Biden Plans $800 Million in New Aid to Ukraine

Through explosions, air raid sirens and now a 35-hour curfew in the capital, Mr. Zelensky has continued his high-stakes diplomatic outreach, winning widespread support globally for his country’s cause even as Russian forces capture more of southern Ukraine and gradually tighten a noose around Kyiv. On Tuesday, he hosted the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia — who defied European Union leaders with a secretive visit to the Ukrainian capital — and addressed Canada’s Parliament via video link, urging them to imagine if Toronto were under attack as Kyiv is.

At the same time, virtual talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives were scheduled to take place for a third straight day, the longest round of negotiations over a cease-fire in the three weeks since Russia’s invasion began. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Wednesday that there was “a certain hope that a compromise can be reached,” and issues on the table included an agreement that Ukraine not join NATO.

But three previous rounds of talks failed to achieve results, and earlier this week the Kremlin’s spokesman insisted that Russia’s war effort would continue until all of its objectives were “realized in full.”

Here are some other major developments:

• President Biden plans to detail an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine after Mr. Zelensky’s speech to Congress, according to White House officials. Among Ukraine’s requests are more antiaircraft batteries that would enable the Ukrainian military to harass and shoot down Russian cargo planes and fighter jets.

• At least 500 civilians have been killed in the Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, since the start of the war, the city’s emergency services agency said on Wednesday.

• NATO defense ministers were scheduled to meet to discuss enhancing defenses along their eastern front as Russia’s attacks inch closer to the alliance’s doorstep. The meeting comes before next week’s extraordinary NATO summit, where Mr. Biden is scheduled to discuss how to respond to Russia’s invasion.

On Wednesday, he brings his message to Congress. On Thursday, he is slated to do the same for Germany’s Parliament.

Two weeks ago, he addressed the European Parliament. Last week, he addressed Britain’s Parliament. And on Tuesday, he urged Canada’s Parliament to support a no-fly zone. “Please close the sky,” he said.

“It is nearly unheard-of in modern times that we hear from a leader fighting for his life, fighting for his country’s survival and fighting to preserve the idea of democracy,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said this week. Mr. Schumer vowed that Mr. Zelensky “will always have friends in Congress ready to listen, to stand in his corner, and we’re honored to have him speak to us.”

The last time a Ukrainian president addressed Congress was in 2014, also in the face of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine. President Petro O. Poroshenko flew to Washington as part of a three-day visit to North America. He, too, urged American lawmakers to provide support.

That type of travel is unthinkable now for Mr. Zelensky, who has vowed to stay and fight the Russian invasion alongside his people, despite the risk to his life. He has also urged other world leaders to visit Kyiv after the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia traveled there on Tuesday to show their support.

“I am sure that with such friends, with such countries, with such neighbors and partners, we will really be able to win,” Mr. Zelensky said.

His appearances have had an impact — inspiring many ordinary people who have been moved by his courage, as well as world leaders who have begun shipping weapons to Ukraine to defend itself at speeds once thought unimaginable. In one particularly memorable speech on the day the invasion began, Mr. Zelensky appeared onscreen during the emergency summit meeting of European Union leaders to remind them of what was at stake, and to plead for help.

The speech, according to one official who was in the room, was pivotal in the rapid-fire isolation of Russia that followed. He told the leaders: “This may be the last time you see me alive.”

“We will fight till the end, at sea, in the air,” Mr. Zelensky said by video, unshaven and wearing his now-familiar military-fatigue T-shirt. “We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.”

His words echoed Churchill’s famous vow of no surrender to the same chamber at the dawn of World War II as Britain faced a looming onslaught from Nazi Germany. Mr. Zelensky segued from that to Shakespeare, posing Hamlet’s elemental question about the human condition, “to be or not to be.”

“Thirteen days ago, this question could still be raised about Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said, referring to the period before Russia invaded its neighbor. “But not now. Obviously, to be. Obviously to be free.”

In all his speeches, Mr. Zelensky offers a harrowing description of the misery Russia has wrought in its war on his country. From the cruise-missile strikes that shattered the pre-dawn peace as the assault began to the panic of trapped residents in Mariupol, he paints a picture of a country in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.

Yet Mr. Zelensky also finds a way to bring the tragedy home to his listeners. Speaking to a hushed Canadian Parliament on Tuesday, he asked lawmakers to imagine that the destruction was being inflicted on their homeland. Imagine, he said, that the targets were Toronto and Vancouver, not Kyiv or Kharkiv.

