<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Ukraine's prime minister has told the BBC there will be a "Third World War" if Ukraine loses its conflict with Russia, as he urged the US Congress to pass a long-stalled foreign aid bill.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Denys Shmyhal expressed "careful optimism" that US lawmakers would pass the hotly contested measure, which has $61bn (£49bn) earmarked for Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The House of Representatives is set to vote on the package this Saturday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The proposal includes funding for Israel as well as the Indo-Pacific.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia says any fresh American aid for Ukraine will not make a difference on the battlefield, as situation on the front line is looking "unfavourable" to Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speaking to the BBC in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal said of the US security assistance: "We need this money yesterday, not tomorrow, not today."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If we will not protect... Ukraine will fall," he added. "So the global, the global system of security will be destroyed... and all the world will need to find... a new system of security.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Or, there will be many conflicts, many such kinds of wars, and in the end of the day, it could lead to the Third World War."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not the first time Ukraine has issued such an alarming warning about the consequences of its potential defeat.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that if Russia won the conflict, it could next invade Poland, triggering World War Three.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Kremlin officials have ridiculed such claims as Western scaremongering. Last month President Vladimir Putin dismissed suggestions that Russia might one day attack Eastern Europe as "complete nonsense".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia has never attacked a country within Nato, which includes Poland. Nato's collective defence pact means that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all, reports BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Wednesday's interview, Prime Minister Shmyhal was asked about a recent claim by Republican House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul that members of his own party were being "infected" by Russian propaganda.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Shmyhal said: "We should understand that disinformation and propaganda is influencing here in the United States on many people, in European Union on many people, such as in Ukraine."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/fas</div>