Ukraine is pushing for faster supplies of weapons from the West as Russia intensifies its attack

Kyiv:

Ukraine insisted on the need for faster supplies of weapons from the West as the central city of Dnipro reeled from a Russian missile attack that killed at least 40 people in an apartment building and put increased pressure on Ukrainian forces on the Eastern Front to stand.

In Monday night’s update, the Ukrainian army general staff said Russian artillery pounded about 25 towns and villages around Bakhmut and Avdiika, the two focal points of Russian attempts to advance in the strategic eastern industrial Donbas region.

It said Russia also continued to shell more than 30 settlements in the northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy areas near the Russian border. In the south, Russian mortar and artillery fire hit several cities, including the regional capital of Kherson, which was abandoned by Russian troops in November.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.

The death toll from Saturday’s rocket attack in Dnipro has risen to 40, including three children, Ukrainian officials said. They said 25 people were missing or missing, but 39 people, including six children, were rescued from the rubble.

“What happened in Dnipro, the fact that Russia is preparing new attempts to seize the initiative in the war, the fact that the nature of military action at the front requires new decisions on arms supplies – only underlines the importance of efforts of the coalition to defend Ukraine and freedom,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his video address on Monday evening. “And to speed up decision-making.”

Western countries have been supplying Ukraine with a steady supply of weapons since Russian troops invaded on February 24, but Zelenskiy and his government insist they need tanks.

Britain confirmed on Monday that it would send 14 Challenger 2 tanks and other hardware, including hundreds of armored vehicles and advanced air defense missiles.

Allies to discuss aid

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was expected to receive allies at an air base in Germany on Friday to discuss further aid to Ukraine.

Moscow denies it deliberately targeted civilians, even though the war has displaced millions, killed thousands of civilians and left Ukrainian cities, towns and cities in ruins.

Russia calls its actions a “special military operation” to protect its security as its neighbor grew closer to the West. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to seize territory and erase the independence of a former ex-Soviet republic.

Moscow claimed to have captured the eastern Ukrainian salt mining town of Soledar last week in what would be its biggest battlefield success since last August. Ukraine says it is still present in the city and fighting continues.

“We are always amazed at the stubbornness of the Ukrainian regime that says fighting is still going on in Soledar,” Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic now annexed by Russia, said in a video posted to the Telegram messaging app. . “There’s absolutely nothing of the sort.”

He said units of the mercenary Wagner Group are “carrying out mop operations”. The group was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pushilin also said there were civilian casualties when Ukrainian troops shelled shops in Donetsk, a city controlled by Russian separatists since 2014.

Reuters was unable to verify reports about Soledar and Donetsk.

Oleskiy Danylov, secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council, also cited Monday evening the need to speed up arms deliveries as the government expected Russia to “try to provide a so-called final push”.

Danylov told Ukrainian television that this could take place on the anniversary of the invasion or in March.

“We have to prepare for such events every day. And we prepare … The first and last question is always about weapons, help to help us defeat this aggressor who has invaded our country,” said Danylov.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)