Russia-Ukraine WarHero’s Welcome for Zelensky in Washington Lifts Mood in Kyiv

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Zelensky’s U.S. trip lifts spirits during a cold winter for Ukraine.

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In a joint meeting of Congress, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had won a victory over Russia “in the battle for minds of the world,” and in blunt terms, he pleaded for more military assistance from lawmakers.CreditCredit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky was returning to Ukraine on Thursday after a high-profile visit to Washington that was greeted at home with mostly pride and hope that his impassioned, in-person appeals would keep American weapons and financial support flowing.

Amid the darkness and cold from Russian missile strikes that have knocked out power for millions of people as winter sets in — and after weeks of stalemate along much of the front line — the surprise presidential trip buoyed morale in Ukraine. Some Ukrainians said that they were cheered to see members of Congress chant during Mr. Zelensky’s appearance the patriotic greeting, “Glory to heroes!”

“Friends, everything will be fine, Ukraine will be fine, we will be given everything, we will be helped,” Valeriy Tryhub, a ski instructor, wrote in a post on Facebook.

Reached by telephone later, Mr. Tryhub said that he had stayed up until 2:30 a.m. to watch Mr. Zelensky’s address to a joint session of Congress, where the Ukrainian president received standing ovations and presented Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a Ukrainian flag that had been signed by soldiers.

“This is, without exaggeration, an historical event,” he said of Mr. Zelensky’s visit, his first trip abroad since Russia’s invasion in February.

“We now, more than ever, need world support in the struggle for independence,” Mr. Tryhub added. “The United States is one of the many countries that finally realized that without foreign support, we cannot win. So we need help, especially since we have common values ​​such as democracy and freedom.”

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Mr. Zelensky speaking with President Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday.Credit...Tom Brenner for The New York Times

On his way back from Washington, Mr. Zelensky landed on Thursday in Poland, where he said that he met with President Andrzej Duda. He was returning to Ukraine with at least one tangible gain: an additional $1.8 billion in military aid announced Wednesday including a Patriot missile battery, one of the most advanced air defense systems.

But passage in Congress of an omnibus spending bill, which includes an additional nearly $50 billion in funding for Ukraine, was delayed on Wednesday night because of an impasse over immigration policy.

Still, it was a mostly triumphant visit, planned in stealth, for Mr. Zelensky, a former comedic actor who was elected in a landslide in 2019 but whose popularity was slumping before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February. Mr. Zelensky remained in Kyiv even though the capital seemed about to fall, and most Ukrainians quickly set aside politics to rally around their president.

“My whole life, I never imagined the president of Ukraine would be addressing Congress,” Tetiana Bisyk, a writer, tweeted on Thursday, adding: “I am so proud to be Ukrainian.”

Artur Bilous, a political analyst, wrote on Facebook that while “no Ukrainian president was ever greeted like this” in Washington, Mr. Zelensky’s trip would ultimately be gauged a success if it helps speed up the flow of weaponry.

“In particular, how quickly military aid will be delivered, first of all the Patriot air defense system,” Mr. Bilous wrote.

Overall, the reaction in Ukraine was one of pride and hope — and continued defiance toward Russia.

“Putin, I hope you are watching this real time,” Kira Rudik, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament, posted on Twitter, addressing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “We. Will. Win.”

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Kyiv.

Washington says North Korea is delivering arms to the Wagner Group for Russia’s use in Ukraine.

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The entrance to the PMC Wagner Center, associated with the founder of the private Wagner Group, in St. Petersburg, Russia, last month.Credit...Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The White House warned on Thursday that North Korea had delivered arms supplies to the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary force with close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, denied the assertion as “gossip and speculation,” according to Reuters.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Mr. Prigozhin was spending about $100 million a month to deploy Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine. The paramilitary group has played a central role in Russia’s efforts to storm the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Province, which borders Luhansk.

North Korea’s foreign ministry denied supplying Russia with arms, according to KNCA, the official state news agency.

Mr. Kirby said that North Korea delivered infantry rockets and missiles to Russia last month for Wagner’s use. He said the deliveries by North Korea “will not change battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, but we are certainly concerned that North Korea is planning to deliver more military equipment.”

