US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said yesterday after a historic visit to Kyiv, accompanied by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, that Ukraine can win the war against Russia if it gets “the right equipment.” The conflict was accompanied by a campaign of support from Western countries. who sent a large number of weapons to Ukraine.
“The first step to victory is the belief that we can win,” Austin told a group of journalists after he and Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We believe they can win, they can win if they have the right equipment,” he added. Austin went so far as to say that the United States hopes to deplete Russian military forces in Ukraine, which will prevent further invasions in the future: “We want to see Russia so weak that it cannot do what it did in the invasion of Ukraine,” – he said. Zelenskiy has been demanding heavy weapons from Western countries for months, including artillery and combat aircraft, and vowed that his forces could turn the tide of the war with more weapons. It seems that his calls have resonated: in recent days, a number of NATO countries have pledged to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons and equipment, despite Moscow’s protest.
The United States is the leading donor of financial and military assistance to the country and is one of the most important supporters of additional sanctions against Moscow. However, he did not send high-ranking officials to Kyiv, where many European leaders went to pledge their support.
The very sensitive visit of the two US ministers comes after raging fighting in Ukraine, which has greatly affected Easter celebrations in the country, most of which are Orthodox. While Ukrainians were celebrating a sad Pesach, and some were going to churches despite the bombing, there was no sign of the attacks of Russian troops abating.
Zelenskiy accused Russia of being a terrorist state that destroyed the port city of Mariupol in weeks of continuous bombing.
With thousands of soldiers and civilians stranded in Mariupol under increasingly difficult conditions, Kyiv announced on Sunday that it had invited Moscow for talks near the Azovstal steel complex where Ukrainian soldiers had taken refuge. “We invited the Russians to hold a special negotiation session next to the Azovstal site,” said Aleksey Aristovich, adviser to the President of Ukraine.
There has been no response from Russia yet, and Putin asked his forces not to attack the complex, but the Ukrainians said: Attacks are continuing.
United Nations: stop fighting to save lives
UN coordinator for Ukraine Amin Awad called for an “immediate cessation” of hostilities in Mariupol to ensure the evacuation of civilians stranded in the Ukrainian city “today.”
“The lives of tens of thousands of people are at stake, including women, children and the elderly in Mariupol,” Awad said in a statement. “We must stop fighting now to save lives. The longer we wait, the more lives will be in danger. They need to be allowed to evacuate now, today, it will be too late tomorrow,” his call went on day after day. an unsuccessful attempt to evacuate civilians in Mariupol.
Russia announced the downing of two Ukrainian drones
Yesterday, Russia shot down two Ukrainian drones near the border with Ukraine, where Moscow has been conducting a military offensive for two months, local authorities said.
The governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starvoit, reported on Telegram that “an air defense system shot down two Ukrainian drones in the Rylsky district, on the border with Ukraine, noting that there were no casualties or material damage.”
The fire broke out at a fuel depot in Russia near the border
Yesterday, a fire broke out in a large fuel depot in a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, Russian authorities said, without specifying the cause.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry said: “A fire broke out at the Transneft Bryansk Druzhba fuel depot in Bryansk, a city located 150 kilometers from the border with Ukraine and used as a rear base for Moscow’s military offensive in that country, according to the Russian side. news agencies.
“Wall of Hope” in Lviv commemorates the victims of the war
In Lvov, a western Ukrainian city, Tatyana Kasyan stopped on the sidewalk to look at a wall of flowers erected overnight in memory of Russians who died in the war, including people she knew. The paintings displayed on the wall in the middle of Lviv represent only a small part of them,
Among them is 11-year-old gymnast Kateryna Dyachenko, pictured smiling in a gym-specific dress before she was killed by a Russian missile at her home in Mariupol. There is also a photograph of military paramedic Valentina Bosich, who died while trying to help evacuate civilians near the capital, and an image of Indian student Naveen Gyanagodar, who was killed in the eastern city of Kharkiv while shopping. food.
Moscow stops shooting in Mariupol to allow civilians to leave
Russia has announced its intention to cease hostilities in order to allow the evacuation of civilians stranded alongside Ukrainian soldiers at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops and Ukrainian militants loyal to Moscow pledged to “unilaterally cease hostilities, withdraw units to a safe distance and ensure the departure of civilians in their chosen direction.” The ministry explained that women, children and factory workers are allowed to go outside. “If there are still civilians at the plant, we are explicitly asking the Kyiv authorities to order the (Ukrainian) nationalist groups to release them,” she added.
The huge Azovstal plant is the last enclave of Ukrainian troops in Mariupol, a strategic coastal city devastated by Russian bombardments and now almost entirely under Russian control after weeks of siege.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that about a thousand civilians and hundreds of wounded are still on the territory of the plant in catastrophic conditions and suffer from lack of food and water.
Blinken assured Zelensky that the diplomats will return “this week”
US officials confirmed that US Secretary of State and Defense Secretary Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin announced during this visit the gradual return of US diplomats to Ukraine “this week” and more than $700 million in additional military aid. , direct and indirect, including about $300 million to help the country buy the necessary weapons.
The money will also be given to Ukraine’s regional allies who need it after sending weapons to a neighbor.
Blinken said US President Joe Biden intends to nominate current US Ambassador to Slovakia Bridget Brink in the coming days for the post of Ambassador to Kyiv, which has been vacant since 2019.