Toretsky, Ukraine (AP) – Russia attacked eastern Ukraine on Tuesday when the U.S. Secretary of Defense vowed to “continue to move heaven and earth” to get Kiev the weapons it needs to repel a new attack . magnify the war.
Two months after the devastating conflict, Western weapons have already helped Ukraine prevent Russia’s aggression, but its leaders say they need more support.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there was more help when he called a meeting of officials from about 40 countries in Germany to discuss more weapons at Rammstein Air Base. Germany announced that it had paved the way for the supply of anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.
“This conference reflects the galvanic world,” Austin said in his opening statement. He added that he wanted officials to leave the meeting “with a general and clear definition of Ukraine’s stringent security requirements, as we intend to expand heaven and earth so that we can meet them.”
After the intense defense of Ukrainian forces thwarted Russia’s attempts to seize the Ukrainian capital at the start of the war, Moscow now says it is focusing its attention on the Donbas, a predominantly Russian -speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine. , initiated by the separatist conflict in 2014.
The ongoing war has devastated Ukraine, killed thousands of civilians and forced millions of people to flee the country. It raised food and energy prices around the world and shifted the balance of security in post-Cold War Europe.
Residents of the small town of Toretsk in the Donbas are fighting for safety, collecting rainwater for cleaning and bathing and fervently hoping that the fighting will end.
“It’s bad. It’s so ugly.” There’s no hope, “said Andrei Cheromushkin. And now there is no money. “
In its latest analysis of the fighting, the British Ministry of Defense described Russia’s advance and intense fighting in the Donbas, where a town, Kremina, would fall after street fighting.
In Mariupol, a besieged city considered a decisive battle for the East, authorities said on Tuesday that Russian forces had hit 35 Azovstal steel mills with 35 air strikes in the past 24 hours. The factory was the last known location of Ukrainian fighters in the city and the shelter where several civilians were injured in the attack, officials said.
“Russia has intensified its attacks over the past 24 hours and is using heavy bunker bombs,” Mariupol adviser Petro Andriushchenko told The Associated Press over the phone. “The number of injured will be determined after clearing the rubble.”
He also accused Russian forces of bombing the route offered to him as an escape corridor from an iron mill, tunnel and bunker.
In addition to Mariupol, local officials said at least nine people had been killed and several injured in Russian attacks on towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine. Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said in a Telegram message that Russian forces were “deliberately firing on civilians and destroying critical infrastructure.”
The Ukrainian general staff also said that Russian forces bombed Kharkov, the second largest city in the country, located outside the Donbas, but suffered significant attacks as Moscow sought full control of the region. Ukrainian forces reacted in the southern Kherson region.
In a potentially decisive battle for the East, the United States and its NATO allies are seeking an immediate supply of artillery and other heavy weapons in the area to bring about changes.
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said her government decided on Monday to suspend the supply of Gepard self-propelled armor to Ukraine, although she did not specify details. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is under rising pressure, including within his ruling coalition, to approve the shipment of heavy weapons such as tanks and other armored vehicles to Ukraine.
Austin, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, said Tuesday that more than 30 allies and partners have joined the United States to send security assistance to Ukraine and more than $ 5 billion has been spent on equipment.
Amid talks about arms shipments, diplomatic efforts also continued to call for a ceasefire. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday and again called for a ceasefire. Later, the UN Secretary -General will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Lavrov noted the West’s promises to Ukraine on arms, saying that “if this continues, the talks will clearly have no effect, but I reiterate that we are ready to make a negotiated decision”.
The other day, according to a transcript of a televised statement on the Foreign Ministry’s website, Lavrov warned Western countries that weapons would be “legitimate targets” and accused NATO of “supporting oil spills” of Ukraine.
Lavrov also warned of the cause of World War III, saying the threat of nuclear conflict “should not be underestimated”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cited NATO’s expansion and the risk of Kiev joining the alliance as the reason for his aggression.
British Armed Forces Secretary James Hepp denied Lavrov’s allegations of the NATO invasion as “total nonsense”, while Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russian minister’s reference to the nuclear conflict was constructive.
“Nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought,” Kirby told CNN in an interview from Germany, where he travels with Austin. “This rhetoric is clearly unnecessary in the current scenario.” They demand that Mr. Putin is in this war. “
Russia’s invasion has alarmed some Eastern European countries who fear they may be next. This concern has grown in Moldova because the Russian commander said the defense of southern Ukraine would pave the way for Moldova’s Transnistrian region.
On Tuesday, police said the explosions knocked down two powerful radio masts at a facility near the Ukraine border, the second in a series of explosions in the region in recent days.
Washington had previously warned that Russian forces could launch “false flag” operations under the pretext of aggression in other countries. Russian officials have denied the allegations.
Elsewhere, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Gross visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments, and restore safety monitoring systems after tanks and troops. the heavily contaminated soil in Russia has collapsed for the first time time in a few hours. His visit was on the anniversary of the 1986 plant disaster, the worst nuclear accident in the world.
In widespread fighting on the ground since World War II, Britain said it estimated 15,000 Russian soldiers had died since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, more than the 1,351 deaths identified by Moscow. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said 25% of Russian combat troops sent to Ukraine had become “ineffective for combat”.
Ukrainian officials said between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in mid -April.
The West hopes to increase arms supplies to help the remaining fighters repel the Russian invasion.
When he opened the meeting in Germany, Austin tried to reassure Kiev: “We know, and you should know, that we are all behind you, and that is why we are here today to strengthen Ukraine’s arsenal of democracy. . “
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Reported by Gambrel from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press reporter Yura Karmanau in Lviv, David Keaton in Kiev, Alexander Stashevsky in Chernobyl, Mstislav Chernov in Kharkov, and AP staff from around the world contributed to this report.
Source: Huffpost