He also said the Biden administration planned to report the deliveries as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The comments came a day after the Commerce Department tightened sanctions on the security company. The updated restrictions are intended to make it more difficult for the Wagner Group to obtain supplies on the open market.

American officials believe that tightening export controls and other sanctions on the Wagner Group will force it to look for weapons, ammunition and other equipment from pariah states like North Korea and Iran.

Wagner has about 50,000 people fighting in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and about 40,000 inmates whom Mr. Kirby said the company had recruited from Russian prisons. The company has also sent mercenaries to support the Kremlin’s military campaigns in Africa and the Middle East.

Britain agreed with the United States’ conclusion that North Korea was helping to arm Wagner fighters in Ukraine.

“The fact that President Putin is turning to North Korea for help is a sign of Russia’s desperation and isolation,” Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said. “We will work with our partners to ensure that North Korea pays a high price for supporting Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

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Putin says giving Patriot missiles to Kyiv ‘is simply prolonging the conflict.’

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In a photo released by the Russian state news media, President Vladimir V. Putin at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday.Credit...Sputnik, via Reuters

A day after Ukraine’s president received a hero’s welcome in Washington and assurances of more American arms deliveries, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday restated his determination to keep fighting — even as he paid lip service to wanting to end the war quickly.

Mr. Putin, in a news conference at the Kremlin, sought to appear unimpressed by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Washington visit, insisting — as he has before — that any further Western support for Ukraine will only delay Russia’s inevitable victory.

Mr. Putin played down the importance of the Patriot missile air-defense system that President Biden announced will soon be delivered to Ukraine, saying that Russia would find a means to defeat it.

“An antidote will always be found,” Mr. Putin said. “This is simply prolonging the conflict — that’s it.”

Sticking to the Kremlin’s propaganda script, Mr. Putin blamed the United States for bringing war back to Ukraine in 2014, by purportedly supporting the country’s pro-Western revolution and Ukrainian military action in the country’s east. (In fact, it was Russia that fueled and largely orchestrated a separatist conflict there.)

“Our goal is not to spin this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Mr. Putin said. “We are striving for this and will continue to.”

Mr. Putin said, as he and other Russian officials frequently do, that Russia was prepared for talks to negotiate an end to the conflict. But he gave no hint of being ready to step back from his effort to control a large swath of Ukraine, instead claiming that he was fighting to “unite and strengthen” the “Russian people.” The message: Since Russia will keep fighting no matter what, Ukraine and the West should agree to a peace on Russia’s terms.

“All armed conflicts end one way or another with some sort of negotiations on the diplomatic track,” Mr. Putin said. “Sooner or later, of course, any parties in a state of conflict sit down and come to an agreement. The faster this realization comes to those who oppose us, the better.”

The Senate supports using seized oligarchs’ assets to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction.

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The super yacht Amadea seized by the United States from a Russian oligarch in San Diego Bay in June.Credit...Gregory Bull/Associated Press

The Senate gave final passage on Thursday to an amendment giving the U.S. government the authority to sell assets seized from Russian oligarchs to pay for rebuilding Ukraine.

The amendment is part of a sprawling $1.7 trillion spending package, which includes more than $44 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, that is expected to be taken up by the House on Friday. Once it passes the House, President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law.

“This new law will enable proceeds from recovered Russian oligarch assets to be sent directly to Ukraine for defense, reconstruction, and reparation,” the bipartisan caucus that backed the provision said in a statement. “It’s a matter of basic justice that Russian criminals linked to Putin should pay for this brutal, illegal, and unprovoked war against Ukraine.”

The caucus added that such assets could total in the billions.

Representatives including Tom Malinowski and Joe Wilson, who were part of the bipartisan group that worked on the provision, have been pushing similar measures since the war’s early days.

Canada passed a similar law in the spring and used it for the first time this week when it moved to seize $26 million in assets from Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch, to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction. Canadian officials said their country’s move was the first time that assets seized from a Russian individual would be sent directly to Ukraine.

Mr. Biden voiced his support for such legislation in the United States earlier this year.

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The U.S. imposes new sanctions on companies that supply the Russian Navy.

