Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy to address US senators as White House warns Putin could win if Ukraine aid dries up | Ukraine #RussiaUkraine #war #live #Zelenskiy #address #senators #White #House #warns #Putin #win #Ukraine #aid #dries #Ukraine

Russian air defence systems destroyed or intercepted a total of 41 Ukraine-launched drones overnight and early morning on Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry has said.

Twenty-six of the drones were destroyed over Russian territory, and 15 were intercepted over the Sea of Azov and the Crimean Peninsula, the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

The ministry did not say whether there was any damage caused by the attack or falling debris.

The Guardian could not immediately verify reports and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address US senators by video on Tuesday during a classified briefing, as the Biden administration pushes Congress to approve new aid for Ukraine.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the administration had invited Zelenskiy to address the senators so they “could hear directly from him precisely what’s at stake.” They will also be hearing from the secretaries of defence, state and other top national security officials.

Zelenskiy’s appearance comes after the administration sent an urgent warning about the need to approve fresh military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kyiv’s war effort to defend itself from Russia may grind to a halt without it.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders and released publicly on Monday, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned the US will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, saying that would “kneecap” Ukraine on the battlefield.

She added that the US already has run out of money that it has used to prop up Ukraine’s economy, and “if Ukraine’s economy collapses, they will not be able to keep fighting, full stop.”

WHite House national security adviser Jake Sullivan went further, suggesting that voting against aid for Ukraine was effectively voting to make it easier for Russia to succeed.

“Congress has to decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom in Ukraine … or whether Congress will ignore the lessons we’ve learned from history and let Putin prevail,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address a classified briefing of US senators on Tuesday, as the Biden administration urges Congress to approve the Biden administrations $106bn request for funds for the wars in Ukraine, Israel and other security needs.

On Monday, the White House issued a warning that US aid for Ukraine will run out by the end of the year if the new funding package isn’t agreed on – adding that Russian president Vladimir Putin could win the war in this event.

More on this shortly, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• President Joe Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, said in a blunt letter to Republican House speaker Mike Johnson that if military assistance dries up it would “kneecap” Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion. “Cutting off the flow of US weapons and equipment will kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield, not only putting at risk the gains Ukraine has made, but increasing the likelihood of Russian military victories,” she said.

• Speaker Johnson said the Biden administration had “failed to substantively address any of my conference’s legitimate concerns about the lack of a clear strategy in Ukraine”. Johnson also repeated the Republicans’ insistence on tying any Ukraine aid to changes in US policy on the southern border with Mexico, as the number of migrant arrivals rises.

• Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán demanded that a summit of EU leaders next week avoid any decision on Ukraine’s coveted goal of getting approval for membership talks. The European Commission recommended the bloc’s leaders give their approval to launch membership talks as soon as it meets final conditions but their unanimous agreement is needed.

• A Russian general died while deployed in Ukraine, the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region said, the latest high-ranking Russian military figure to die during the 21-month offensive. “Maj Gen Vladimir Zavadsky, deputy commander of the 14th Army Corps of the Northern Fleet, died in the line of duty in a special operation zone,” Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram, using the Russian term for its offensive in Ukraine.

• President Vladimir Putin said Russia should never repeat Soviet-era mass repressions, even as Moscow carries out an unprecedented crackdown on opponents of its Ukraine campaign. “It is important for us that nothing like this repeats itself in the history of our country,” Putin told his human rights council, according to Russian news agencies, referring to the mass repression seen under the Soviet Union.

• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched in February last year, accounts for about 150m tons of carbon dioxide emissions, a Ukrainian deputy minister cited experts as saying on Monday. “The war has a devastating impact on the environment. Air, soil and water is polluted as a result of the fighting,” Viktoria Kireyeva, Ukraine’s deputy minister of environmental protection and natural resources, said at a conference on the sidelines of the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai.

• Putin said he regretted deteriorating ties with western countries, as he accepted the credentials of two dozen new ambassadors at the Kremlin. “The times are not easy,” Putin told the envoys. Addressing the new ambassador of the UK, he said “In the postwar [second world war] period and until recently, our countries were able to build relations. But the current state of things … is well known and we should hope that the situation – in the interest of our countries and nations – will change for the better.”

• Ukraine said it had exported around 7m tons of cargo through the Black Sea despite Russia’s blockade – a more than fivefold increase in just over a month. “200 vessels exported 7m tons of cargo,” Ukraine’s reconstruction ministry said in a post on Telegram. The cargo included “almost 5m tons of Ukrainian agricultural products”.

• Poland has called on the EU to restore permits limiting transit for Ukrainian truckers, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said as Polish and Slovakian truckers blocked several border crossings to Ukraine. Polish drivers have been blocking the crossings since 6 November, demanding that the EU reinstate a system whereby Ukrainian companies need permits to operate in the bloc and the same for European truckers to enter Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s military said it had attacked oil depots in the Russia-controlled Ukrainian city of Luhansk on Sunday. Its forces carried out a “successful strike”, the Strategic Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram, without going into further detail.

• Russian forces are assaulting the industrial town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine from two new directions, Ukrainian officials said on Monday, as Moscow expanded its bid to capture the near-encircled town. Moscow has been trying for nearly two months to seize Avdiivka, an industrial town in the eastern Donetsk region that has become the fiercest flashpoint on the sprawling frontline.