A Russian attack on Nato would end in defeat for Moscow, but Nato must increase its defences, Poland’s foreign minister Radek Sikorski told parliament on Thursday, reports the Associated Press (AP).

According to the AP, Sikorski was describing the new direction of the government of prime minister Donald Tusk, explaining to a world audience and those at home how the new priorities have changed.

He said Poland wants to return to the group of countries which sets the agenda of the EU.

Poland, a member of Nato and the EU, shares borders with Russia and Belarus in addition to Ukraine. It is a key hub for western weapons going to Ukraine, writes the AP.

Per the AP, ahead of Sikorski’s speech, his ministry said he would be seeking to underline how Poland’s priorities changed after Tusk’s government replaced a national conservative party, Law and Justice, in respect to rule of law and international relations.

The ministry said the speech would underline the importance of this moment in history and stress how different the foreign policy of Poland is after its change in government.

Biden signs $95bn foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

Lauren Gambino

Lauren Gambino is political correspondent for Guardian US, based in Washington DC.

Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine.

“It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer,” Biden said, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the bill.

“It was a difficult path,” he continued. “It should have been easier and it should have gotten there sooner. But in the end, we did what America always does. We rose to the moment, came together, and we got it done.”

The White House first sent its request for the foreign aid package to Congress in October, and US officials have said the months-long delay hurt Ukraine on the battlefield. Promising to “move fast”, Biden said the US would begin shipping weapons and equipment to Ukraine within a matter of hours.

You can read the full piece here:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he met the UK finance minister Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv and called for sanctions against Russia to be tightened to stop Moscow bypassing them.

According to the Reuters news agency, Zelenskiy said in a statement on the Telegram app that he was grateful to the UK for this week announcing a new £500m ($625m) uplift in a defence support package for Ukraine.

“Particular attention was paid to sanctions policy. It is important to expand restrictive measures against Russia and exclude the possibility of circumventing sanctions,” Zelenskiy said.

He said Hunt would meet prime minister Denys Shmyhal and other ministers later on Thursday.

It has gone 10.30am in Kyiv and in Moscow. This is our latest Guardian blog covering all the latest developments over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski is to give a speech to parliament on Thursday in which he will lay out the government’s vision at a historically crucial moment with war across the border in Ukraine, the Associated Press reports.

Sikorski will lay out the priorities of the government of prime minister Donald Tusk as it seeks to show leadership in Europe with growing fears that Russian aggression will not stop in Ukraine.

Sikorski’s speech is aimed at the world and the domestic audience in the nation of 38 million people located along a geopolitical fault line. Poland, a member of Nato and the European Union, is on the eastern flank of both and shares borders with Russia and Belarus in addition to Ukraine. It is a key hub for western weapons going to Ukraine.

The ministry said the speech will underline the importance of this moment in history and stress how different the foreign policy of Poland is after its change in government, with the previous administration having a conflicted stance with the EU.

It will stress the importance that Warsaw puts on helping Ukraine and call for Russia to join the western family of nations.

It is a vision largely aligned with the views of French president Emmanuel Macron. Criticised earlier in the war by Poland and the Baltic states for what was seen as seeking to appease Russia, Macron in recent months has hardened his stance toward Moscow.

In other news:

• US president Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes almost $61bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he met British finance minister Jeremy Hunt in Kyiv and called for sanctions against Russia to be tightened to stop Moscow bypassing them.

• A Russian aerial attack damaged critical infrastructure and injured six people in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region on Thursday, the regional governor said. Ukraine’s air defences shot down some aerial targets, Cherkasy governor Ihor Taburets said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that emergency services were working at the site.

• A third man has been detained in a bribery investigation centring on deputy Russian defence minister Timur Ivanov, the Moscow court service said on Thursday. It said Alexander Fomin, the co-founder of a construction company called Olimpsitistroy, was suspected of paying bribes to Ivanov, who was detained on Tuesday, and Sergei Borodin, a close associate of Ivanov who is also in custody.

• Atacms long-ranges missiles capable of hitting targets 300km away had already arrived in Ukraine this month at the president’s direction, before the US security package was passed by Congress on Wednesday, the state department has said. Vedant Patel, a state department spokesperson, explained that the weapons were part of a March aid package for Ukraine – not the one just approved by Congress and signed by Joe Biden. “We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request.”

• Ukraine has begun using the long-range Atacms, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area in recent days, two US officials have told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. One of them said the Biden administration previously warned Russia that if it used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to the Ukrainians. Russia has since done so.

• Separately, Adm Christopher Grady, vice-chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told the Associated Press that long-range weapons would help Ukraine take out Russian logistics and troop concentrations behind the frontlines. He explained how the decision to supply them was considered carefully and at length. “I think the time is right, and the boss [Biden] made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now.”

• Ukraine’s foreign minister has praised US politicians for approving the long-delayed $61bn military aid package for Ukraine, but said western allies needed to recognise that “the era of peace in Europe is over” and that Kyiv would inevitably need more help to fight off Russia, Dan Sabbagh and Luke Harding write from Kyiv.

• Ukraine has stopped issuing new passports at offices abroad to some military-aged male citizens, according to legislation published on Wednesday, as part of measures to push them to return home amid manpower shortages in the army. The announcement came a day after the suspension of consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad until the new law on mobilisation is implemented. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the passport suspension applied only to new applications and that any requests previously submitted would be honoured.

• In Warsaw, Poland, hundreds of Ukrainians crowded outside a closed passport office in a confused scene. There was anger among those who felt they were being unfairly targeted. “This is a fight against people who are fleeing the army,” said Maksym, a 38-year-old truck driver. “We are not asked on what grounds we went abroad … Why am I a draft dodger if I went abroad legally?” Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, told AFP that “all applications submitted to the consular offices of Ukraine before 23 April … will be processed in full and passport documents will be issued to such people”.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said a group of Ukrainian children were “in Qatar for medical, mental, and social recovery”, after Russia claimed an exchange of displaced children was taking place. “All of them had previously been forcibly deported to Russia, but thanks to our friendly Qatar’s mediation efforts, they have been released,” said Zelenskiy, without addressing Russia’s claim that 48 children were involved in an exchange. Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court, claimed Russia was handing over 29 children to Ukraine and 19 were going to Russia.

• Ukrainian drones attacked oil facilities in western Russia, defence sources in Kyiv confirmed on Wednesday. Officials in the western Russian regions of Smolensk and Lipetsk first announced the attacks, blaming Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles for starting fires at energy sites.

• Another drone attack targeted the Lipetsk region farther south, which houses metallurgical and pharmaceutical sites, governor Igor Artamonov said. Russian forces hit a Ukrainian drone production facility and a Ukrainian army fuel depot, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.