More than 50 people were injured early Wednesday in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with President Biden and congressional leaders in Washington to push for more military aid.
The Ukrainian Air Force said 10 ballistic missiles were shot down near the capital city at about 3 a.m. local time Wednesday. The falling debris injured at least 53 people, including about eight children, officials said.
As winter sets in over the front lines in eastern Ukraine, bogging down an already slow war, long-range bombardment from ballistic missiles take a more central role. The trend could mark a second attempt to hamper the country’s power grid, after the Russian military knocked out energy and heating infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians last winter.
Zelensky made little impact in his Tuesday visit to Washington, with Congress not expected to pass a U.S. border security deal — a prerequisite for advancing a foreign aid bill, including funds for Ukraine — before at least Christmas, despite bipartisan verbal support for the Ukrainian cause.
“I got the signal — they were more than positive, but we know that we have to separate words and, in particular, results,” Zelensky said in a press conference alongside Biden on Tuesday. “Therefore, we will count on particular results.”
Biden warned that inaction would only embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,” he said. “We must, we must, we must prove him wrong.”
“If we don’t stop Putin, it will endanger the freedom of everyone almost everywhere. Putin will keep going,” Biden continued. “Ukraine’s success and its ability to deter aggression in the future are vital to security for the world at large.”
Zelensky was in Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday to make a similar case to Scandinavian leaders.
“Russia is eager to exploit divisions,” senior leaders from Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden said in a joint statement, The Associated Press reported. “We must continue to stand united against Russia’s illegal and immoral war.”
They vowed “comprehensive assistance” for Ukraine, arguing that “now is not the time to tire.”