Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated mid-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the United States and Germany to equip the assaulted nation with advanced weapons to shoot down planes and knock down artillery.
Western weapons have been instrumental in Ukraine’s success in preventing the much larger and better-equipped Russian army during a war now in its 99th day. But as Russian forces shut down a key city in recent days, the Ukrainian government said its fighters needed better rocket launchers to prevail.
A Kremlin spokesman again warned of “absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios” if the latest weapons supplied by the West were fired in Russia.
“This bombing of Ukraine with weapons … will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is just a tool in the hands of the countries that supply it with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russian forces continued to strike towns and cities overnight and tighten control of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. The UK Ministry of Defense reported that Russia had captured most of the city, one of two in the Luhansk province that had fallen under Ukrainian control.
As the fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, some residents forced to flee Russian attempts to storm the capital, Kyiv, faced the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives.
Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, have returned this week for the first time to the charred ruins of what was once their home outside of Kyiv. They fled with their 82-year-old mother in the midst of Russian wartime bombing and airstrikes.
Zelinska sobbed and retrieved from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, grabbing it as if it were a real child.
“May there be peace on earth, peace because our people do not suffer so much,” he said.
Speaking via video link at a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to stop these horrors.
“Today, the occupants control almost 20% of our territory, almost 125,000 square kilometers (48,262 square miles),” he said.
Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles last day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since it invaded Ukraine, “most of them targeting civilian infrastructure.”
British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace said the UK would send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which could fire guided rockets with an accuracy of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in the UK to use the equipment, he said.
The British government says the decision to provide the launchers was closely coordinated with the U.S. government, which said Wednesday it would supply high-mobility artillery rocket systems to Ukraine.
The two missile systems are similar, although the American has wheels, while the British, also built in the United States, operates on track.
Germany had been criticized for not doing enough to help Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf said on Wednesday that his country would supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. He told lawmakers that the IRIS-T surface-to-air missiles Germany planned to provide were the country’s most modern air defense system.
Sweden also announced plans to donate weapons to Kyiv on Thursday. It includes missiles, semi-automatic rifles and anti-tank weapons, said Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist. The country’s parliament is expected to approve the donation.
After Western-supplied weapons helped Ukraine prevent Russian attempts to storm the capital, Moscow shifted its focus to seizing the entire industrial region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. As the Russian army constantly bombarded areas controlled by Ukraine, its offensive there resulted in incremental gains over the past week.
A Ukrainian military expert said a surge in Russian missile attacks came in response to the promised new weapons.
“Western arms supplies are a major concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons, the Ukrainian army is boldly resisting the offensive,” military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told The Associated Press.
Analysts believe that Russia hopes to invade the Donbas before any weapons that could change course arrive. It will take at least three weeks to bring U.S. precision weapons and trained troops to the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl said he believes they will arrive in time to make a difference in the fight.
Kyiv will also receive a diplomatic boost with the formal installation of a new US ambassador to Ukraine. U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink was due to hand over her credentials to Zelenskyy on Thursday.
Brink will be Washington’s first ambassador to Kyiv since former US President Donald Trump abruptly forced Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. He later became a key figure in the first impeachment process against Trump.
Prior to his confirmation in the Senate last month, Brink promised senators that he would work to make the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “strategic failure.” His work in Kyiv is expected to focus on coordinating Western arms shipments.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described Ukraine’s repeated push for more weapons as a “direct provocation aimed at luring the West into the struggle.” He warned that US-supplied multi-rocket launchers would increase the risk of widespread conflict.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to bombard the Donbas and other parts of Ukraine as ground troops made a gradual advance eastward.
A regional governor said Russian forces now control 80 percent of Sievierodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscow’s efforts to complete the capture of the Donbas. Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have been fighting in the eastern region for eight years, and separatists had expansions of territory before the Russian invasion.
Military analyst Zhdanov noted that after the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk, Russian forces will be “exhausted” and military leaders will have to replace both their troops and weapons.
“Ukraine will try to use this pause to accumulate Western weapons, form a strategic reserve and prepare a counter-offensive,” he said.
The only other city in Luhansk province that the Russians have not yet captured, Lysychansk, is still fully under Ukrainian control, the governor said, but it is likely to be the next target. The two cities are separated by a river.
Moscow forces also stormed the town of Komyshuvakha in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, much of which is under Russian control, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Thursday.
In the western region of Lviv, a Russian missile struck railway lines that were a key conduit for the supply of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said.
In his video night speech, the President of Ukraine focused on the children of his country. He said 243 of them had died in the war, 446 had been wounded and 139 were missing. The actual figures could be higher, he added, as his government does not have a complete picture of areas under Russian occupation.
Zelenskyy said that 200,000 children were among the Ukrainians brought by force to Russia and scattered throughout the vast country: “The aim of this criminal policy is not only to steal people, but to make those who are deported forget about “Ukraine and they can’t come back.”
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Becatoros reported from Sloviansk, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan in Kyiv, Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.
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