European Union leaders met in Brussels to discuss the escalation of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and the fallout from the war, as well as to approve an 18 billion euro package of aid to rebuild the war-ravaged country in the coming year. “We are in the process of discussing how to keep the consequences of this war under control for our economies and the world,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters before the meeting, citing inflation and high energy prices.
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on one of Russia’s richest men, Vladimir Potanin, the Treasury Department announced. The billionaire businessman is a major shareholder of one of the world’s largest producers of palladium and refined nickel. Potanin played an instrumental role in the “loans for shares” programs in the 1990s that enabled some Russians to amass great wealth after the fall of the Soviet Union. Known to regularly meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the years, Potanin was already under British sanctions.
The United States plans to send Ukraine advanced “smart bomb” equipment that would allow it to target Russian military positions with better accuracy, senior U.S. officials said, another significant step by Washington to help Ukraine fight off invading Russian forces. The Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, to be offered by the United States uses global positioning devices for precision and can be bolted to other weapons.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects around the globe.