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A Russian Navy ship at the port of Mariupol, Ukraine, in June.Credit...Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA, via Shutterstock

The United States government on Thursday imposed new sanctions on 10 Russian companies and research institutes that support the Russian Navy, including those that supply it with critical equipment like navigational systems, batteries and other ship machinery.

The companies include Rigel, which manufactures batteries and has been a supplier to the Russian Navy for over 15 years, and Elektropribor, which makes navigation systems for Russian combat ships, the State Department said. Several others provide technology for Russian submarines.

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, said in a statement that the sanctions were imposed “in the wake of Russian Naval operations against Ukrainian ports, including those that are providing much-needed food and grain to the world.”

In February, Russia’s Navy effectively blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, cutting off the flow of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds to the rest of the world. This contributed to a rise in global food prices and caused grain shortages, especially across the African continent.

The blockade ended when Russia and Ukraine signed the Black Sea Grain Initiative five months later, which reopened three key Ukrainian ports for resumption of food exports.

Last week, Russian drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa knocked out power across the region, forcing the three ports to temporarily shut down operations and stop exports.

Returning from Washington, Zelensky meets with another staunch ally: Poland’s president.

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President Andrzej Duda of Poland, left, and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during a meeting in Poland on Thursday, in a photo provided by the Polish government.Credit...Jakub Szymczuk/Kprp

WARSAW — Heading home after a hero’s welcome in Washington, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine stopped off in Poland on Thursday for his second meeting with a foreign president in two days, capping a hectic flurry of diplomacy aimed at thanking his country’s most robust allies and cementing their support.

Mr. Zelensky met for two hours with Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, near the airport in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow, a major transit point for Western weapons flowing into nearby Ukraine and for refugees fleeing Ukraine into Poland.

The exact location of the meeting, held one day after Mr. Zelensky met President Biden at the White House, was kept secret for security reasons. Video of his arrival at the Rzeszow airport showed Mr. Zelensky bounding down the steps of his plane dressed in green cargo pants, heavy boots and a military-style winter jacket.

Mr. Duda, in a message posted on Twitter, said that the two leaders had discussed “strategic plans for actions and cooperation in the upcoming 2023,” reaffirming Poland’s strong support for Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia’s military.

Poland, which shares a long border with Ukraine, has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February — far more than any other country — and has provided strong diplomatic and military support. Mr. Duda visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in April, blazing a trail since taken by many other foreign leaders and dignitaries.

A statement from the office of the Polish president said that the Ukrainian leader had briefed Mr. Duda on his trip to Washington and discussed Ukraine’s relations with Poland “in face of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine.” It gave no details.

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Germany accuses one of its intelligence officers of being a Russian spy.

BERLIN — A member of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia and is being charged with treason, national prosecutors said on Thursday.

Germany’s federal public prosecutor said in its statement that the suspect, identified as “Carsten L.” under German privacy laws, was accused of “passing on information he had obtained in the course of his professional activities to a Russian intelligence service.”

On Thursday, a federal judge approved keeping the defendant in custody. He was arrested last week, but German authorities have released few details. The head of the Federal Intelligence Service, Bruno Kahl, said in a statement that releasing more information would “offer an advantage to an adversary with the intention of harming Germany.”

The Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, focuses on foreign intelligence, like the C.I.A., and its mission, according to its website, is to compile “political, economic and military foreign intelligence.”

The investigation comes after a string of arrests across Europe of others accused of being Russian spies. Most of the cases involve people who prosecutors say embedded in an organization or community to enable long-term espionage or recruitment.

Last month, Norwegian authorities announced they had arrested a man posing as a Brazilian academic at a university on charges of gathering intelligence for Russia. In June, an intern at the International Criminal Court, also with a Brazilian passport, was arrested in The Hague and charged with spying for Russia. In late November, a Swedish raid caught a Russian couple who were accused of espionage. And earlier this week, Austrian investigators arrested a Greek resident of Vienna on suspicion of espionage for Russia.

The arrest in Germany may prove unusual, however, in that the accused mole was found inside the country’s own intelligence agency, raising the risk that contacts and informants within Russia may have been betrayed.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement they searched the suspect’s home and workplace.

