Ukraine’s Zelenskiy could visit Biden, U.S. Congress on Wednesday, sources say

KYIV/WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could travel to Washington, meet U.S. President Joe Biden and visit Congress on Wednesday, sources familiar with the situation said, in what would be Zelenskiy’s first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in late February.

Biden was expected to meet Zelenskiy at the White House, a source said. The visit by the Ukrainian leader would coincide with Biden’s intent to send the Kyiv government Patriot missiles, CNN reported, to protect it from heavy Russian bombardment.

Zelenskiy’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zelenskiy last left Ukraine for the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 19, according to his official schedule.

The trip abroad 10 months into the war was expected to include a visit to lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol, a source familiar with the planning said on Tuesday. The trip has not been confirmed and security concerns could force a change in plans, the source said.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported visit by Zelenskiy.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pelosi said in a letter that there would be a session of Congress on Wednesday night which would have a “very special focus on democracy.”

‘FORTRESS BAKHMUT’

The Ukrainian leader made a surprise trip to troops in the battered eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, his office said on Tuesday, underlining Russia’s stuttering but persistent attempts to capture it.

In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded medals inside the comfort of the Kremlin to the Russian-appointed leaders of four regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed to have annexed since invading its neighbour.

Zelenskiy, in his Tuesday night video address, referred to his trip to “Fortress Bakhmut” in Donetsk, one of the provinces Russia claimed in September but most countries reject as illegal occupation.

Video footage released earlier on Ukrinform TV, part of the state news agency, showed servicemen handing Zelenskiy a Ukrainian flag with their signatures on it.

“We will turn it over to the Congress and to the U.S. president from the guys,” Zelenskiy said in the video. “We are grateful for the support. But it’s not enough.”

Neither Zelenskiy nor soldiers he met were shown saying anything about the timing or location of the flag presentation to the Americans.

Zelenskiy said in his nightly video that he passed through several towns in Donetsk region including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka, which have long been cited as possible Russian targets.

“Please support our Bakhmut – tattered but unconquered – and its defenders,” Zelenskiy said.

The most destructive fighting in recent weeks has taken place around Bakhmut, where Zelenskiy, dressed in combat khaki, handed out medals to soldiers in a tumble-down industrial complex to loud applause, video released by his office showed.

With the boom of artillery audible in the distance, he urged them to keep up their spirits as the battle for Bakhmut, one that has come to symbolise the grinding brutality of the war, enters its fifth month.

“The East is holding out because Bakhmut is fighting. In fierce battles and at the cost of many lives, freedom is being defended here for all of us,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Earlier, he repeated calls to the West for more weaponry including air defence systems after Russian drones hit energy targets in a third air strike on power facilities in six days.

A U.S. government funding bill in the Senate included $44.9 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies. The money would be used for military training, equipment, logistics and intelligence support, as well as for replenishing U.S. equipment sent to the government in Kyiv.

The World Bank on Tuesday said it had approved an additional financing package totalling $610 million to address urgent relief and recovery needs in Ukraine.

PUTIN ACKNOWLEDGES DIFFICULTIES

Putin told Russia’s security services they needed to significantly improve their work, one of his clearest public admissions yet that the invasion was not going to plan.

He acknowledged problems for Russian forces in parts of Ukraine.

“The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin said in a video address to security workers translated by Reuters.

ATTACKS ON POWER GRID

Russian air attacks on the Ukrainian power grid, which Kyiv says are aimed at civilians to break their will to resist, have repeatedly cut power and water supplies amid subzero winter cold.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukrainians should prepare for new Russian attacks on energy infrastructure because Moscow wanted them to spend Christmas and New Year in darkness.

Electricity supplier YASNO, which covers the area of the capital Kyiv, offered no immediate respite for residents.

“We are not even counting on a return to scheduled disconnections,” Sergey Kovalenko, YASNO chief executive, said in a Facebook post late on Tuesday.

Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Steve Holland; writing by Grant McCool; editing by Cynthia Osterman

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