Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv‘s allies have committed billions upon billions in military and humanitarian aid to help Ukrainian Armed Forces fight off Russian occupiers.

But as the war drags into its 19th month, President Volodymyr Zelensky is seemingly facing an uphill battle convincing both his neighbours and Western allies to continue apace. 

The Biden administration’s latest request for a fresh $24billion aid package is the subject of a bitter spending battle that could see Congress trigger a government shutdown with skeptical Republican lawmakers wary of sending yet more funds to Kyiv. 

Some Republicans say the money could be better spent on US border security, while there are also concerns about the pace of Kyiv’s counteroffensive and that corruption in Ukraine means the money will be squandered. 

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this week his country ‘is no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine’ amid a row over Poland‘s ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect the interests of its farmers.

With this in mind, MailOnline recaps the level of funding sent to Ukraine so far. 

The US is far and away Ukraine’s biggest benefactor. 

According to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker – which follows and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid given to Ukraine since January 24, 2022 – the US has sent €69.5billion ($74billion) to Kyiv, €42billion ($44.7billion) of which came in the form of weapons systems, armoured vehicles, tanks and ammunition.

The support tracker’s data has been published up until July 31, 2023. If Biden’s $24billion package is approved by Congress, US total aid to Ukraine will begin closing in on $100billion.  

America’s aid provision is only outstripped by the EU as a collective, with European institutions providing €84.8billion – though almost €80billion of this was financial aid rather than military. 

The Biden administration is also preparing to provide a parting gift to Ukraine following President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s White House visit, in the form of long-range ATACM missiles to strike distant Russian forces.

President Biden has told Zelensky that Washington will provide Kyiv with ATACMS long-range missiles, NBC News reported on Friday, citing three U.S. officials and a congressional official.

That comes a day after Zelensky visited Washington, pleading with lawmakers in the Capitol and during a meeting with Biden for more weapons to protect Ukraine’s skies as it seeks to fight back Russia’s invading force.

That came on a trip when House Republicans are opposing Biden’s proposed $24 billion aid package for Ukraine, and where House Speaker Kevin McCarthy declined to appear with Zelensky in public after saying before Zelensky’s trip that ‘I have questions for him.’ 

‘Where’s the accountability on the money we’ve already spent?’ McCarthy asked, before McCarthy met with the full Senate but did not address the full House or the GOP Conference.

Besides the US, Germany, the United Kingdom and Norway have been the next most significant aid providers for Ukraine, giving €20.9billion, €13.8billion and €7.4billion respectively. 

In relative terms, however, Ukraine’s smaller supporters and Russian neighbours like Estonia and Lithuania are contributing a greater share of their GDP to the war effort. 

Estonia’s aid to Ukraine has totalled some 1.3 percent of GDP, with Lithuania sharing 1.2 percent. Poland has given military aid commitments equalling 0.5 percent of its GDP, is one of Kyiv‘s main weapons suppliers and also hosts some one million Ukrainian refugees, who have benefited from various kinds of state aid.

The US meanwhile, despite contributing the overwhelming majority of military aid to Kyiv, has only donated 0.2 per cent of its GDP. 

Canada meanwhile has provided Ukraine with almost $9billion in military and other aid since the Russian invasion began, and is home to the world’s second largest Ukrainian diaspora after Russia.

Ottawa’s $8.9billion in aid to Kyiv has included more than $1.8billion in military aid, including Leopard 2 tanks, air defence and artillery systems, anti-tank weapons, drones and other equipment.

It has also trained more than 36,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Zelensky was in Ottawa today to drum up more support after meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, capping off a North American tour which saw him face a skeptical US Congress. 

Yesterday Zelensky confronted the issue of potentially fracturing political support in the United States for his country’s demands for more arms to push back the Russian invasion.

‘We’re with you and we’re staying with you,’ Biden told him after their top teams met at the White House.