Mr. Kahl, the BND president, described Russia as an actor “whose unscrupulousness and willingness to use violence we have to reckon with.”

A number of other Russian spies, who were not undercover agents but officially worked for intelligence services, have been rounded up and expelled in recent years, possibly making Russia more reliant on sleeper agents, especially as the Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine has faltered. Security analysts in Europe say the arrests have also made Moscow push more aggressively for intelligence from its remaining sources.

Germany’s last case of a double agent was in 2014, when a member of the intelligence services was put in prison for eight years for espionage, mostly for passing information to the C.I.A., and for offering himself to Russian secret services.

The U.N. nuclear chief says he is working with ‘utmost urgency’ to get a nuclear safety zone at Zaporizhzhia.

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International Atomic Energy Agency officials have spent months attempting to negotiate an agreement to stop the fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

The director of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog met with nuclear officials in Moscow on Thursday, expressing “utmost urgency” as he pursues shuttle diplomacy in a fraught attempt try to establish a combat-free safety zone at the embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has visited both Kyiv and Moscow over several months to try to hammer out a deal that would stop the fighting around the Russian-occupied plant, which has also been entangled in an internal power struggle that has raised the risk of a nuclear accident.

Mr. Grossi has consistently expressed optimism that a breakthrough was close. He said on Twitter on Thursday that he had conducted “another round of necessary discussions” on a safety zone, adding that “I am continuing my efforts toward this goal with a sense of utmost urgency.”

Rosatom, the state-owned Russian nuclear conglomerate, said on the Telegram messaging app that discussions would continue to seek a “mutually acceptable text as soon as possible.”

Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in March, stationing troops and military equipment there, and subjecting its Ukrainian technical staff to close scrutiny and interrogations to try to ferret out possible saboteurs.

Over the summer, Russian troops shelled neighboring cities from the grounds of the plant, according to the Ukrainian authorities. At the same time, shelling has repeatedly struck the plant’s facilities, including storage tanks for spent nuclear fuel, and the complex has been occasionally disconnected from external power because of attacks that have damaged electricity lines.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the strikes. As a safety measure, all of the reactors have been cycled down.

In October, Russia said it was “nationalizing” the plant, a day after it illegally annexed the Zaporizhzhia region. Mr. Grossi has said he didn’t recognize such claims and Ukraine has said it is still under Ukrainian management.

The nuclear agency has called for the establishment of a “safety and security protection zone” around the facility, but it does not have the authority to order a cease-fire or to demand that Russian forces leave the plant.

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In Russia, Zelensky’s visit to Washington provokes outrage and ridicule.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, center, addressing members of Congress during a joint session at the Capitol on Wednesday.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s dramatic visit to Washington has provoked a sharp and often emotional response in Russia, where both the Kremlin and talking heads on state-run news shows have cast it as a cynical public-relations stunt that shows Ukraine’s dependence on the United States.

Speaking with reporters on Thursday, Dmitri S. Peskov, President Vladimir V. Putin’s spokesman, said that Mr. Zelensky’s trip showcased the United States’ commitment to a policy of fighting Russia “until the last Ukrainian.”

Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to Washington, said the visit — which included a promise by the Biden administration of more military equipment for Ukraine, including a long-sought Patriot air-defense system — confirmed that Washington has been waging a “proxy war” against Russia using “enormous resources, weapons, intelligence capabilities.”

As the Russian Army has suffered major setbacks in the war — often because of rampant corruption and inefficiency — the country’s officials and its vast propaganda machine have begun to emphasize that Moscow is not only fighting Kyiv, but also waging an existential war against a coalition of Western states bent on destroying Russia.

That prevailing narrative made the display on Wednesday of Washington’s continued support for Ukraine too painful to watch for some pro-Kremlin commentators.

On Wednesday, as Mr. Zelensky’s visit was still unfolding, Vladimir Solovyov, the host of the main political talk show on Russia’s state television network, Rossiya-1, could not hide his emotions. Speaking about Mr. Zelensky’s joint news conference with President Biden, Mr. Solovyov said that it had made him “feel hatred.”

