Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Britain vowed on Thursday to send sophisticated medium-range missile systems to Ukraine, joining the United States and Germany in equipping the warring nation with modern weapons to shoot down planes and destroy artillery.
Western weapons were crucial to Ukraine’s success in stopping a much larger and better-equipped Russian army during the 99th day of the war. But as Russian forces approached a key city in recent days, the Ukrainian government said its fighters needed better missile launchers to prevail.
A Kremlin spokesman has again warned of “absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios” if the latest weapons supplied by the West are fired into Russia.
“This pumping of Ukraine with weapons … will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is just an instrument in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russian forces continued to strike cities and towns overnight and tighten their grip on the eastern city of Severodonetsk. The UK Ministry of Defense said Russia had taken over most of the city, one of two in Luhansk province that remained under Ukrainian control.
As fighting raged in eastern Ukraine, some residents, forced to flee Russian attempts to storm the capital, Kyiv, faced the enormous task of rebuilding their shattered lives.
Nila Zelinska and her husband Eduard returned this week for the first time to the charred ruins of what was once their home outside of Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and airstrikes during the war.
Zelinska sobbed and pulled a doll from one of her grandchildren out of the rubble, clutching it as if it were a real child.
“May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people do not suffer so much,” she said.
Speaking via video link at a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for even more weapons and sanctions aimed at Russia to stop such horrors.
“Today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory, almost 125,000 square kilometers (48,262 square miles),” he said.
Zelensky said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since the invasion of Ukraine, “most of which was aimed at civilian infrastructure.”
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said the UK will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers that can launch precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said.
The British government says the decision to provide the launchers was closely coordinated with the US government, which said on Wednesday it would supply highly mobile artillery missile systems to Ukraine.
The two missile systems are similar, although the American one has wheels, while the British one – also made in the USA – runs on tracks.
Germany has 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 that Germany plans to provide are the country’s most advanced air defense system.
Sweden also announced plans to donate weapons to Kyiv on Thursday. These include 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 repel Russian attempts to storm the capital, Moscow shifted its focus to capturing the entire Donbass industrial region in eastern Ukraine. As the Russian military has continuously bombed areas controlled by Ukraine, its offensive there has resulted in rising profits in the past week.
A Ukrainian military expert said the increase in Russian missile strikes was in response to recently promised weapons.
“The supply of Western weapons is of great concern to the Kremlin, because even without enough weapons, the Ukrainian army is boldly resisting the offensive,” military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told the Associated Press.
Analysts believe Russia hopes to take over Donbass before any weapons arrive that could reverse the tide. It will take at least three weeks to bring US precision weapons and trained troops to the battlefield, the Pentagon said. But Deputy Secretary of Defense Colin Cal said he believed they would arrive in time to make a difference in the battle.
Kyiv is also ready to receive a diplomatic boost with the official appointment of a new US ambassador to Ukraine. US Ambassador Bridget Brink was due to present her credentials to Zelensky on Thursday.
Brink will be Washington’s first ambassador to Kyiv after former US President Donald Trump abruptly ousted Ambassador Marie Jovanovic in 2019. She later became a key figure in the first impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Prior to his confirmation in the Senate last month, Brink promised senators he would work to turn the Russian invasion of Ukraine into a “strategic failure.” Her work in Kyiv is expected to focus on coordinating Western arms supplies.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Ukraine’s repeated pressure for more weapons “a direct provocation designed to lure the West into battle.” He warned that US-supplied multiple rocket launchers would increase the risk of widespread conflict.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to bomb Donbass and other parts of Ukraine as ground forces advanced eastward.
The regional governor said Russian forces now control 80% of Severodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscow’s efforts to complete the takeover of Donbass. Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have been fighting in the eastern region for eight years, with separatists holding parts of the territory before the Russian invasion.
Military analyst Zhdanov noted that after fierce fighting in and around Severodonetsk, Russian forces will be “exhausted” and military leaders will have to replenish their troops and armaments.
“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 conquered, Lisichansk, is still entirely under Ukrainian control, the governor said, but will probably be the next target. The two cities are separated by a river.
Moscow forces also stormed the city of Komishuva in the southeastern Zaporozhye region, much of which is under Russian control, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Thursday.
In the western Lviv region, a Russian missile hit railways, a key channel for Western arms supplies and other supplies, officials said.
In his evening video address, the Ukrainian president turned his attention to the children of his country. He said 243 of them had died in the war, 446 had been wounded and 139 had disappeared. Actual figures may be higher, he added, as his government does not have a complete picture of Russian-occupied areas.
Zelensky said 200,000 children were among the Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia and scattered across the vast country: “The aim of this criminal policy is not just to steal people, but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and they cannot return. “
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Bekatoros reported from Slavyansk, Ukraine. Juras Karmanau of Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan of Kyiv, Alexander Stashevsky of Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters from around the world contributed to this report.
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