Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, teaming up with the United States and Germany to equip the country with advanced weapons to shoot down planes and shoot down artillery.
Western weapons have been critical to the success of Ukraine, which is stopping Russia’s much larger and better equipped army now in its 99th day of war. But as Russian forces closed in on a major city in recent days, the Ukrainian government said its fighters needed better rocket launchers.
A Kremlin spokesman again warned of completely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios if the latest Western-supplied weapons were fired at Russia.
Read also: There is no empty space: Ukraine’s growing refugee crisis nears 100th day of war
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that pumping Ukraine with weapons would bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is only a tool in the hands of countries that supply weapons to it.
The Russian army continued to encircle towns and cities overnight and consolidated its hold on the eastern city of Svyarodonetsk. The UK Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of the city, one of two in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control.
As fighting broke out in Ukraine’s east, some residents were forced to flee Russian attempts to attack the capital, Kyiv, facing the overwhelming task of rebuilding their broken lives.
Neela Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned to the burnt ruins of their home outside Kyiv for the first time this week. During the war, he fled with his 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and air raids.
Zelinska cried and recovered a doll from the rubble that belonged to one of her grandchildren, holding her as if she were a real child.
Read also: Russo-Ukraine war: Moscow captures small towns, aims to widen war
He said that there should be peace on earth, there should be peace so that our people do not suffer so much.
Speaking by video link for a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for even more weapons and sanctions targeting Russia to prevent such horrors.
To date, the occupiers have controlled about 20% of our territory, about 125,000 square kilometers (48,262 sq mi),” he said.
Zelensky said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles the previous day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since attacking Ukraine, most of which targeted civilian infrastructure.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK would send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). He said Ukrainian soldiers would be trained in the UK to use the equipment.
Read also: America will not send rockets to attack Russia
The British government says the decision to provide the launchers was made in conjunction with the US government, which said on Wednesday it would supply high mobility artillery rocket systems to Ukraine.
The two missile systems are similar, although the American ones have wheels while the British ones – also US made – run on tracks.
Germany was criticized for not doing enough to help Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf said on Wednesday that his country would supply Ukraine with advanced anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems. He told lawmakers that the IRIS-T surface-to-air missiles Germany is planning to provide are the country’s most advanced air defense systems.
Sweden also announced plans to donate arms to Kyiv on Thursday. Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultquist said these included missiles, semi-automatic rifles and anti-tank weapons. The donation is expected to be approved by the country’s parliament.
After Western supplied weapons helped Ukraine stop Russian attempts to storm the capital, Moscow shifted its focus to occupying all of the industrial Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. As Russia’s military continues to bomb areas occupied by Ukraine, its offensive there resulted in an escalation over the past week.
Read also; Russian President Putin has lost his eyesight, has 3 years to live: Report
A Ukrainian military expert said Russian missile strikes had increased in response to the new promised weapons.
The supply of Western weapons is of great concern to the Kremlin, as Ukrainian forces, even without sufficient weapons, are aggressively resisting the offensive, military analyst Ole Zhdanov told the Associated Press.
Analysts expect Russia to topple the Donbass before any weapons that could turn the tide. The Pentagon said it would take at least three weeks to bring precision American weapons and trained soldiers to the battlefield. But Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl said he believed they would arrive in time to bring about a turnaround in the fight.
Kyiv is also set to receive a diplomatic boost with the formal installation of a new US ambassador to Ukraine. US Ambassador Bridget Brink was set to hand over her credentials to Zelensky on Thursday.
Brink will be Washington’s first ambassador to Kyiv since former US President Donald Trump abruptly ousted Ambassador Mary Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the first impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Ahead of her Senate confirmation last month, Brink promised senators that she would work to make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a strategic failure. His work in Kyiv is expected to focus on coordinating Western arms shipments.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described Ukraine’s repeated push for more weapons as a direct provocation to engage the West in the fight. He warned that multiple US-supplied rocket launchers would increase the risk of an extended conflict.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to bombard the Donbass and other parts of Ukraine, while ground troops advanced an inch to the east.
A regional governor said Russian forces now control 80% of Svyarodonetsk, a city that is key to Moscow’s efforts to capture the Donbass. The Ukrainian army and Russia-backed separatists have fought in the eastern sector for eight years, and separatists occupied the area before the Russian invasion.
Military analyst Zhdanov noted that after fierce fighting in and around Svierodonetsk, the Russian army would be exhausted, and military leaders would need to replenish both their troops and weapons.
He said Ukraine would use the pause to stockpile Western weapons, build strategic reserves and prepare a retaliatory strike.
Lisichansk, the only other city in Luhansk province not yet captured by the Russians, is still under full Ukrainian control, the governor said, but is likely to be the next target. Two cities are separated by a river.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Thursday that Moscow’s military also attacked the city of Komyshuvakha in the southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, a large part of which is under Russian control.
Officials said in the western Lviv region, a Russian missile hit rail lines that were a major means of supplying Western weapons and other supplies.
In his video address of the night, the President of Ukraine focused on the children of his country. He said 243 of them were killed in the war, 446 were injured and 139 were missing. The actual number could be higher, he said, as his government does not have a complete picture of the Russian-occupied territories.
Zelensky said that 200,000 children were among Ukrainians who were forcibly taken to Russia and dispersed across that vast country: the purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people, but to make people who have been deported and They have forgotten about Ukraine and cannot come back.
Read also: Russia opened fire on over 1,000 schools: Ukraine
Read also: Russo-Ukraine War | Who sent what weapons to Ukraine? here is a list