“Imagine that at four in the morning, each of you hears explosions. Terrible explosions. Justin, imagine that you hear it,” Mr. Zelensky said, addressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “And your children hear it. Hear missile strikes at Ottawa airport. At dozens of other places throughout your beautiful country, Canada.”

Hours before Russian forces began bombing Kyiv three weeks ago, Mr. Zelensky delivered a speech, most of it in Russian.

“Many of you have been in Ukraine,” he said. “Many of you have relatives in Ukraine. Some people studied in Ukrainian universities. You know Ukraine. You know our character, our principles, what matters to us.”

Early Tuesday, he specifically addressed Russian conscripts and officers, describing the military losses their army had suffered and the low morale among soldiers, which the Ukrainian government has sought to highlight.

“You will not take anything from Ukraine,” he told them. “You will take lives. There are a lot of you. But your life will also be taken. But why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive. We hear your conversations in the intercepts. We hear what you really think about this senseless war, about this disgrace and about your state. Your conversations with each other. Your calls home to your family. We hear it all. We draw conclusions. We know who you are.”

“Therefore, I offer you a choice,” he said. “On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I give you a chance. A chance to survive. If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated. As people, decently. In a way you were not treated in your army. And in a way your army does not treat ours. Choose!”

He also thanked Russians who have taken the risk of protesting, including a state television employee who was arrested after entering a live broadcast with an anti-war poster this week.

“To those who are not afraid to protest: As long as your country has not completely closed itself off from the whole world, turning into a very large North Korea, you must fight.” Mr. Zelensky said. “You must not lose your chance.”

Although Mr. Strzhalkovsky is not on the European Union’s sanctions list targeting Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, politicians from several Norwegian parties have urged their government to confiscate the superyacht.

Norwegian law prevents the government from doing so without an E.U. directive, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt told the public broadcaster NRK. She added that because Norway was not a member of the bloc, “there are no established channels for third-party countries like Norway to come with their own suggestions for the list.”

The ship has been moored for several weeks in Narvik, a port city in northern Norway, the boat’s captain, Rob Lancaster, told NRK. “We are a Western crew of 16,” the broadcaster reported him as saying. “We have nothing to do with the owner.”

Sven Holmlund, a local oil supplier, offered little sympathy for those aboard the vessel. “Why should we help them?” he told NRK. “They can row home. Or use a sail.”

Shortly after 6 a.m., rescuers received a report of a partly collapsed residential building in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Facebook, and began evacuating people from the building. Two were injured, and at least 37 people were evacuated.

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The area of the city is home to a cluster of universities, and before the invasion was known for lively student bars and restaurants.

Several apartments in the building that was struck on Wednesday were on fire, and images of the aftermath showed flames and smoke rising from the building.

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Having failed on several attempts to take the city, Russian forces have unleashed a vicious campaign of shelling against civilian targets, reducing Kharkiv — a once vibrant city of nearly 1.5 million people — to ruins. Just in the past day, shells hit several apartment buildings and a school, the agency said.

At least 189 people have been rescued from damaged buildings since the start of the war.

“My dear heroes, today is another day of war,” the city’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, said in a video address to Kharkiv residents on Tuesday evening. “I understand how difficult this is, but we need to hang on.”

European allies are putting more pressure on the United States to take more direct action in addition to sanctions and military aid in face of relentless Russian attacks and widespread civilian suffering.

Ministers will discuss “concrete measures” to reinforce its eastern flank, on the ground and in the air and on the water, said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, in advance of the meeting of defense ministers. The Russian invasion and its coordination with Belarus “creates a new security reality” in Europe, he said.

“We need to reset NATO’s military posture for this new reality,” he said. “This could include substantially more forces in the eastern part of the alliance at high alertness and more pre-positioned equipments.”

Russia attacked a Ukrainian military base on Sunday near the Polish border, killing dozens and stoking fear that the war was approaching NATO’s eastern borders. Mr. Stoltenberg reiterated NATO’s commitment that an attack on one ally will bring a response from the entire alliance. Ukraine is not a member of the alliance.

The ministers will be joined by the Ukrainian defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, who said on Twitter that he planned to urge them to help with air and missile defenses and that discussions of a no-fly zone over the country was “still open.” NATO leaders have demurred on a no-fly zone, which could draw the alliance into a broader conflict with Russia.

Mr. Stoltenberg also urged members to step up defense spending to a minimum of 2 percent of gross domestic product, welcoming Germany’s surprise announcement to increase spending.

“We must invest more to protect peace and freedom and uphold our values,” he said.

