conversations” with U.S. lawmakers. He met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose party includes lawmakers who oppose additional aid to Kyiv. He also spoke to a large forum of senators to make his case for why U.S. lawmakers should approve the Biden administration’s request for an additional $24 billion aid package.
OTHER KEY UPDATES
The cluster-armed ATACMS that Washington is close to agreeing to provide to Kyiv could allow Ukraine to strike command posts, ammunition stores, and logistics routes far behind Russian front lines and dug-in defenses. Ukraine, with backing from a number of U.S. lawmakers, has been asking since last year for ATACMS, which stands for Army Tactical Missile System. Washington has resisted providing them, in part over concerns about their range – 45 to 190 miles, depending on the version chosen.
Poland threatened to stop sending more arms to Ukraine. Warsaw will fulfill only existing contracts, Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller said, citing Ukraine’s “totally unacceptable statements and public gestures.” Polish President Andrzej Duda appeared to backtrack on the threat, saying it would still be possible for Warsaw to transfer weapons from its old army stocks “just as we have done before.” Poland and Ukraine have been engaged in a trade feud over Ukrainian grain exports that have spilled into the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, as Russian warships maintain a blockade of many of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
The European Union has disbursed another 1.5 billion euros to Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Friday. “Just this year, we paid €13.5 billion to help Ukraine keep hospitals, schools and other services running,” she said.
British police charged five Bulgarians with espionage, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service reported. The individuals, who are between 29 and 45, are accused of conducting surveillance on targets, forging passports and identification cards, and passing information to Russian state security services from August 2020 to February of this year, the BBC reports.
BATTLEGROUND UPDATES
Both Russia and Ukraine “have experienced unusually intense attacks deep behind their lines” in the past four days, according to the British Defense Ministry, as the ground battle remains “relatively static.” The ministry tweeted Friday that it was “highly likely” that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had been targeted again, while explosions at an air base near Moscow were “likely to be more of a strategic concern” to the Kremlin. Russia in turn has launched repeated long-range strikes against Ukraine, it said.
At least one person has been killed in shelling in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to a local official. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote Friday on Telegram that a 25-year-old man died of his injuries, while another person was wounded.
A ship has left the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk carrying Ukrainian wheat toward Egypt, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said Friday, in the second shipment to leave via a temporary corridor for civilian shipping since Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal in July. The Palau-flagged Aroyat has 17,600 metric tons of wheat on board, Oleksandr Kubrakov tweeted, days after the much smaller Resilient Africa departed with 3,000 metric tons. Three other vessels are heading to Ukrainian Black Sea ports to transport 127,000 metric tons of “agroproducts and iron ore” to China, Egypt, and Spain, he said in a separate message.
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