US Senate leaders admit to deadlock on Ukraine war aid; Ukraine’s army chief says situation at front line is not a stalemate; Zelensky holds major Q and A
By Max Hunder and Jonathan Landay KYIV (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he doubted whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon as Ukraine pleaded for a rapid increase in Western military aid to defend against missile strikes on its cities. Explosions rocked the Russian-occupied southern towns of Kherson and Melitopol and air raid sirens blared over Kyiv, two days after Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles on Ukrainian towns in a major escalation of the conflict. Russian Pesident Vladimir Putin, under domestic pressure to ramp up the war as his forces have lost ground since early September, ordered Monday s missile strikes in response to an alleged Ukrainian attack on Russia s bridge to annexed Crimea last weekend. In recent weeks, Moscow moved to annex new tracts of Ukraine after referendums widely denounced as illegal, mobilised hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight, and repeatedly threatened to use nuclear arms, stoking ala