News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe

During a Feb. 3 press conference in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Congressional Ukraine Caucus called for increased pressure on Russia, including new sanctions, and said it is one signature away from forcing a vote on the Ukraine Support Act.

A Russian drone strike on Zaporizhzhia on Feb. 3 killed two 18-year-olds and injured at least eleven other people, including three children, Ukrainian authorities said.

Pavel K., a 50-year old resident of the town of Hrubieszów, had been charged with espionage.

Russian forces launched a mass ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Feb. 3, striking multiple residential buildings across the city and injuring at least three people, officials said.

Rutte spoke at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.

"I'm absolutely confident that the money will be there," Rutte said during a press conference alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv when asked about the figure requested by Ukraine.

The U.S. believes launching three projects under a joint U.S.-Ukrainian investment fund created under the so-called minerals deal last year is achievable, but ambitious, a senior U.S. official told reporters on Feb. 2.

A more extensive Russian attack would trigger a coordinated Western-led military response backed by U.S. forces, initiated 72 hours after the initial breach, the Financial Times reported.

"Six-hundred seventy-nine Ukrainian girls and boys will never be able to play football — Russia killed them," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said after FIFA President Gianni Infantino backed lifting the ban on Russian athletes.