“A petty demon came to see old Satan,” Mr. Solovyov said.

Other commentators in the studio ridiculed Mr. Zelensky’s outfit — a crew neck sweatshirt and cargo pants in his trademark military green — and halting English, and said that the way he had traveled to Washington proved his position as America’s stooge.

“A guy in a rumpled green sweater, who is called president of an independent sovereign state, flew in an American plane to an American air base,” said Rodion Miroshnik, a pro-Kremlin analyst.

Some panelists on the talk show sought to focus on Mr. Putin’s meeting on Wednesday with top military commanders in which the Russian leader acknowledged the army’s shortcomings but pledged to supply his forces with everything they need to prevail in Ukraine.

“We have seen a reset,” said Vladislav Shyrygin, a hawkish journalist. “We saw our strength.”

Belarus’s leader tries to play down suggestions that recent military moves were aimed at Ukraine.

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President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus during a joint military exercise with Russian forces a week before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.Credit...Emile Ducke for The New York Times

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, tried on Thursday to defuse suspicions that recent military moves inside his country could presage a new ground offensive aimed at Ukraine.

Speaking a military conference, Mr. Lukashenko dismissed as “conspiracy theories” recent speculation from some Ukrainian officials that a suddenly announced check of combat readiness could be a precursor to a deployment of Belarusian armed forces to assist Russia.

While insisting that the exercises, which also involved thousands of Russian troops, were limited to his country’s territory, he raised the possibility that Belarus could at some point be pulled into the fighting in Ukraine.

“If you want peace, prepare for war,” Mr. Lukashenko said. “We have been conducting exercises,” he added, referring to joint exercises with Russia that have scaled up in recent weeks in response to what the Belarusian leader described as the “current situation and threats.”

The comments came days after Vladimir V. Putin of Russia visited Belarus to strengthen ties with Mr. Lukashenko, raising fears among Ukraine and its Western allies that a new Russian ground offensive could aim again at Kyiv, about 55 miles south of the Belarusian border.

Mr. Lukashenko is a close ally of Mr. Putin, in part because Belarus depends on Moscow for fuel and security. And although Mr. Lukashenko has resisted being drawn more centrally into the war since February, when Russia used eastern Belarus as a staging ground for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has come under increasing pressure from Moscow.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, this week dismissed speculations that Belarus would become directly involved in the conflict as “totally stupid” and “groundless fabrications.”

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, has said that Russia is unlikely to establish a fresh strike force in Belarus. It is more probable, the group has said, that the flurry of military activity is part of a broader effort to divert Kyiv’s troops from the front line in eastern and southern of Ukraine.

But intensifying pressure from Moscow is limiting Mr. Lukashenko’s “maneuver room to avoid making concessions to the Kremlin,” the institute said on Tuesday. It also said that Mr. Putin “gave” his ally an unspecified number of S-400 air defense systems during his visit to Minsk this week, a move that the Belarusian leader had rejected in recent years. The air defense systems will likely be operated by Russian troops based in Belarus, the group said.

“Lukashenko is likely delaying acceding to Putin’s larger demands — such as committing Belarusian forces to join the invasion against Ukraine — by making smaller concessions that he has stonewalled for years,” the group said.

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The former chief of Russia’s space agency is injured in shelling in Ukraine’s east, Russian officials say.

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Dmitri O. Rogozin, the former chief of Roscosmos, has been a prominent backer of President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.Credit...Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

Artillery shells have hit a hotel in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, leaving two people dead and others injured, Russian officials and the state-run news media said on Thursday. Among those wounded was the outspoken former head of Russia’s space agency, who said he had been struck by shrapnel during a working meeting.

Dmitry Rogozin, the former chief of Russia’s Roscosmos who is a prominent backer of President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that he was hit in his shoulder on Wednesday evening and that he would undergo surgery. “Several other people close to me were also injured,” he said.

Mr. Rogozin, a former Russian deputy prime minister who has subjected to sanctions by the United States, has been operating as a military adviser in the region, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.

