💰Merchants of misery: cornered Zelensky joins team Biden in appealing for more Ukraine funding

It's unclear what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is hoping for while in DC, given his latest fiasco to address US lawmakers online and his failure to win the hearts or minds of Congress in September, says Daniel McAdams, the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

"I would be very worried if I were him, he is a total liability right now. He's going to have to hope his money is in a secure place because he's going to have some tough times. So he's kind of in a corner without a lot of options right now. And I think the laws are closing in on him," McAdams told Sputnik.

Team Biden is looking increasingly desperate as it tries to persuade lawmakers to pass more funding for Ukraine. To complicate matters further, the House GOP is due to formalize their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky provided no new information or arguments to US lawmakers during a closed-door meeting as he arrived to Washington in order to beg for new financial assistance, US Senator Eric Schmitt said on Tuesday.

Schmitt also criticized the Biden administration for sending Zelensky to meet with lawmakers about Ukraine instead of meeting with them himself about US border security.

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The agenda of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has ceased to be regional long ago and currently includes various global aspects, SCO Deputy Secretary General Grigory Logvinov said on Tuesday.

"It used to be rather a local association whose agenda was mainly focused on Central Asia. Now the SCO is a giant transregional organization ... And the organization's agenda is no longer regional, it has many global aspects," Logvinov told a press conference.

The organization has no attributes of a military bloc and was not designed as such, the official stated, adding that coordination between defense ministries and armed forces of the SCO member states had a "strong counterterrorism orientation," with all joint drills aimed at improving capacities to repel large-scale attacks by international terrorists.

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🇺🇸 The members of Congress are still waiting to see a clear articulation of strategy on Ukraine and so far the White House has not provided any sufficient responses to their questions, US House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington.

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🇺🇸 US Congress’ move to ban Russian uranium imports may cost US taxpayers a lot

US lawmakers’ earnest efforts to sever the supply of enriched uranium supply to their country is a “purely political decision that can be summed up as ‘we’ll do it even if it makes things worse for ourselves’,” says member of public council of Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear corporation Valeriy Menshikov.

According to him, any alternative uranium procurement scheme would be much more expensive for the United States than the arrangement with Russia.

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Zelensky and team Biden's fantasies of turning Ukraine into defense hub won't fly

Volodymyr Zelensky's idea of creating a defense hub in Ukraine is a pipe dream, says retired Colonel Anatoliy Matviychuk, commenting on the Ukrainian president's meeting with US industrial CEOs in DC.

"I think that everything that Zelensky told them was his fantasies and his attempt to come up with something," Matviychuk told Sputnik.

"Who in their right mind would now invest money in a country that is practically non-existent? Can Ukraine produce anything? I doubt it very much, because the production facilities are completely in tatters."

Likewise, Washington's new strategy envisaging Ukraine digging in and accumulating forces for a new counteroffensive against Russia appears to be Team Biden's fantasy to stay in power as long as possible, per the expert.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️Death toll in Gaza Strip from Israeli attacks up to 18,412 while number of injured exceeds 50,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry;

▪️Gaza down to 11 functional hospitals, according to the WHO;

▪️The IDF has destroyed the headquarters of Hamas' elite Nukhba unit, where documents with plans for October 7 attack were located;

▪️Netanyahu said Israel received full US support for ground operation in Gaza Strip;

▪️Gaza conflict can go out of control at any moment, Iranian Foreign Minister said;

▪️WHO chief voices concern about prolonged security checks for medical staff in Gaza.

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🇭🇺 Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday it was discriminatory that the European Union was delaying the accession of Western Balkan countries but fast-tracking Ukraine, despite the latter being less prepared.

"It would be irresponsible to start accession talks with Ukraine as the European Commission has not made adequate preparations. Neither the EU nor Ukraine is ready for a mutually beneficial and well-structured start of accession negotiations. The Western Balkan countries, on the other hand, have been waiting for many years and are quite prepared, so it is simply incomprehensible why some member states are blocking progress in their case," Szijjarto wrote on social media.