Wearing his trademark olive green military-style shirt, Zelensky said Ukraine ‘has exactly what our soldiers need’ after Biden announced a new package of US military aid, including sophisticated air defence weapons.

But behind the optics – firm handshakes across a grand cabinet table and shows of solidarity in the Oval Office – was the reality that Zelensky’s second wartime trip to Washington was far tougher than the first.

He received a hero’s welcome when he visited in December, but this time, he spent his closed-door meetings in the US Congress desperately trying to overcome growing war fatigue among Republicans.

Hardline Republicans are threatening to block Biden’s request for a fresh $24billion aid package for Ukraine, and it has now become caught up in a bitter spending battle that could spark a US government shutdown.

Biden said alongside Zelensky that there was ‘no alternative’ to backing the Ukraine funding, adding that he was ‘counting on the good judgment of the United States Congress.’

The US president said the first US M1 Abrams tanks will arrive in Ukraine ‘next week,’ boosting Kyiv’s forces as they battle Russian troops in a slow-moving counteroffensive.

The latest US package would also strengthen Ukraine’s air defence capability, crucial at a time when the country faces repeated Russian missile and drone attacks.

It came as there were reports of Ukraine striking two Russian ships in Crimea on Saturday.

A pro-Russia channel said six Neptune missiles were fired and while four were allegedly intercepted, two found their target. 

On Friday, Ukrainians used a British-made Storm Shadow missile to hit Putin‘s Black Sea Fleet HQ in Ukraine.

 Senior Russian commanders were killed in the Ukrainian missile strike, it was also revealed.

At least nine people were killed and 16 wounded in the attack in Sevastopol, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.

Russia has refrained from giving details on the killed and wounded, and its main news bulletins failed to mention the humiliating strike in annexed Crimea.

Russian air defences were again today at work in and around Sevastopol, the main naval port in the peninsula.

There were reports of incoming missiles and that one missile had been shot down.

Russian war cheerleaders are demanding reprisal attacks on Ukrainian command posts.

Rybar Telegram channel warned: ‘As long as there are no strikes on control and command centres, the intensity of the AFU attacks will increase.

‘Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the work of all Ukrainian structures responsible for regular raids, such as the GUR and the SBU [intelligence services] , is proceeding without interruption.’

War analyst Sergei Mardan, a columnist for Komsomolskaya Pravda, said: ‘The strike to the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol is a crushing blow to the entire Russian elite, which is seriously committed to freezing the conflict in the autumn of 2023.

‘They still don’t want to fight.

‘They agree to any, the most shameful conditions of a truce. 

‘They still consider [the start of war on] February 24, 2022, a catastrophic mistake by Putin and intend to do everything to convince him of this.

‘They see a ”limited” military defeat of Russia as the ideal way.’

He claimed this was the wrong route for Russia.

‘Our enemies will force us to fight, if only because they do not agree to a ‘limited’ defeat.

‘They intend to defeat the Russian army and bring the Russian government to its knees.’

Spymaster Budanov told Voice of America: ‘Among the wounded is the commander of the group, Colonel-General (Alexander) Romanchuk, in a very serious condition.’

He added: ‘The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General (Oleg) Tsekov, is unconscious.

‘The number of injured regular servicemen who are not employees of the headquarters is still being determined.

‘These are military personnel who are on duty, security, and so on — they are not included in the list that I announced.’

Some reports say Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov was also hit and killed, but there has been no confirmation.

There were suggestions he was ‘missing’.

Sokolov was handpicked by Putin a year ago to take over from Admiral Igor Osipov after the humiliating sinking of the fleet’s flagship, the cruiser Moskva, sunk by a Ukrainian Neptune missile.

Romanchuk is commander of Russian forces in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, and was promoted to the rank of colonel-general in 2023.

Tsekov is the commander of the 200th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, part of the Coastal Forces of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy.

Budanov declined to confirm Russian claims that Storm Shadow missiles – provided to Kyiv by Britain and France – had been used to the fleet HQ.

‘Here I have to refrain from answering, I think you should understand me,’ he said.

Tales of heroism have also been coming out of Ukraine.

Jack Knight is a British military volunteer in Ukraine and a former mine clearer with the Royal Engineers whose great-great grandfather rescued a wounded man from no man’s land in WWI.

Knight saved eight Ukrainian troops in a daring 14-hour rescue mission while taking fire.

He even stepped into a minefield in complete darkness to save four Ukrainians who wandered into it while carrying their dead companion on a stretcher.

His brave ancestor William Young won the Victoria Cross for his antics and saw a street named after him in Preston.

Knight told The Telegraph: ‘Hopefully, my great-great grandad will think I’ve done my bit. Every bit of that rescue literally felt like a suicide mission.’

At one point he even set down his weapons and grenades to reduce the weight he was carrying. When he was then faced with being just 20 metres away from a group of Russian troops as he took cover behind a wall, he realised he had a problem.

He picked up two rocks and prepared for a fight to the death.

Knight said: ‘I figured I’d throw the rocks at them – they’d have thought at first that they were grenades, which might have distracted them enough for me to charge one of them, grab his gun and spray a few rounds.

‘I probably wouldn’t have survived but if I could inflict some casualties they’d maybe pull back rather than carry on towards our lines.’

He has since been nominated for a medal for his valiant efforts in the battle alongside Canadian fellow volunteer Wayne Hallatt.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington D.C. on Thursday facing one of his biggest battles yet to convince skeptical House Republicans to keep approving U.S. aid.

The leader will hold talks on Capitol Hill and with President Joe Biden after Poland’s shock announcement that they would be axing their supply of weapons and as Russia rains down one of its most brutal missile campaigns in weeks.

Congress has already authorized more than $110 billion to Kyiv since Vladimir Putin‘s invasion, and some members of the GOP have warned the White House they will oppose Biden’s request to send another $24 billion.

The pressure is on the Ukrainian president, who will start his day on Capitol Hill where he met with House leaders and then with senators in the Old Senate Chamber, a rare privilege for world leaders. 

The entire Senate was there to greet him. 

He faced a cooler reception across the Capitol on the House side. 

Before his visit, Zelensky asked to deliver another joint address to Congress, as he did last December, Punchbowl News reported, but Speaker Kevin McCarthy denied the request.

‘Zelensky asked us for a Joint Session and we just didn’t have time,’ McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday  morning. 

Zelensky met the speaker, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and other committee chairs and ranking members on the first floor of the Capitol. 

McCarthy, notably, didn’t come out to greet the Ukrainian leaders. Jeffries met Zelensky at the Capitol entrance and walked him to the meeting site. 

After the meeting, McCarthy said he remains non committal about the $24 billion aid package but said Zelensky answered many of lawmakers’ questions on the status of the war. 

Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said Zelensky told lawmakers ‘he´s winning’ the war.

He said Zelensky told them he needs air cover and long-range artillery for his soldiers.  

Zelensky is making his plea for support as Ukraine’s neighbor, Poland, announced it will no longer provide weapons to Kyiv. 

‘We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons,’ Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.

Tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv, sparked by Poland’s ban on Ukrainian grain imports to protect the interests of its farmers, have intensified in recent days. 

Poland was one Ukraine’s earliest and staunchest allies after Russia invaded. It has taken in over a million refugees and been Kyiv’s biggest supplier of weapons.

In the US, Zelensky’s focus is on House Republicans, who have made clear they oppose more funding for the Ukraine. 

McCarthy’s stop-gap resolution to keep the government running while lawmakers negotiate a full budget deal lacks any funding for Kyiv. 

And now 29 GOP lawmakers wrote to the Biden’s budget chief to express their concerns about how much has already been given to the Ukraine – $100 billion – and to complain the Biden administration  supports an ‘open-ended commitment’ to the country.

They argue Americans need more information on the war effort.

‘How is the counteroffensive going? Are the Ukrainians any closer to victory than they were 6 months ago? What is our strategy, and what is the president’s exit plan?’ they write.  

McCarthy has made similar comments.

‘Was Zelensky elected to Congress? Is he our president? I don’t think so. I have questions for where’s the accountability on the money we’ve already spent? What is this the plan for victory?’ he said to reporters on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell does support funding Ukraine’s war effort although some conservatives in the upper chamber think the U.S. has done enough to help Kyiv.

McConnell, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, escorted Zelensky into his meeting with senators.  

The Biden administration continues to push for more funding. Zelensky will cap off his visit to Washington with a meeting in the Oval Office. 

Zelensky’s visit comes at a ‘critical time, as Russia is reaching out’ to countries like North Korea and Iran, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday. 

Biden can get a ‘battlefield perspective,’ when he meets with Zelensky in the Oval Office, Kirby noted.

While Zelensky was out of the country, Russia upped its aerial campaign, damaging energy facilities and causing power outages in several region.

Moscow targeted Lviv in the west, near the border with Poland, and Kharkiv, close to Ukraine’s eastern front lines, as well as Kyiv, Cherkasy and Rivne. 

Zelensky arrives in Washington after addressing the UN General Assembly as part of the body’s annual meeting.

He also addressed the U.N. Security Council, where he got tough, accusing it of inaction on Russia’s invasion of his country.

‘Most of the world recognizes the truth about this war,’ Zelensky said.

‘We should recognize that the U.N. finds itself in a deadlock on the matters of aggression,’ he noted.

Volodymyr Zelensky attended a secret roundtable in New York City with the nation’s top financiers, including private equity bosses at JPMorgan, Google and Blackstone to discuss rebuilding war-torn Ukraine.

The meeting was hosted by the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan, on Wednesday evening, and included Google CEO Eric Schmidt, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman.

The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and billionaire Barry Sternlicht were also in attendance, sources told CNN.

Hours earlier, Zelensky met with Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock to discuss how to attract US private sector money for the rebuilding effort, According Fox News.  

Zelensky is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden later this week to discuss US aid to Ukraine. This comes after Biden and the US Congress have provided more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. 

Zelensky met with senior members of JP Morgan back in February, where he took part in one of the largest annual investment summits organized by the bank, attended by 200 largest corporations, investors, and financial companies.

The meeting discussed the creation of a platform for attracting private capital to rebuild Ukraine. Zelensky also focused on directions of large investment projects in Ukraine specifically in green energy, IT, and agricultural technologies.

JPMorgan has served as Zelensky’s financial adviser to attract private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed in its war with Russia, sources told Fox Digital. 

The meeting comes a day after Zelensky attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 

In his address to United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Biden pledged that the US would remain the ‘largest single country donor’ of humanitarian assistance and vowed to help ‘climate proof’ the world. 

Biden also emphasized the success of PEPFAR – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – as its reauthorization is at stake over conservative claims that it supports abortion abroad.

‘We saved tens of millions of lives that would otherwise be lost to preventable and treatable diseases like measles, malaria and tuberculosis,’ Biden said. 

‘HIV/AIDS infections and deaths plummeted in no small part becuase PEPFAR’s work in more than 55 countries, saving more than 25 million lives.’

The crowd included both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – dressed in his traditional military fatigues – and Russian Amb. Vaisily Nebenzya in the audience.

Biden hammered Russia’s ‘naked aggression’ and vowed to keep funding Kyiv as he again called the present moment ‘an inflection point in world history.’

He also noted that ‘for a second year in a row, this gathering dedicated to peaceful resolution of conflict is darkened by the shadow of war.’

The president called it ‘an illegal war of conquest’ and one that was ‘brought without provocation’ by Russia into Ukraine.

‘Like every nation in the world the United States wants this war to end,’ he said. ‘No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine. And we strongly support Ukraine and its efforts to bring about a diplomatic resolution that delivers just and lasting peace.’

But he said that ‘Russia alone, Russia alone bears responsibility for this war.’

‘Russia alone has the power to end this war immediately. And it’s Russia alone that stands in the way of peace because the Russians’ price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory and Ukraine’s children,’ Biden said.

‘Russia believes that the world will grow weary and will allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence,’ the president added.

Biden then laid out what he thought would be the cost of that weariness.

‘But I ask you this, if we abandon the core principles of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected?’ he asked.

‘If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?’ the president added. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy demanded ‘accountability’ on U.S. aid to Ukraine and vowed to question President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, amid heightening tensions among Republicans over funding the country’s defense. 

‘Is Zelenskyy elected to Congress? Is he our president? I don’t think I have to commit anything and I think I have questions for him,’ McCarthy said Tuesday, in just the latest remarks exhibiting skepticism about billions in U.S. military and other support.

‘Where’s the accountability on the money we’ve already spent? What is the plan for victory? I think that’s what the American public wants to know,’ he said, ABC News reported. 

McCarthy spoke at length on the topic as Zelensky attended UN General Assembly meetings in New York, and was on hand for President Joe Biden‘s speech where he blasted Russia’s invasion and blasted its ”illegal war of conquest.’

McCarthy spoke days before U.S. government funding is set to run out, setting up a possible government shutdown amid howls of protest form conservative Freedom Caucus members about a temporary spending measure.

The Biden administration is hoping to cut through the tensions to deliver a $24 billion aid package amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive.  

‘Look what Russia has done — invade — is wrong,’ McCarthy.

‘It’s an atrocity, we want to make sure that ends. I also have always said from the beginning, no matter what the issue is, I want accountability for whatever the hardworking taxpayers spend their money on. I want to plan for victory. So no, I will listen to the American public. I will follow what happens in Congress, but I will have questions for President Zelensky,’ he added.

 It came as a key alley, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, continued to fume about Ukraine aid on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

‘I will not vote to fund a single penny to the war in Ukraine, COVID anything, and the political weaponized government,’ she said.

She also agreed with Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) that she would oppose a temporary measure negotiated between conservatives and more centrist Republicans that would still slash domestic non-defense funding by 8 per cent.  

‘Oh absolutely. I’m a NO! Funding [special counsel] Jack Smith’s persecution of Trump is one of my red lines. No money for Ukraine or COVID insanity either. And continuing Pelosi’s policies for even one day is unacceptable.’

Biden warned at the UN that no nation can be secure if ‘we allow Ukraine to be carved up.’

‘I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected?’ Biden said. ‘If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?

‘I’d respectfully suggest the answer is no,’ he said.

Biden has an ally in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is pushing to continue U.S. funding. 

‘Helping Ukraine retake its territory means weakening — weakening — one of America’s biggest strategic adversaries without firing a shot,’ McConnell said recently on the Senate floor.

Conservatives are warring over the spending bill, called a CR, and the Ukraine aide.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), promoted the short-term bill – in part by touting its lack of Ukraine funding.

‘The 30 day CR does 2 things: 1. Secure the southern border. 2. Cut government spending by 8%. **There is NO Ukraine $$$** The truth is Congress needs more time to do the necessary spending cuts and reforms to stop the weaponization of our government and save our country,’ he wrote.

Said Gaetz, who has threatened to push essentially a no-confidence vote in McCarthy, ‘Lumping disparate agencies of Goverment [sic] into one big vote is a terrible idea. My friend Byron left off his list that the Donalds CR funds the election interference of Jack Smith. I am a NO. We must be better than this. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he believes World War Three could become a reality if the U.S. does not continue to support Ukraine having already contributed roughly $70 billion towards the effort.

Speaking on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Zelensky compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.

‘The whole world [has to] decide whether we want to stop Putin, or whether we want to start the beginning of a world war. We can’t change Putin. Russian society has [lost] the respect of the world,’ Zelensky said. 

‘They elected him and re-elected him and raised a second Hitler. They did this. We cannot go back in time. But we can stop it here.’ 

Zelensky is expected at the White House and on Capitol Hill this week as he visits the U.S. during the United Nations General Assembly. 

The Ukrainian president made a wartime visit to Washington in December 2022 and delivered an impassioned address to a joint meeting of Congress. 

At the time, it was his first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in February 2022. 

He is expected to to make the case for the U.S. to continue to provide support for his war-torn country. 

‘We’re defending the values of the whole world. And these are Ukrainian people who are paying the highest price. We are truly fighting for our freedom, we are dying. We are not fiction, we are not a book. We are fighting for real with a nuclear state that threatens to destroy the world,’ Zelensky told CBS News.

‘If Ukraine falls, what will happen in ten years? Just think about it. If [the Russians] reach Poland, what’s next? A Third World War?’ he asked.

This time, however, Congress is increasingly divided over providing additional funding for Ukraine as the war is well into its second year. 

Biden has sought a package of $13.1 billion in additional military aid for Ukraine and $8.5 billion for humanitarian support. It also includes $2.3 billion for financing and to catalyze donors through the World Bank.

But conservative Republican lawmakers have been pushing for broad federal spending cuts and some of those allied with Donald Trump, the former president, are specifically looking to stop money to Ukraine.

Noting the $70 billion the U.S. has already sent to Ukraine, Zelensky was asked if he expected that level of support to continue.

‘The United States of America [is] supporting Ukraine financially and I’m grateful for this,’ Zelensky said. 

Zelensky noted how he had not received some military aide fast enough but is thankful for the support of President Biden. 

‘I just think they’re not supporting only Ukraine. If Ukraine falls, Putin will surely go further. What will the United States of America do when Putin reaches the Baltic states? When he reaches the Polish border? He will. This is a lot of money. We have a lot of gratitude. What else must Ukraine do for everyone to measure our huge gratitude? We are dying in this war.’

When asked how much more money would Ukraine need, Zelensky was unable to  specify a figure. 

‘I don’t have an answer,’ Zelensky said, noting that Putin will continue to threaten the possibility of nuclear war stoking instability in the United States and Europe.

‘I think that he’s going to continue threatening,’ Zelensky said. ‘He is waiting for the United States to become less stable. He thinks that’s going to happen during the U.S. election. He will be looking for instability in Europe and the United States of America. He will use the risk of using nuclear weapons to fuel that [instability]. He will keep on threatening.’

During Sunday night’s interview Zelensky admitted how progress had been slow in the Ukrainian counter-offensive but insisted the troops were steadily moving forward with around 40,000 shells a day being fired by Ukrainian troops.

‘It’s a difficult situation. I will be completely honest with you. We have the initiative. This is a plus. We stopped the Russian offensive and we moved onto a counter-offensive. And despite that, it’s not very fast. It is important that we are moving forward every day and liberating territory.

‘We need to liberate our territory as much as possible and move forward, even if it’s less than [half a mile or] a hundred [yards] we must do it,’ Zelensky continued. ‘We mustn’t give Putin a break.’

Zelensky was asked what he thought Putin was trying to achieve by killing civilians in the country.

‘To break [us]. And by choosing civilian targets, Putin wanted to achieve exactly this – to break [us]. This person who has made his way with such bloody actions, with everything he has said, cannot be trusted. There is no trust in such a person because he has not been a human being for a long time,’ Zelensky said. 

A woman who was reportedly planning the assassination of Volodymyr Zelensky has been arrested in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) detained the unnamed woman and began questioning her about her alleged involvement in a plot to kill the Ukrainian president during his visit to the port city of Mykolaiv last month.

The woman was a Russian informant who was collecting intelligence about Mr Zelensky’s planned visit, SBU officials said.

