Updated September 30, 2023 at 9:54 p.m. EDT|Published September 30, 2023 at 4:33 a.m. EDT
Romanian soldiers build a bomb shelter for residents in the village of Plauru near the border with Ukraine on Sept. 12. (Mihai Barbu/AFP/)
Proposed aid to Ukraine did not make it into a U.S. government funding bill that the Senate approved Saturday, after House Republicans had advanced it earlier in the day. While the bill did not include the billions of dollars for Ukraine that the White House sought, it averted a government shutdown otherwise set to start at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.
A White House official said the Biden administration expected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to field a separate measure for Ukraine funding.
NATO member Romania reported a possible violation of its airspace during an overnight Russian attack in neighboring Ukraine, saying it had not found debris on Romanian territory but would continue the search on Saturday.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effect around the globe:
Aid for Ukraine was not included in a short-term spending bill Congress passed Saturday to avoid a government shutdown. Lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, where aid for Ukraine had bipartisan support, said other options were coming. “There was a lot of concern about Ukraine, but I think the general consensus was that this does not represent a substantial shift,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). “We need a supplemental on Ukraine anyway. And now we’re just going to have to move forward and do that.”
Supporters of Ukraine say failure to pass the aid will encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin and probably lead European allies to pare back their support for the war. “Delays in aid to Ukraine will result in renewed assaults and attacks by Russia. The Kremlin will see it as a sign to apply more pressure,” said Maryan Zablotskyy, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who has lobbied U.S. conservatives to support funding for his country.
The House GOP sought to shift blame for a potential shutdown to Democrats by creating a showdown over Ukraine; McCarthy said he would blame the shutdown on Biden and Democrats if they opposed the House bill. On the House floor Saturday afternoon, Democrats defended the need to support Ukraine while Republicans cast anyone voting against the bill as voting to shut the government down.
The Romanian army’s radar system detected “a possible unauthorized” breach of the country’s airspace after registering “groups of drones heading toward Ukrainian territory” near the border as Russia conducted “a new series of attacks on some targets in Ukraine,” Romania’s Defense Ministry said.
Romania’s Defense Ministry said police were deployed near the border where the potential breach was detected. The statement said residents there received warning alerts that were lifted later in the night. Romania began building some air-raid shelters near the Ukrainian border after finding the suspected war debris earlier this month.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps told the Telegraph on Saturday he is considering allowing British trainers “into Ukraine” rather than relegating them to NATO bases outside the country. Thus far, NATO members have avoided deploying trainers into Ukraine for fear of escalating the conflict. “Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things ‘in country’ — not just training,” Shapps added. “But also we’re seeing BAE [a British defense firm], for example, move into manufacturing in country.”
Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on the banks of the River Danube have renewed concerns of a potential escalation in recent weeks. Romania said it found drone fragments on its territory this month, although it did not suggest this was an intentional attack. Still, the spillover to countries neighboring Ukraine has caused jitters in NATO, for which a mutual defense clause means that an attack on one member can be considered an attack on all.
Putin celebrated Saturday as the Day of Reunification, marking one year since Russia’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions. In a speech, he claimed that Ukrainians had chosen to “be with their fatherland” and that the annexation had complied with international norms. The annexation violated international law and was rejected by world leaders and the United Nations as unlawful. Only two countries, North Korea and Syria, have recognized the annexation as legitimate, the U.K. Defense Ministry noted on X, saying, “The world has chosen to #StandWithUkraine.”
The European Union’s Josep Borrell Fontelles visited the Ukrainian city of Odessa in a show of support on the anniversary Saturday, condemning the annexation in a recorded from a local cathedral. “A year has passed since Russia’s illegal annexation,” Borrell Fontelles, the body’s high representative for foreign affairs, said on X. “Ukraine has every right to defend itself against the Russian aggression and regain full control of its territory. The E.U. stands with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv is negotiating with allies on joint weapons production in Ukraine, adding that this was a key outcome of his recent talks with President Biden in Washington. Zelensky made the comments at an international defense industry conference that Kyiv hosted — part of efforts to boost weapons production inside Ukraine and help reduce reliance on foreign deliveries as Western allies deplete their stocks.
Slovakia held an election Saturday that has the potential to complicate the Western response to Ukraine, The Post’s Loveday Morris and Ladka Bauerova report from Bratislava. Exit polls in Slovakia’s parliamentary elections Saturday showed a slight lead for the progressive party of Michael Simecka over populist Robert Fico, in a knife-edge vote that could reverse the country’s support for Ukraine.
Norway will start banning Russian-registered passenger cars from entering the country as of next week, echoing sanctions imposed by E.U. nations. Norway, which has a long border with Russia, is a member of NATO but not the European Union. The Norwegian government said the ban will stop Russian-registered passenger cars with nine or fewer seats from entering, with some exceptions, while buses and minivans will still be able to enter at one border crossing.
Ukrainian intelligence recruited a Russian military service member and carried out a special operation to move him into territory under Ukrainian control after he switched sides, Ukrainian officials told a news conference. The Russian soldier has cooperated with Ukrainian forces and intelligence since June, according to Ukrainian state media.
Russian authorities in Kursk have reported strikes and shelling nearly every day over the past week. A Ukrainian drone strike on a substation in the Russian border region on Friday briefly left 5,000 people without electricity. Power was restored Friday evening, according to the regional governor. Russian regions in the country’s west have sought to bolster air defenses as Ukrainian forces grow more brazen, The Washington Post reports.
‘This is not just Putin’s war’: How Finland’s top diplomat sees Ukraine: Before Russia’s war in Ukraine, Finland was outside the umbrella of the NATO alliance and had been for generations, Ishaan Tharoor reports.
But the Nordic nation has formally joined the military bloc, spurred by the threat of Russian aggression and doubling NATO’s land border with Russia. On the sidelines of U.N. meetings in New York this month, Tharoor spoke with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen on life in NATO and the prospects of the war. Read the conversation here.
Loveday Morris, Amar Nadhir, Tobi Raji, Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.
