NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said members of the alliance were “determined to do more” to help Ukrainians “defend their homes and their country and repel invading forces”.
“We agreed that we must further strengthen and maintain our support for Ukraine, so that Ukraine can prevail in the face of the Russian invasion,” he said.
Officials in Ukraine told residents to leave the eastern Donbass region as much as they could and urged Western nations to send more weapons on Thursday, a week after Russian forces withdrew from the shattered suburbs of Kiev to regroup for an attack on the east. .
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, left, walks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as they arrive for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday. (Olivier Matthys / The Associated Press)
The focus of the six-week Russian invasion failed to quickly occupy the Ukrainian capital and achieve what Western countries say was President Vladimir Putin’s original goal of overthrowing the Ukrainian government. Russia’s focus is now on Donbass, a predominantly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine.
In Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons to his country to help prevent further atrocities, such as those reported in the city of Bukha, northwest of Kiev.
“My agenda is very simple. They are weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba said as he arrived for talks with NATO foreign ministers.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths walks through the streets of Bucha on Thursday during a three-hour visit to the city near Kyiv that included a stop at the site of a mass grave dug by Ukrainians near a church. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Getty Images)
“We know how to fight. We know how to win. But without the sustainable and adequate supplies demanded of Ukraine, these victories will be accompanied by enormous sacrifices,” Kuleba said on Wednesday. “The more weapons we get and the faster they reach Ukraine, the more lives will be saved.”
After the meetings, Kuleba asked for help from the allies within days, not weeks, “or your help will come too late and many people will die.”
Kuleba said that the discussion in NATO was not about the list of weapons that Ukraine will receive, but the timetable for when they will be given, noting that there is no doubt that Ukraine will have the necessary weapons to fight.
People walk through the rubble and damaged Russian military vehicles on a street on Wednesday in Bukha, Ukraine. The Ukrainian government accused the Russian forces of committing “deliberate slaughter” as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bukha, northwest of Kiev. (Chris McGrath / Getty Images)
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia had withdrawn all 24,000 or more troops from the northern Kiev and Chernihiv regions, sending them to Belarus or Russia for supplies and reorganization. return to fight in the east. .
Ukraine urges civilians in the east to flee
Rising numbers of Putin’s troops, along with mercenaries, have been reported to be moving to Donbass. “Later, people will come under fire,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, urging civilians to leave the predominantly Russian-speaking industrial area, “and there is nothing we can do to help them.”
People from Mariupol and the suburbs of eastern Ukraine leave a train to be taken to temporary shelters in the Nizhny Novgorod region at the Nizhny Novgorod railway station in Russia on Thursday. (The Associated Press)
He said Ukrainian and Russian officials had agreed to build 10 evacuation routes from Donetsk, Luhansk and the Zaporizhia region. He said residents would be able to seek safety in the cities of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine and Bakhmut in the east.
Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in Donbas since 2014. Prior to its February 24 invasion, Moscow recognized the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as independent states.
CLOCKS Ukrainian officials say fighting is intensifying in Donetsk, Luhansk:
Ukrainian officials say fighting intensifies in Luhansk, Donetsk
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine urges the people to leave the eastern part of the country as the fighting intensifies. In Brussels, Ukraine’s foreign minister urged NATO to provide more weapons to its war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities. 5:00 p.m.
Another Western official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence estimates, said it could take up to a month for Russian forces destroyed by the fighting to regroup for a major boost. Eastern Ukraine.
In a speech Wednesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also warned that the Russian military was preparing for a new offensive in the east. He said the Ukrainians fighting the attack “will not back down”.
Air strikes in the east
Russian airstrikes are now mainly focused on parts of eastern Ukraine, and Russian forces are trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the area, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Thursday.
He said the besieged southern city of Mariupol was enduring and that he believed that Russian efforts to encircle Ukrainian troops in the east would be in vain. The occupation of Mariupol will allow Russia to secure a continuous land corridor to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow occupied from Ukraine in 2014.
Fragments of a Russian fighter jet can be seen in a private residence in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Russian troops have withdrawn from areas around Kyiv and the northern cities of Chernihiv and Sumy following talks with Ukraine in Turkey last week. (Stas Yurchenko / The Associated Press)
More than 100,000 people must be evacuated urgently from Mariupol, Mayor Vadim Boichenko said on Thursday, describing the situation in the port city as a humanitarian catastrophe.
“More than 100,000 people are praying for survival – a full-scale evacuation is needed,” he told national television.
Boichenko said that of the more than 5,000 civilians killed during weeks of Russian bombing and street fighting, 210 were children. Russian forces bombed hospitals, including one in which 50 people were burned to death, he said.
Boichenko said more than 90 percent of the city’s infrastructure had been destroyed. Attacks on the strategic city in the Sea of Azov have cut off food, water, fuel and medicine and pulverized homes and businesses.
In areas north of the capital, Ukrainian officials continued to gather evidence of Russian atrocities amid indications that Moscow troops had killed people indiscriminately before retreating.
Cemetery workers are loading the bodies of civilians killed in Buha into a truck to be transported to the morgue on Wednesday. (Rodrigo Abd / The Associated Press)
Ukrainian authorities say the bodies of at least 410 civilians have been found in cities around Kyiv, victims of what Zelensky has described as a Russian campaign of killings, rapes, mutilations and torture. Some victims were apparently shot at close range. Some were found with their hands tied.
Vote on accession to the UN Human Rights Council
The Group of Seven (G7) countries issued a statement on Thursday saying they “strongly condemn the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces” in Butsa and other Ukrainian cities.
They said “now is the time” to suspend Russia’s participation in the UN Human Rights Council.
The UN General Assembly on Thursday will vote on a US push to suspend Russia from the council over reports of “serious and systematic human rights abuses and violations” in Ukraine.
Motria Oleksiienko, 99, is comforted by her bride Tetiana Oleksiienko in a room without heating in the Ukrainian village of Andriivka, west of Kiev. The village was heavily influenced by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces. (Vadim Ghirda / The Associated Press)
Zelensky accused Russia on Wednesday of interfering in an international investigation into possible war crimes by removing corpses and trying to hide other evidence in Bukha, northwest of Kiev.
“We have information that Russian troops have changed tactics and are trying to remove the dead, the dead Ukrainians, from the streets and the ground cellars they have occupied,” he said in his last video speech. “This is just an attempt to hide the facts and nothing more.”
CLOCKS Russia accused of covering up civilian killings in Ukraine:
There is no indication that Russia is retreating in the Ukraine war, accused of covering up massacres
WARNING: This video contains graphic material NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warns that Russia’s war in Ukraine could last for some time, with no indication that President Vladimir Putin will change his ambitions. In Mariupol, officials accuse Russia of using mobile crematoria to cover up massacres of civilians. 2:31
He called on the Russians to demand an end to the war, “if you are even a little ashamed of what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine.”
In response to the alleged atrocities outside Kyiv, the United States announced sanctions against Putin’s two adult daughters and said it was tightening sanctions on Russian banks. Britain has banned investment in Russia and pledged to end its dependence on Russian coal and oil by the end of the year.
The EU is expected to halt imports of Russian coal
The U.S. Senate plans to pass legislation Thursday to end normal trade ties with Russia and codify President Joe Biden’s executive action banning Russian oil imports. The suspension of trade will allow Biden to impose higher tariffs on some Russian imports. CLOCKS US and EU to impose sanctions on Russian energy:
