Ukraine Latest: Biden to Meet East European Leaders Backing Kyiv

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(Bloomberg) — US President Joe Biden was slated to meet in Warsaw with eastern European leaders who have supported Ukraine with weapons deliveries and by taking in millions of refugees fleeing Russia’s war.

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Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, has asked the bloc’s defense ministers to immediately provide Ukraine with ammunition from their existing stockpiles and from orders they have already placed, according to a letter dated Feb. 21 and seen by Bloomberg.

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Russia’s War in Ukraine: Key Events and How It’s Unfolding

The front line has not moved despite Russian troops using an entire range of weapons against the Ukrainian army, including gas grenades in the Bakhmut, Lyman and Avdiyivka areas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

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On the Ground

Eleven explosions were heard Tuesday evening in the southern port city of Mariupol, occupied by Russian forces early in the invasion, the Unian news service reported, adding that two districts were hit, according to preliminary information. Ukrainian troops repelled attacks near seven settlements in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions over the past day, Ukraine’s General Staff said in its morning update on Facebook. Russian forces fired 59 salvos from multiple-launch rocket systems over the past day, it said.

(All times CET)

How Ordinary Ukrainians Are Crowdfunding a War (9:25 a.m.)

Despite a ravaged economy, businesses, civic groups and citizens in Ukraine are helping replenish arms on the front and boost morale. In Bloomberg’s Big Take story for Wednesday, Marc Champion and Daryna Krasnolutska look at how crowdfunding is helping raise money for everything from drones to mortars to covering costs for military training, medical supplies and the design of apps to calculate artillery trajectories.

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Though smaller in scale than Ukraine’s defense budget or weaponry sent by its allies, the domestic aid fills supply gaps on a fast moving battlefield that the army can’t, either for lack of money or an excess of bureaucratic procedures. It allows arms manufacturers to improve weapons systems in response to experience on the battlefield, something that procurement rules make more complicated for the Defense Ministry.

Ukrainians Are Crowdfunding Their Defense From Drones to Mortar

Ukraine Outruns Russian Attacks on Energy System, Grid CEO Says (9:20 a.m.)

Ukraine is restoring its energy infrastructure faster than Russia is able to destroy it, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, chief of national grid operator Ukrenergo said in an interview with the Polish Biznesalert.pl news website.

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Ukraine managed to stabilize its energy system and hasn’t had any major power deficit since mid-February, according to Kudrytskyi. There’s no threat of a large-scale blackout at this point, also owing to new air defense systems. Ukraine may restart commercial exchange of power with Poland if it withstands future Russian attacks, he said.

Russia’s Invasion Seen as a War on Europe, Survey Shows (9:05 a.m.)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is no longer seen as a war in Europe as was the case last summer, but as a war on Europe, according to an international public opinion survey published by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank.

The prevailing view in Europe (44% in the UK, and 38% across nine EU countries) is now that Ukraine needs to regain all of its territory, even if it means a longer war, the survey showed. The survey used data from nine EU states as well as the UK, Russia, China, India and Turkey.

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No Russian ICBM Test While Biden Was in Kyiv: US Official (8:15 a.m.)

There was no intercontinental ballistic missile test by Russia while Biden was in Kyiv, according to a US defense official. The US was properly notified before Biden’s visit to Kyiv was public. Russia provided advance notice of this launch under its New START treaty obligations that it planned to test this missile, the official said. Such testing is routine and was not a surprise and the US did not deem the test a threat to it or its allies, the official added.

CNN reported earlier that Russia conducted an ICBM test while Biden was in Ukraine on Monday that appears to have failed, citing two unnamed US officials familiar with the matter. 

Russia Could Mobilize 1 Million More Troops: Germany (8 a.m.)

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Russia has the potential to mobilize as many as 1 million more troops for its war on Ukraine, according to the head of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence service.

“Last fall, around 300,000 people were mobilized and recruited, some of them are still being trained, some of them have already been introduced into the fray,” BND President Bruno Kahl was quoted as saying by Germany’s RND media group. “Russia’s further mobilization potential is a reservoir of up to a million men, if that is deemed necessary in the Kremlin,” Kahl said, adding that he currently sees no willingness on the part of President Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks.

Zelenskiy Says Front Line Unchanged Despite Pressure (7:45 a.m.)

Russian troops are using an entire range of weapons against the Ukrainian army, including gas grenades in the Bakhmut, Lyman and Avdiyivka areas, but despite all the pressure on Ukrainian forces, the front line has not changed, Zelenskiy said in his regular night address. “We are doing our best to deter enemy attacks there – constant intense assaults, which Russia does not stop, even though it suffers huge losses there,” he said.