US says 20,000 Russians killed in Bakhmut battle

RUSSIA has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including 20,000 killed in action, since December in the stalemated fight over Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

arms and aid to Kyiv.

McCaul sees counteroffensive as ‘game changer’ HOUSE Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said a widely expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, if successful, would be “a game-changer for continued support.”

McCaul, a Texas Republican, told Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power” on Monday that “you’re going to see a counteroffensive very soon now that’s going to take place. And I think there’s going to be a lot riding on the line with this counteroffensive.”

Referring to strong support for Ukraine by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier in the day, McCaul said, “I think that does impact the rest of our conference and the House and the Senate.” He added that he was “not familiar” with a remark by former President Donald Trump that Russia would eventually “take over all of Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s businesses optimistic UKRAINE’S businesses expect expansion for the first time since Russia’s invasion began in February of last year, a sign of increasing optimism even though an end to the war isn’t in sight.

Treasury Secretary Yellen: US could default as soon as June 1

By Fatima Hussein The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—Trea -

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and “discussed the importance of consolidating the countries of the Pacific region to support” Ukraine.

Russia says missiles targeted Ukraine’s defense production

THE attacks with long-range airand sea-based missiles were aimed at Ukrainian factories producing ammunition, weapons and military equipment, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

“All the designated targets were hit,” according to the statement. Ukraine reports ‘significant damage’ to power grid

RUSSIAN missile attacks disrupted the power grid in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions, though there was no damage to electricity generation facilities, according to the Energy Ministry.

More than 18,000 residents of the southern city of Kherson and the surrounding region faced temporary power cuts, as well as an unspecified number of people in Dnipro city, the ministry said.

Ukraine calls for humanitarian corridors out of occupied areas sury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congress on Monday that the US could default on its debt as early as June 1, if legislators do not raise or suspend the nation’s borrowing authority before then and avert what could potentially become a global financial crisis. the US financial position.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Yellen urged congressional leaders “to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting as soon as possible” to address the $31.4 trillion limit on its legal borrowing authority. She added that it is impossible to predict with certainty the exact date of when the US will run out of cash.

“We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States,” Yellen said in the letter.

Also Monday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that it saw a greater risk of the US running out of funds in early June.

Eric Van Nostrand, acting assistant secretary for economy policy, said in a statemenzt that “even if Congress ultimately raises the debt limit before a default occurs, the ensuing uncertainty could raise borrowing costs and induce other financial stress that would weaken our labor market and our standing in the world.”

He said half of those killed belonged to the Wagner mercenary force, “the majority of whom were Russian convicts that were thrown into combat in Bakhmut without sufficient combat training, combat leadership, or any sense of organizational command and control.”

Kirby attributed the estimate to “information and intelligence that we were able to corroborate over a period of some time,” while continuing the US policy of refusing to estimate Ukraine’s casualties in the war.

Meanwhile, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said they have pushed back Russian troops from some positions in Bakhmut.

Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with cruise missiles in the early hours of Monday, but Ukraine’s army chief said most were intercepted. At least 34 people were reported hurt by a missile strike in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region. The barrage of attacks comes as Ukraine prepares for another ground offensive against

Russian forces.

Key developments:

McCarthy makes strong case for Ukraine aid

US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave his most full-throated support for aiding Ukraine in a heated exchange with a Russian news agency reporter during a visit to Jerusalem.

“I vote for aid for Ukraine, I support aid for Ukraine,” McCarthy told the reporter, who asked if the US will curtail aid. “I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine. I do not support your killing of the children either.”

“You should pull out, and I don’t think it’s right,” the speaker said.

“We will continue to support. And I think the rest of the world sees it just as it is.” In the past, McCarthy has said there will be no “blank check” for Ukraine funding responding in part to hard-right members of the GOP who have been critical of the US providing

In April an Index of BusinessActivity Expectations surpassed a neutral level of 50 percent, meaning that surveyed companies anticipate their output will rise for the first time in a year and a half, Ukraine’s central bank said.

“An improvement of the situation with electricity supplies, growing supplies of food and fuel, enhancement of inflation and exchange-rate forecasts and a rise in consumer demand have had a positive impact on the expectations of the companies of most industries,” Ukraine’s central bank, which calculates the index, said in a statement on its website.

Zelenskyy holds talks with Trudeau

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed “long-term defense cooperation” with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a phone conversation.

Earlier, Zelenskyy said he spoke by phone with New Zealand

UKRAINE is urging Russia and the International Red Cross to open humanitarian corridors to allow Ukrainians to leave areas under Russian occupation, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram. Russia is violating international law by keeping Ukrainian citizens who refuse to take Russian passports under the occupation from evacuating to areas under Ukrainian control, she said.

Blast derails Russian freight train in border region: Tass

A BLAST caused by an explosive device derailed a freight train, which caught fire, in the Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine, state-run Tass news service reported.

No injuries were reported and most of the train’s cars were pulled back from the accident site, Tass said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. Bloomberg News

CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel said because of less-than-expected tax receipts this filing season and a faster IRS having processed already received returns, “Treasury’s extraordinary measures will be exhausted sooner than we previously projected.”

In January, Yellen sent a letter to congressional leaders, stating that her department had begun resorting to “extraordinary measures” to avoid a federal government default.

The Treasury said Monday it plans to increase its borrowing during the April to June quarter of this year, even as the federal government is close to breaching the debt limit.

The US plans to borrow $726 billion during the quarter. That’s $449 billion more than projected in January, due to a lower beginning-of-quarter cash balance and projections of lower-thanexpected income tax receipts and higher spending.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains a burden on US economic growth, Treasury officials say the debate over the debt ceiling poses the greatest risk to

“There is no time to waste,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which forecasts the so-called X-date when the government exhausts its extraordinary measures. His organization will also provide an updated X-date projection in the coming days, he says.

“The US government is again within mere months or even weeks of failing to make good on all its obligations. That is not a position befitting of a country considered the bedrock of the financial system, and only adds uncertainty to an already shaky economy.”

Democrats and the White House are pushing for Congress to increase the federal debt limit. President Joe Biden wants the cap raised without negotiation. The House Republican majority has most recently passed a bill to secure spending cuts in exchange for a debt limit increase. Biden on Monday invited the four Congressional leaders to the White House on May 9 to discuss the matter.

Yellen said last week at the Cap-to-Cap policy conference in Washington: “Congress must vote to raise or suspend the debt limit, and it should do so without conditions and it should not wait until the last minute. I believe that is a basic responsibility of our nation’s leaders to get this done.”