Mr. Putin dismissed him as the head of Roscosmos in July after Mr. Rogozin made belligerent pronouncements for months in the Russian news media and on his Twitter and Telegram accounts. He sharply criticized Western sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, and publicly urged the Russian government to leave the International Space Station.

On Thursday, Mr. Rogozin said that he and his colleagues had been staying at the hotel in Donetsk for several months and that “someone leaked information” about their whereabouts. RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, released what it said was a video from the scene that showed a restaurant with blood stains on the floor and scattered debris. The video could not be independently verified.

Russian investigators said that attacks had been carried out by Ukrainian forces using precision-guided munitions. Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk Peoples Republic, the self-proclaimed entity controlled by Russia, said that two people had died, according to RIA Novosti.

Ukrainian officials did not comment directly on the attack. But the country’s border service issued a statement on Telegram that obliquely took responsibility for the shelling, saying that Mr. Rogozin had illegally crossed into Ukrainian territory and that “caring comrades” had notified him of that while he was celebrating his birthday.

Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that Mr. Putin illegally annexed in September, even though Russia does not fully control any of them. Russian attacks have turned the Donetsk region into a “hell,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said last month.

Asked about the episode, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said that the region “is still dangerous and carries great risks, including risks to life.”

“But this does not mean that these conditions should prevent officials from performing their functions,” he said, “and people who are there being called by their hearts should fulfill their missions.”

Germany and France welcome Zelensky’s trip to Washington.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington was generally well received by Germany and France.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Germany and France, both allies of Ukraine, have greeted President Volodymyr Zelensky’s reception in Washington as a sign of continuing strong support from across the Atlantic, but also as a chance to reflect on the extent of their own backing for the country as Kyiv faces a war with no end in sight.

The United States has been Ukraine’s biggest supporter, with the American investment in the war against Russia expected to amount to more than $100 billion this year. The visit offered evidence that Washington’s backing would remain steadfast, although an American promise of Patriot missiles to Ukraine also raised the pressure on Europe for more extensive military aid.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, the chairwoman of the defense committee in Germany’s Parliament, said it was a relief to see that rivalries between Republicans and Democrats had not undermined the United States’ backing of the war.

“It was an incredibly important signal to all Ukrainians fighting for their survival, but also a very powerful gesture to Europe, that the United States is standing by Europe,” Ms. Strack-Zimmerman said.

The German chancellery, while also welcoming the visit, was less effusive, a likely reflection of a debate within the country over whether to deliver Leopard 2 fighter tanks to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his party, the Social Democrats, remain largely resistant to taking that step, while the two other parties in his governing coalition have pushed for more robust military aid to Kyiv.

The chancellery argues that delivering heavy tanks would be a provocative step that increases the risk of confrontation between NATO and Russia. Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for Mr. Scholz, called Mr. Zelensky’s visit to Washington a “hopeful sign,” though not a “game changer.” The question of delivering tanks, he said, “is being continuously reassessed.”

Ms. Strack-Zimmerman, a member of the Free Democratic Party, one of Mr. Scholz’s coalition partners, said that “when it comes to this war, we in Germany have always been behind the curve.” She added, “I hope we will send the Leopard 2s.”

In France, the visit was widely viewed as historic, with Mr. Zelensky described as having been welcomed as a hero. “It’s a real show of force,” Dominique de Villepin, France’s former foreign minister from 2002 to 2004, told France Inter radio on Thursday.

Pierre Haski, a prominent commentator on international affairs for France Inter, said in his daily column on Thursday that Mr. Zelensky seemed intent on shoring up American support.

“Many voices lamented yesterday that Zelensky is going to Washington for his first trip abroad, and not to a European capital,” Mr. Haski said. “But let’s be honest, while Europe has not proved unworthy over the last 10 months, it had neither the means nor, above all, the necessary political coherence to guarantee aid to Ukraine.”

President Emmanuel Macron, returning to France late Wednesday from a trip to Jordan, told reporters onboard the presidential plane that the Ukrainian leader’s visit was a “good thing,” according to Le Monde newspaper.

“The United States are doing a lot from a military and financial standpoint,” Mr. Macron said, according to Le Monde. “Europe is also doing a lot, and we are closely coordinating.”