He added that the countries opposing the Western Balkan states' accession have been prevailing in the EU recently. However, Hungary is among the proponents of the EU's expansion and "deems unacceptable the discrimination of the Western Balkans."

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Biden said at a meeting with Zelensky that he signed an executive order granting Ukraine a $200m aid package, but NYT notes that those money was already approved by Congress

Zelensky added at the White House that he wants to use "frozen Russian assets," which are more than $300 billion, for strengthening Ukraine, media reports

However, many US officials have noted that any action to use those assets would undermine the trust in Western financial institutions.

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Ukraine becomes critically dependent on US aid, ‘has nothing with which to negotiate with Russia’

The cessation of US financial aid to the regime in Kiev, if it were to occur, would likely result in Ukraine’s swift collapse, says Professor Rodney Shakespeare, renowned political commentator and binary economist.

According to him, factions within the United States’ “political structure” apparently hope that the delay in the provision of the latest US aid package to Ukraine might urge Kiev to sue for peace, even though the Ukrainian leadership “has nothing with which to negotiate.”

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'Hush up!' - Biden to reporters

When asked "Do you want Ukraine to win?," Joe Biden simply smiled in response

US House Speaker Mike Johnson - 'They [Ukraine] have not given us the clarity and detail that we have requested over and over'

Johnson also noted that he considers concern for US national security to be first priority, and pointed to the deteriorating situation at the border.

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The lower house of Poland’s parliament, the Sejm, on Tuesday passed a vote of confidence in the government of Donald Tusk, according to the live broadcast.

All opposition factions of the Sejm voted in favor of Tusk and his government, while the PiS party, which until recently was Poland’s ruling, and the Confederation alliance of rights and eurosceptics were against.

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❗️ The US House of Representatives Committee on Rules has approved a resolution authorising further investigation to impeach Joe Biden.

Precise hits

📹 Russian drone operators eliminate Ukrainian militants near Berestovoye.

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No additional tranches of aid to Ukraine, both financial and material, were announced at the press conference after the meeting between Zelensky and Biden, only wishes for success and assurances of support were voiced.

Zelensky said at a press conference that he had discussed with Biden the plans for the military campaign for 2024. In particular, he discussed strengthening Ukraine's air defence.

Biden, however, said that the US administration was rapidly approaching the point where it would not have the ability to send aid to Ukraine in a situation when Congress does not approve additional budgetary allocations for Ukraine.

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Sputnik correspondent Pavel Zakovorotny was not allowed into the hall of the press conference of Biden and Zelensky.

The journalist had registered for the event 24 hours in advance and his name was on the list, but the White House representative told the correspondent that there were no free seats in the hall.

He was the only one who did not have enough seats - dozens of other journalists who were waiting at the entrance to the event were able to get in.

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🇺🇸💸 “The wall of defense for pouring more money into Ukraine without any transparency is the House,” Ed Martin, president of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and chairperson of the Missouri Republican Party, told Sputnik.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington again to beg for money, but a majority of House Republicans are likely to demand accountability processes instead of writing Kiev a “blank check.”

“I wouldn’t put anything past what we often call ‘the uni-party,’” Martin warned.

“What they’re doing now is for Republicans to have a way to tell their voters that ‘I didn’t give a blank check’ so there’ll be some sort of strings attached and transparency, which won’t be real, it won’t be significant.”

At least 500 UK troops were sent to Cyprus in secret, a report from British media has revealed.

The UK government had previously announced that 1,000 troops were being deployed to support Israel in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas, but their locations remained unknown.

A letter by British Foreign Minister James Heappey to a member of parliament revealed that 500 of those troops were sent to UK bases in Cyprus, about 230 miles from the Gaza Strip. The letter also stated that troops have been sent to Egypt, Israel and Lebanon, but troop numbers were not provided.

Cyprus has served as a staging area for UK bombing campaigns in the Middle East. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides denied that his country was being used to provide military aid to Israel.

“There is no such information,” Christodoulides said, “our country cannot be used as a base for war operations.”