Russia pounds eastern Ukraine as West promises Kyiv new arms
TORETSK, Ukraine — Russia pounded eastern Ukraine on Tuesday as the U.S. defense secretary promised to “keep moving heaven and earth” to get Kyiv the weapons it needs to repel the new offensive even as Moscow warned such support risked widening the war.
Two months into the devastating conflict, Western arms have already helped Ukraine stall Russia’s invasion — but its leaders have said they need more support fast.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that more help was on the way, as he convened a meeting of officials from around 40 countries at the United States’ Ramstein Air Base in Germany to pledge more weapons. Germany announced it cleared the way for delivery of anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine.
“This gathering reflects the galvanized world,” Austin said in his opening remarks. He added that he wanted officials to leave the meeting “with a common and transparent understanding of Ukraine’s near-term security requirements because we’re going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them.”
After a fierce defense by Ukrainian forces thwarted Russia's attempt to take Ukraine's capital early in the war, Moscow now says its focus is the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has been beset by separatist conflict since 2014.
The current war has spread devastation around Ukraine, leaving thousands of civilians dead and pushing millions to flee the country. It has raised food prices and energy costs worldwide and upended the post-Cold War security balance in Europe.
In the small city of Toretsk in the Donbas, residents are struggling to survive, collecting rainwater for cleaning and washing up and fervently hoping for an end to the fighting.
“It’s bad. Very bad. Hopeless,” said Andriy Cheromushkin. “You feel so helpless that you don’t know what you should do or shouldn’t do. Because if you want to do something, you need some money; and there is no money now.”
In its latest assessment of the fighting, the British Defense Ministry described Russian advances and heavy fighting in the Donbas, with one town, Kreminna, reportedly falling after days of street-to-street fighting.
In Mariupol, the besieged city seen as crucial to the fight for the east, authorities said Tuesday that the Russian forces hit the Azovstal steel plant with 35 airstrikes over the past 24 hours. The plant is the last known redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the city, and some of the civilians sheltering there were wounded in the strikes, officials said.
“Russia has drastically intensified strikes over the past 24 hours and is using heavy bunker bombs,” Petro Andryushchenko, advisor to Mariupol mayor, told The Associated Press by phone. “The number of those wounded will be clear once the rubble is cleared.”
He also accused Russian forces of shelling a route it had offered as an escape corridor from the steel mill and its warren of tunnels and bunkers.
Beyond Mariupol, local officials said at least nine people killed and several more wounded by Russian attacks on towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces “continue to deliberately fire at civilians and to destroy critical infrastructure.”
Ukraine’s General Staff also said Russian forces shelled Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city that lies outside the Donbas but has seen significant attacks as Moscow seeks full control of the region. Ukrainian forces struck back in the Kherson region in the south.
With the potentially pivotal battle for the east underway, the U.S. and its NATO allies are scrambling to get artillery and other heavy weaponry to that area in time to make a difference.
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said her government decided on Monday to clear the delivery of Gepard self-propelled armored anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine, though she didn’t give details. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has faced mounting pressure, including from within his governing coalition, to approve sending heavy weapons such as tanks and other armored vehicles to Ukraine.
Austin, the American defense secretary, noted Tuesday that more than 30 allies and partners have joined the U.S. in sending security assistance to Ukraine and more than $5 billion worth of equipment has been committed.
Amid the talk of arms shipments, diplomatic efforts to seek an end to the fighting also continued. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday and called again for a cease-fire. The U.N. chief is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later.
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