Mr. Macron — who had been criticized by some allies, especially in Eastern Europe, for calling for Russia to be included in a new “stability order” in Europe — reiterated his support for a Ukrainian victory. He repeated that it was up to Ukraine to decide when to enter into talks with Russia, Le Monde reported.

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The U.S. military aid flowing to Ukraine now includes very sophisticated weapons.

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A HIMARS unit fired by the Ukrainian military in the Kherson region of Ukraine in early November.Credit...Hannibal Hanschke/EPA, via Shutterstock

WASHINGTON — At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration was cautious about providing weapons to Kyiv, lest it appear that the United States was driving the Ukrainian effort. U.S. officials would not even say the word “Stingers” publicly.

Even in late March, the administration was reluctant to confirm that the shoulder-fired Stinger missiles it was supplying were helping Ukrainian troops shoot down Russian helicopters, for fear of crossing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s red lines.

Things have changed. With Wednesday’s announcement that the United States would send a Patriot battery to Ukraine, the range of weapons that President Biden has signed off on now includes one of America’s most advanced air defense systems, capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.

Closing in on $22 billion this year, the U.S. military packages to Ukraine have so far not included fighter jets. But the Biden administration has decided to send advanced Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits, which can be fitted onto Ukraine’s own fighter jets to allow for more precision-guided strikes.

Then there are the HIMARS.

In September, as Ukrainian troops were beating back Russia and reclaiming territory in the east, the Pentagon acknowledged that they were using U.S.-made M142 HIMARS advanced rocket launchers to do so.

The HIMARS, short for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, is essentially a truck that can fire guided rockets. In early June, the United States added HIMARS to the exponentially growing list of weapons it was sending Ukraine, which by then also included howitzers and 155 millimeter shells.

The weapons have been so effective that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine gave President Biden, during a fireside chat at the White House on Wednesday, a medal that he said was from the Ukrainian captain of a unit operating a HIMARS battery in the frontline city of Bakhmut.

“He asked me to pass his award to President Biden,” Mr. Zelensky said. “You will understand. He is captain of HIMARS battery.” At that, Mr. Biden punched his fist into the air.

Ukrainian troops have figured out how to make the most of the American-supplied weapons, using them in unexpected ways, officials say. A senior Pentagon official said that Ukrainian forces had put American-supplied HARM anti-radiation missiles onto Soviet-era MIG-29 fighter jets — something that no air force had ever done.

The HARM missiles, which Pentagon officials acknowledged sending to Ukraine only after photos of them in the field showed up online, are designed to seek and destroy Russian air defense radar. They are not usually compatible with the MIG-29 or Ukraine’s other fighter jets.

At the beginning of the war, the United States and NATO pushed thousands of antitank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania into Ukraine. They were unloaded them from giant military cargo planes to make the trip by land to Kyiv and other major cities. Since then, that flow has increased and now includes Cougar Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, armored utility trucks, precision aerial munitions and grenade launchers and small arms.

U.S. military aid to Ukraine is not limited to weapons. The United States has also trained Ukrainian troops, mostly in Germany, on how to use some of the systems being provided. And since the start of the war, the American intelligence community has provided Ukraine with real-time battlefield intelligence.

Christmas is still coming to Ukraine, with a few adjustments.

From the battered city of Bakhmut to the darkened capital of Kyiv, Ukrainians have been preparing to mark their first Christmas since Russia’s full-scale invasion. And in many parts of the country, the holiday displays look quite different this year.

In Kyiv, where rolling blackouts were put in place following waves of devastating Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, stationary bikes were being used to power the lights on Christmas trees, including one in the central train station.

The southern city of Mykolaiv nodded to the ongoing war with a Christmas tree made out of the camouflage netting used by Ukrainian troops.

While it is far from a normal holiday season in Mykolaiv, a city decimated by Russian missiles, one school made sure its students still were able to celebrate the holiday season on Ukraine’s Saint Nicholas Day.

In Kherson, which has been battered by relentless Russian shelling since Ukrainian forces recaptured the city last month, a girl encountered a man dressed in blue as Saint Mykolai, the Ukrainian version of Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, who gives gifts on Dec. 19.

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