The European Union's Council approved on Saturday a legislative package worth 18 billion euros, or around $19 billion, that would aid Ukraine financially in 2023.
According to the council's announcement on Saturday, the plan intends to give "short-term financial relief," fund Ukraine's pressing needs, restore vital infrastructure, and provide early assistance towards sustained post-war rebuilding, to help Ukraine on its road toward "European integration."
Financing on the billion-dollar aid will have a 10-year timeframe, as per a CNN report, and the majority of the package's interest expenses would be reimbursed by European Council member states via "external assigned revenues."
The Czech Republic's minister of finance, Zbynk Stanjura, said the approved measure implies that Ukraine can depend on "regular" financial support from the EU throughout 2023.
The plan is likely to be presented to the European Parliament next week, where it could be fully approved.
Over 1.5 Million People Without Power Supply
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 1.5 million residents in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa were without electricity on Saturday after an assault by Russian "kamikaze drones" throughout the night.
The region's energy regulator warned that repairs following the Friday strikes would take weeks, even up to three months, NDTV reported.
President Zelensky remarked: "After the night attack by Iranian drones, Odessa and other towns and villages of the area remain in darkness."
According to recent estimates,1.5 million residents in the Odessa area are now without power.
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Only essential facilities, like maternity units and hospitals, have access to energy, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy director of the presidential administration.
The official added that the situation is challenging but "under control."
Before President Putin ordered troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24, the Black Sea port was a popular vacation spot for many Ukrainians and Russians.
Governor Maksym Marchenko stated Russia assaulted the city overnight with "kamikaze drones."
Bakhmut City Reduced To Ruins
In other updates, per AP News, Russian troops had reduced the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine to rubble, while the Ukrainian military on Saturday reported missile, rocket, and air attacks throughout the nation, which Moscow is attempting to annex despite months of opposition.
Several cities on the front lines in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where fighting has been going on since 2014 and was described by Zelenskyy as "quite harsh," are still experiencing "very terrible" conditions.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in his video message that all of Bakhmut, Soledar, Maryinka, and Kreminna have been harmed by shells and fire and the Russian army converted the district into charred ruins.
Although some structures remain standing and residents can still be seen walking the streets, Bakhmut, like Mariupol and other contested cities, has been under siege for quite some time and has been without water and electricity for weeks even before Moscow launched massive strikes to take out public utilities across Ukraine.
More than 60 rocket assaults and 20 airstrikes were recorded by the Ukrainian General Staff over the weekend, with the majority of the action occurring in the Bakhmut region. According to Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun, Russian attacks were repulsed in Donetsk and nearby Luhansk by Ukrainian troops.
Donetsk escaped the same fate as Luhansk during Russia's arduous eastern push. In recent weeks the Russian military has put troops and resources to surround the city of Bakhmut, according to experts and Ukrainian authorities.
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