{"id":1473668,"date":"2024-01-30T18:41:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T18:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/russia-imf-economy-forecast\/32798488.html"},"modified":"2024-01-30T18:41:23","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T18:41:23","slug":"imf-raises-russian-economic-growth-forecast-as-putin-boosts-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/01\/30\/imf-raises-russian-economic-growth-forecast-as-putin-boosts-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF Raises Russian Economic Growth Forecast As Putin Boosts Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"
French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe's leaders to find ways to \"accelerate\" aid to Ukraine as Russia continued to pound the EU hopeful with missiles.<\/p>
\"We will, in the months to come, have to accelerate the scale of our support,\" Macron said in a speech on January 30 during a visit to Sweden. The \"costs...of a Russian victory are too high for all of us.\"<\/p>
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on February 1 for a meeting of the European Council, where they will discuss aid to Ukraine as the war approaches its second anniversary.<\/p>
Ukraine continues to hold off large-scale Russian grounds attacks in the east but has struggled to intercept many of the deadly missiles Moscow fires at its cities on a regular basis.<\/p>
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched nearly 1,000 missiles and drones at Ukraine since the start of the year as Kyiv maintained a missile-threat alert for several regions on January 30, hours after Russian strikes killed at least three civilians.<\/p>
\"Russia has launched over 330 missiles of various types and approximately 600 combat drones at Ukrainian cities since the beginning of the year,\" Zelenskiy said<\/a><\/strong> on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p> \"To withstand such terrorist pressure, a sufficiently strong air shield is required. And this is the type of air shield we are building with our partners,\" he wrote.<\/p> \"Air defense and electronic warfare are our top priorities. Russian terror must be defeated -- this is achievable.\"<\/p>Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine<\/h3>\n