欧盟经济事务负责人周四向法新社表示,欧盟预计将在第二季度开始向乌克兰发放一笔总额为900亿欧元的新贷款。欧盟委员会执行副主席东布罗夫斯基斯在华盛顿参加国际货币基金组织(IMF)和世界银行春季会议间隙发表了讲话。他强调,支持乌克兰以及继续对俄施压是会议核心议程。他警告说,莫斯科正成为中东战争的赢家,因为这为其战争机器提供了意外利润。周四,俄罗斯使用无人机和导弹对乌克兰全境进行了大规模袭击,造成至少17人死亡,这是数周来最猛烈的攻击。乌方官员表示,先进拦截弹药正严重不足。特朗普在白宫对媒体表示,此次袭击是“可怕的”。德国副总理在与乌克兰及挪威财长的共同声明中强调,俄罗斯获胜不符合美欧的利益,莫斯科正通过能源溢价从地区冲突中获利。
The EU expects to start releasing a new €90bn loan to Ukraine in the second quarter, the bloc’s economy chief told AFP on Thursday. The EU’s economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, was speaking on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s spring meetings, which brought finance ministers, central bankers and other leaders to Washington. “Our support for Ukraine, also continued pressure and sanctions against aggressor Russia was very much part of the agenda,” Dombrovskis said. He warned that Moscow was “emerging as a winner from this war in Iran, because it provides windfall profits to feed Russia’s war machine”.
Russia hammered civilian areas across Ukraine with drones and missiles on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 100 others in the worst aerial attack in weeks, Ukrainian authorities said. Nearly 700 drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles were used, as Ukrainian officials said vital stocks of advanced interceptors were running low.
Russia strikes Kyiv before Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump – video
Donald Trump on Thursday condemned a massive Russian drone and missile attack across Ukraine that ripped through apartment buildings in the capital, Kyiv. Asked by reporters at the White House for his reaction to the barrage, Trump said: “I think it’s terrible.”
It is not in the interest of the US that Russia is the winner of the Iran war, the German vice chancellor, Lars Klingbeil, said on Thursday in Washington. “It’s not in our interest and it cannot be in the interest of the United States,” he said in a joint statement with the finance ministers of Ukraine and Norway on the sidelines of the IMF spring meetings. Klingbeil said the Russian economy was growing thanks to the Middle East conflict and the country was profitting from the energy situation. As the conflict in the Middle East dominated the gathering of finance officials at the IMF in Washington, the ministers of Norway, Germany and Ukraine spoke about not forgetting to support Ukraine in its defence against Russia. “All the meetings here are about the question of what’s happening with the war in Iran, and I think it’s really important we show solidarity with our friends in Ukraine,” Klingbeil said.
The heads of the EU and Nato on Thursday discussed efforts to bolster Europe’s arms production, as Donald Trump threw doubt on Washington’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance. “We need to invest more, to produce more and to do both faster,” the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, posted online after meeting Nato’s chief, Mark Rutte. European nations are scrambling to bolster their militaries in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine and pressure from Trump.