NATO Diplomats Discuss Growing Concern Over Hungary’s ‘Deepening Relationship With Russia’ At Budapest Meeting

U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to give a primetime address to the nation on October 19 that is expected to focus on Ukraine and the deteriorating state of global security amid an escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas as he prepares to ask Congress for $100 billion in funds, almost two-thirds of which reportedly would be earmarked for Kyiv.

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Biden will speak at 8 p.m. local time in Washington in the Oval Office, a venue presidents traditionally use to address the country at times of critical national importance.

“President Biden will address the nation to discuss our response to Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Biden said during a visit to Tel Aviv on October 18 that he would ask Congress for the funding package, which media reports say includes $60 billion for Ukraine and $10 billion for Israel, as well as funds for Taiwan and the southern U.S. border.

The speech comes after Russia unleashed another wave of drone and missile strikes against five Ukrainian regions overnight, causing damage to civilian and energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s military and regional officials said on October 19.

A total of 17 drones and missiles were launched against infrastructure, civilian, and military targets in the Donetsk, Mykolayiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions, the Ukrainian air defense said in its report.

“Five Iskander M ballistic missiles; one S-300 antiaircraft guided missile; one Kh-59 guided air missile; one cruise missile (type yet to be specified); nine Shahed-136/131 attack drones,” were used in the attacks, the Ukrainian air defense said, adding that it shot down the Kh-59 missile and three drones.

Russian forces shelled the southern city of Kherson from across the Dnieper River, wounding three people, one of them seriously, the head of the city’s military administration, Roman Mrochko, said on Telegram.

Russian troops have regularly shelled Kherson, which was liberated almost a year ago, from the left bank of the Dnieper, where they have retreated.

In the southern region of Mykolayiv, some 800 people were left without electricity after the region was again struck by a cruise missile on October 19. The strike damaged a warehouse building and several apartment buildings in the city of Mykolayiv, regional governor Vitaliy Kim reported on his Telegram channel.

On October 18, Russian missile strikes on residential buildings killed several civilians in Ukraine, including two people in the Mykolayiv district and five people the southern city of Zaporizhzhya.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attacks.

“We will do everything to make the terrorist state bear fair responsibility. Russian terror must lose,” Zelenskiy added.

Russia has been constantly shelling and launching air strikes at Ukrainian cities, killing and wounding civilians and causing extensive damage to civilian and energy infrastructure.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces fought about 80 close-quarter battles along the front line over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of Ukraine’s military said on October 19.

Ukrainian troops continue their offensive operations in the south, in the Melitopol direction and in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk, the military said.

Ukrainian forces continued to repel Russian assaults on Avdiyivka, just north of the eastern city of Donetsk, where Moscow has been attempting a breakthrough for the past several days, the military said.

The head of the military administration of Avdiyivka, Vitaliy Barabash, said the Russian bombardment of the city picked up overnight after a short lull, likely caused by the exhaustion of Russian ammo stocks.

“The shelling continued all night. We heard gunfire around the clock…we observed an escalation, the number of shellings on the territory of the city increased and the number of rocket strikes increased,” Barabash told Ukrainian television.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters