Ukraine’s President Urges Marshall Plan After Massive Attacks; US Frustrated

By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

KUALA LUMPUR/ROME/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine’s allies to speed up imposing new sanctions on Russia and come up with a “Marshall Plan-style effort” after another massive wave of strikes on his country’s capital killed two people and left more wounded.

“Sanctions must be imposed faster, and pressure on Russia must be strong enough that they truly feel the consequences of their terror,” the Ukrainian president said.

His comments came while Ukraine’s air defence force said Moscow sent 400 drones and 18 missiles across the country in the early hours of Thursday.

Witnesses said that loud booms and explosions were heard in Kyiv – some from Ukraine’s air defence units trying to shoot down what Ukrainians have dubbed “mopeds” because of the drones’ noisy mechanical whine.

Reporters witnessed residents sheltered in the metro, underground passages, and basements.

The latest assault came a day after Moscow pummelled Ukraine with its most significant missile and drone attack in more than three years of war, killing at least one civilian, and a big raid on Kyiv last week.

“Everything was covered with smoke when I walked my dog in the morning,” one local person said.

KYIV EXHAUSTED

As Kyiv woke up, exhausted and groggy, on Thursday to a pall of smoke in the sky, President Zelenskyy was in Rome urging Western leaders to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine. He said his war-torn nation needs a “Marshall plan-style” effort to guide its reconstruction. “We should develop it together,” he stressed.

He referred to the Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP), an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe.

The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $133 billion in 2024) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II in Europe.

Zelenskyy told leaders that it’s not just charity but investment. “Rebuilding Ukraine is not just about our country. It’s also about your countries, your companies, your technology, your jobs. The way we rebuild our country can also modernise your infrastructure and industries.”

He stressed that Europe should “clearly agree that frozen Russian assets should go towards Ukraine’s recovery. Not only the income from these assets, but the assets themselves must be used and much more actively than they are now to help save lives.”

His appeal came as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed “disappointment and frustration” about Russia’s attacks in talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

“I echoed what the president [Donald J. Trump] said, both a disappointment and frustration at the lack of progress,” he said, saying it was “a frank, important conversation.”

‘FRANK EXCHANGE’

Moscow described the meeting as a “substantive and frank exchange of views.” Rubio added that Lavrov shared “a new idea” on Ukraine without offering any details.

“It’s not a new approach. It’s a new idea or a new concept that I’ll take back to the president to discuss,” Rubio told reporters, cautioning it was not something that “automatically leads to peace, but it could potentially open the door to a path.”

Yet with Russian attacks intensifying, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he spoke with Trump on delivering Patriot missiles for Ukraine after Washington paused deliveries.

Merz said he spoke with Trump about getting more Patriot missiles for Ukraine, but there was no final decision yet.

His calls for Patriots also come amid concerns in nearby NATO military alliance members that the war in Ukraine will spread to other countries.

That became clear Thursday when Lithuanian leaders briefly evacuated after an alarm over airspace violation from Belarus, a close ally of Russia.

Media reports said that Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and parliament speaker Saulius Skvernelis were taken to safety as the situation was investigated. Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda was on a foreign trip in Ireland during the incident, Worthy News learned.

SHAHED DRONE?

Officials said they were worried that the flying object could be a Shahed drone of the type used by Russia in ongoing attacks on Ukraine.

The Lithuanian Army confirmed that the object was detected at 11.30 a.m. local time.

After its fighter jets responded to the incident, the object quickly fell to the ground around a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, officials said.

The object was confirmed as an unmanned makeshift plane – reportedly made of plywood and foam – and as not posing immediate danger.

Yet the head of the parliamentary defence committee, Giedrimas Jeglinskas, told Lithuanian media that a further investigation of the incident was needed “to establish if it was a provocation” from Belarus or Russia.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered the current war in which more than a million people are believed to have been killed or injured.

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