Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has a lot to do on a good day, but he’s especially busy at the moment. The top two items on his list have been getting the Biden administration to lift restrictions on Kyiv’s use of U.S.-supplied weapons and preparing for a peace summit in Switzerland later this month.

The first was by far the most urgent. The Russian army has spent the year thus far pounding Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-most populous city after the capital, and unleashed a new front in the war last month by sending thousands of Russian troops across the border into northern Kharkiv. Several small villages and towns were captured by the Russians after Ukrainian forces, unable to construct fortified defensive lines due to incessant Russian bombing, were forced to retreat.