Friday 08 / May / 2026
US President Joe Biden on Monday signed the Lend-Lease Act on Monday in a bid to help speed up the shipment of weapons to Ukraine.
Previously the US had adopted the measure to help allies in the fight against Nazi Germany.
Congress is set to spend billions more to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia with Democrats preparing $40 billion (€37 billion) in military and humanitarian aid.
"We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort," Biden said in a statement, and pushed for Congress to get the Ukraine funding bill "to my desk right away."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the move in a tweet, calling it a "historic step."
Biden says Putin does not have a way out of Ukraine war
US President Joe Biden said he is worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not have a way out of the Ukraine war, while speaking at a political fundraiser on Monday.
He said Putin "doesn't have a way out right now, and I'm trying to figure out what we do about that."
Biden added that Putin had mistakenly believed the invasion of Ukraine would break up NATO and European Union. However, the US and other European countries have rallied to support Ukraine.
Russia wont't attend UN Human Rights Council meeting
Russia will not take part in Thursday's specially convened session of the UN Human Rights Council on "the deteriorating human rights situation in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression."
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that "the Russian delegation will not legitimize with its presence this new political show organised under the guise of an extraordinary session."
Whether we use nuclear or not is in our 'military doctrine': Russia
Russia's deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that a decision on the possible
use of nuclear weapons was clearly "written" in Russia's "military doctrine," news agency RIA quoted Alexander Grushko as saying.
Moscow's official military principles allow for the use of nuclear weapons if they — or other types of weapons of mass destruction — are used against it, or if the Russian state faces an existential threat from conventional weapons.
The decision to use Russia's vast nuclear arsenal rests with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Death toll 'thousands higher' than reported: UN
The head of the human rights monitoring mission for the United Nations in Ukraine said Tuesday that "thousands" more had perished than the official death toll of 3,381.
Matilda Bogner told a press briefing in Geneva that this was largely because Mariupol had become a "black hole" so "it has been difficult for us to fully access and to get fully corroborated information."