The leaders discussed not only increasing sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, but also “plans to rebuild our country after the end of hostilities,” Mr. Zelensky’s office said, projecting an air of confidence despite a brutal campaign that has already driven more than two million Ukrainians to seek refuge in neighboring countries.

Mr. Zelensky has sought to rally international support through nightly videos that he posts on social media, as well as virtual meetings with world leaders — including a speech to U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.

But Tuesday’s meeting in Kyiv, , was a rare in-person gathering for Mr. Zelensky and outside leaders. So far, the fighting has been focused in the suburbs of the capital as the military prepares to defend Kyiv from a possible assault. At least one attendee wore a green protective vest while sitting at the table with Mr. Zelensky, according to a photograph posted on the president’s official website.

Mr. Zelensky also invited other world leaders to join him in Kyiv, and once again pressed allies to enforce a no-fly zone over the country, which they have resisted out of concerns of being drawn into a direct conflict with Russia.

“I invite all friends of Ukraine to visit Kyiv,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement posted on his official Telegram channel. “It can be dangerous here. Because our sky is not yet closed to Russian missiles and planes.”

He added: “You know for sure that the eyes of all the people of the world are now focused on our capital, on Ukrainians.”

Besides asking for weapons and warplanes, Mr. Zelensky has pleaded with NATO to enforce a no-fly zone, a move the allies have refused, because it would put them in direct combat with Russian military forces. To enforce the no-fly zone, American forces would have to take out Russian air defenses — inside Russia — and Mr. Biden has rejected the move as unnecessary. Russia has warned it would consider a no-fly zone an act of war.

The administration last week announced $200 million in security aid for Ukraine. In February, the Biden administration approved a $350 million arms package to Ukraine. Altogether, the Biden administration has authorized $1.2 billion in weapons for Ukraine in the past year, officials said.

Those weapons have included at least 600 Stinger antiaircraft missiles and about 2,600 Javelin antitank missiles, according to a senior White House official. But what Ukraine needs are more sophisticated antimissile systems.

So far the Americans have also provided Ukraine five Mi-17 helicopters, three patrol boats and 70 other vehicles of various kinds.

The assistance from the United States has also included small arms: 200 grenade launchers, 200 shotguns, 200 machine guns and nearly 40 million rounds of ammunition, the official said. America also has sent one million grenade, mortar and artillery rounds, as well as body armor, helmets, tactical gear and military medical equipment, the official said.

The weapons come from existing U.S. military stockpiles in Europe and are flown into neighboring countries, like Poland and Romania, where they are shipped overland into western Ukraine, the official said.

The Biden administration has also asked Congress for $4.25 billion in new funding for economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukrainians.

In addition to weapons, Mr. Zelensky has asked Europe and the United States to provide Ukraine with Polish MIG-29 fighter jets. Poland has declined to send its aging, Russian-made fighters directly to Ukraine but has instead offered to hand them over the United States, delivering them to a U.S. base in Germany, for ultimate transfer to Ukraine.

The Biden administration rejected that plan because of the risk it might pull NATO directly into the war. Instead, the Biden administration provided Ukraine antitank and antiaircraft weapons.

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American officials have made it clear they will not help Poland transfer their older warplanes to Ukraine. Some officials have said giving the planes to Ukraine could provoke a Russian attack on the air base from where they were transferred.

And while Poland’s flashy offer of fighter jets has gained attention, American officials think the planes would make little military difference. U.S. officials have said they want to provide Ukraine with equipment that can be used effectively and that will make a difference on the battlefield.

The new request from Ukraine is tailored to meet that requirement of seeking easier-to-use equipment that could make a quick impact on the battlefield, further slowing Russian forces, said the European diplomat who spoke about the list of weapons.

The two diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the request before Mr. Zelensky’s speech.

Some of the requests, like antiaircraft Stinger missiles and antitank Javelin missiles, have already been provided by the United States. But other matériel, like armed drones and communication jamming equipment, would be new.

Ukraine wants bigger mobile air-defense systems that can hit aircraft flying at higher altitudes than Stingers can reach. Highflying Russian bombers launched the missile attack that killed more than 35 people at a Ukrainian military training center on Sunday.

The Ukrainians are also seeking long-range, anti-ship missiles, improved satellite navigation technology, tactical military radios, communications jamming equipment and other electronic warfare equipment. They are also looking for controllers for drones.

Mr. Zelensky has made high-profile speeches to various parliaments and lawmakers in recent days, pressing his case for more western support for Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion.