Russia has no plans to mobilize more troops in Ukraine, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday. “The General Staff is not planning additional mobilization. The Armed Forces have the necessary number of troops for the special military operation,” Shoigu said, using Russia’s term for the war in Ukraine. Russia’s “partial mobilization” last year triggered a mass exodus of fighting-age men, with hundreds of thousands fleeing the country, The Washington Post reported at the time.
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
The meeting in Kyiv marked the first time E.U. foreign ministers gathered outside E.U. territory and in a country at war, Borrell said at a news conference. “By coming to Kyiv, the European Union’s foreign ministers sent a strong message of solidarity and support to Ukraine in the face of this unjust and illegitimate war,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with the foreign ministers about Ukraine’s hope to join the European Union. “We will implement all recommendations,” Zelensky said, according to an account from the Ukrainian president’s office, referring to seven recommendations that Ukraine received for the start of negotiations for E.U. membership. In his nightly address, Zelensky called Ukraine “a leader in protecting the very foundations on which European unity rests.”
President Biden has sought to reassure Kyiv, stating that he hoped Republicans would “keep their word” on pursuing separate measures that would include more aid for Ukraine. He said at a Cabinet meeting, according to CNN: “We cannot under any circumstances allow America’s support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Too many lives are at stake, too many children, too many people.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed confidence that U.S. lawmakers will support Kyiv’s war effort despite the lack of aid in the U.S. government’s latest short-term funding bill. “We are now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure that it does not repeat again,” he said. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) were among the Republican leaders who signaled during television interviews that more aid is in the pipeline.
At least two people were killed and seven others were injured in attacks on the region of Kherson, its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram Tuesday. He said the strikes targeted populated residential areas and educational institutions, among others.
The city of Kharkiv is planning to build Ukraine’s first underground school to protect against missile threats, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. The northeastern Ukrainian city has already put together 60 classrooms inside its subway stations ahead of the school year, Terekhov said, allowing more than 1,000 children to continue their studies underground.
Germany said it provided Ukraine with thousands of additional rounds of ammunition and several vehicles, including two mine-clearing tanks, 14 tracked all-terrain vehicles and 12 semitrailers. Denmark also pledged an additional $14 million in ammunition for Ukraine.
Poland delivered its first batch of refurbished Leopard tanks to Ukraine, the Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) announced on social media. The group, an industrial partner of the Polish armed forces, also said it is working on repairing more tanks for Kyiv.
Mexico’s president called U.S. financial aid to Ukraine “irrational.” In a news conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador urged Washington to send resources to help with the economic development of Latin America and to deal with migration issues instead.
Analysis from our correspondents
E.U. diplomats rallied in Kyiv, but cracks are growing in the West’s support of Ukraine: While in Kyiv this week, Europe’s top diplomats were all too aware of the wrangling and bickering in Washington, where a U.S. government shutdown was temporarily avoided after a deal between Democratic and Republican lawmakers stripped out a new tranche of funding for Ukraine’s war effort.
The European officials in Kyiv and their Ukrainian counterparts wanted to show the world — and Russia, in particular — that their unity was intact, Ishaan Tharoor writes.
Natalia Abbakumova and Loveday Morris contributed to this report.