Kyiv, Ukraine, Ukraine told residents of its industrial heartland to leave while they still can and today urged Western nations to send “weapons” after Russian forces withdrew from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup for an offensive in the country’s east.
Russia’s focus is now on the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine.
In Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported on Kyiv’s northern outskirts.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged member nations to send Ukraine more weapons, and not just defensive arms.
Western countries have provided Ukraine with portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, but they have been reluctant to supply aircraft, tanks or any equipment that Ukrainian troops would have to be trained to use.
Since Moscow announced more than a week ago that it planned to concentrate its forces in the east, growing numbers of Putin’s troops have been reported moving into the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years and control two areas.
Ahead of its 24 February invasion, Moscow recognized the Luhansk and Donetsk areas as independent states, the Associated Press (AP) news reported.
Source: Oman News Agency