She is accused of trying to find out where and when the president was travelling and reportedly filmed the locations of Ukrainian facilities, including ammunition depots and electronic warfare systems.

The woman was caught ‘red-handed’ by authorities while trying to pass over the collected intelligence to Russia, the SBU claimed. If convicted, she could face 12 years in prison.

The suspect was living in the Ukrainian city of Ochakiv – a small city in the southern Mykolaiv region. She is understood to have been a former saleswoman in a store for one of the region’s military units.

The SBU allege that she was gathering the information as part of a plot to carry out an air strike on Mykolaiv and assassinate Zelensky.

When detectives learned of the woman’s plans, ‘additional security measures’ were taken to protect Zelensky, officials said.

‘The Ukrainian Security Service continued to document the criminal actions of the enemy accomplice in order to obtain new data about her Russian ‘curators’ and the tasks received,’ they said in a statement on Monday. 

Mr Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow’s forces approached.

It came as Russian shelling struck a nine-storey residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Kherson had endured a ‘tough night’ as the Russians ‘covered the central part of the city with fire’.

In the north-eastern Kharkiv province, a 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in Russian shelling.

It comes after Ukraine damaged two key bridges leading into Russian-occupied Crimea with ‘Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK’.

The Chonhar bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged and a small bridge across the Tonky Strait was also shelled.

Continuing attacks by Mr Zelensky’s forces are making it increasingly hard for Putin’s invading army to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Russia is also facing a revolt from its own nationals – with anti-Putin militia groups claiming to have blown up a fuel and ammunition depot inside occupied Ukraine.

The Freedom of Russia Legion – which was formed in spring 2022 to fight for Ukraine – claimed a mortar strike on the village of Zaitseve in the Donetsk region.

Dramatic drone footage captured the moment that the depot was transformed into a raging inferno as huge plumes of smoke billowed into the sky.

The attack came in the wake of Russia staging three waves of attacks on Sunday morning on a Ukrainian air base believed to house British- and French-supplied long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

A triple attack saw explosions in the vicinity of Starokonstantinov air base in Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region, according to reports.

The scale of any damage was not clear but Sergei Gamaly, the head of Ukraine’s regional military administration, said a ‘series of explosions’ had hit the area.

Russia had sent up seven Tu-95 nuclear-capable strategic bombers to unleash strikes with conventional Kh-101 missiles, reports said.

Russian sources said the Starokonstantinov base was used by Ukrainian Su-24 warplanes to fire Storm Shadows and French version SCALP-EGs at occupied lands.

The devastating attack came as grain silos were, again, targeted overnight in Kharkiv, and during a national celebration of Ukraine’s Air Force, with Zelensky taking time to praise his ‘heroes of the sky’ on social media.

The Kremlin issued a chilling warning of ‘retaliatory actions’ today as Rishi Sunak pledged more support for Ukraine during talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at Chequers.

Moscow lashed out after the PM committed to supplying air defence missiles and drones, and vowed to push for more international aid when he attends the G7 gathering in Japan and Council of Europe in Reykjavik this week.

Mr Zelensky and Mr Sunak greeted each other with a hug after the president arrived at the PM’s country retreat in Chinook helicopters for his surprise visit this morning.

As the teams sat down in the historic Hawtrey Room, Mr Sunak pointed out that Winston Churchill had made many of his inspirational wartime speeches from that spot.

Last week it emerged the UK had become the first country to provide long-range precision missiles to Ukraine.

The Storm Shadow cruise missiles, accurate to beyond 150 miles, are expected to be at the heart of the much anticipated counter-offensive against Russian occupiers.

But the prospect of the UK supplying fighter jet has effectively disappeared, despite Mr Zelensky visiting in February and presenting Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle with a pilot’s helmet in a not-so-subtle hint of what he wanted from the UK.

Instead the RAF will help train Ukrainian forces to use Western jets, with No10 insisting Kyiv has ‘decided’ to focus on F-16s – which Britain does not use. Mr Sunak is expected to urge other countries to provide the airframes that Ukraine wants.

Mr Zelensky said his people are grateful ‘from our hearts’ for the support the UK had provided.  

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said of the latest pledge from the UK: ‘We feel extremely negative about this.’

Peskov raised the prospect of ‘retaliatory actions’ and said Ukraine was making the situation ‘more difficult’. 

‘We repeat once again, this cannot have any significant and fundamental impact on the course of the special military operation, but, of course, it leads to further destructions, it leads to further retaliatory actions. That is, it makes this story much more difficult for Ukraine,’ he said.

Mr Zelensky was in Paris for talks with Emmanuel Macron yesterday following a summit with EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Aachen over the weekend.

Mr Sunak told the Ukrainian president today: ‘You are actually the first foreign leader I have had the privilege of welcoming here as Prime Minister and there’s a lot of great history here.

‘In fact this room that we are standing in, Winston Churchill made many of his famous speeches in World War Two from this room.

‘And the same way today, your leadership, your country’s bravery and fortitude are an inspiration to us all.’

Mr Zelensky said he discussed western fighter jets with Mr Sunak and that he was anticipating ‘very important decisions’ being made soon.

He said: ‘Today we spoke about the jets. Very important topic for us because we can’t control the sky.’

He stressed that Ukraine and the UK were ‘real partners’, with Mr Sunak aware of details of developments on the battlefield.

‘We want to create this jets coalition and I’m very positive with it.

‘We spoke about it and I see that in the closest time you will hear some, I think very important decisions but we have to work a little bit more on it.’

Mr Sunak vowed to send a ‘message of solidarity’ as Ukraine tries to kick out Vladimir Putin’s invading forces, saying it is in ‘all our interests’ that Mr Zelensky succeeds. 

He said the talks covered the ‘security arrangements we should put in place among allied countries for Ukraine for the long term to ensure it can defend itself and provide effective deterrence against future Russian aggression’.

The UK confirmed today that it will supply hundreds of air defence missiles and new long-range attack drones with a range of over 125 miles. 

Mr Zelensky last came to the UK in February, when he addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.

Mr Zelensky tweeted: ‘Today – London. The UK is a leader when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air.

‘This cooperation will continue today. I will meet my friend Rishi. We will conduct substantive negotiations face-to-face and in delegations.’

Mr Sunak said the UK will be ‘sustaining our support’ for Ukraine.

The PM said: ‘This is a crucial moment in Ukraine’s resistance to a terrible war of aggression they did not choose or provoke.

‘They need the sustained support of the international community to defend against the barrage of unrelenting and indiscriminate attacks that have been their daily reality for over a year.

‘We must not let them down.

‘The frontlines of Putin’s war of aggression may be in Ukraine but the fault lines stretch all over the world. It is in all our interest to ensure Ukraine succeeds and Putin’s barbarism is not rewarded.

‘That is why the UK is sustaining our support to Ukraine – from tanks to training, ammunition to armoured vehicles. And this message of solidarity will ring loud in all my meetings with fellow world leaders in the days ahead.’

President Zelensky says Poland or Slovakia would have been better Eurovision hosts than Britain

•  Zelensky said he would have preferred a country bordering Ukraine to host
•  The final of the competition is now set to go ahead in Liverpool on Saturday

By Christian Oliver

Published: 04:51 EDT, 12 May 2023 | Updated: 08:03 EDT, 12 May 2023

Xi Jinping is accused of BETRAYING Putin by Russian state TV: Chinese leader’s phone call with Zelensky sparks outrage, with propagandist asking ‘Are we friends or what?!’

• Russian propagandist accuses Xi of undermining the Kremlin with Zelensky call
• Now asks what Xi was doing ‘interrupting Putin’s work’ during a visit last month

By Will Stewart and James Reynolds

Published: 11:27 EDT, 2 May 2023 | Updated: 13:01 EDT, 2 May 2023