Washington unites its allies to arm Ukraine

The Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, was scheduled to open a meeting around 10:00 am (0800 GMT) with his allied counterparts at the US base in Ramstein, Germany, to expedite arms deliveries to Ukraine. according to defense breakMorocco is one of the non-NATO allies invited to this meeting. No official Moroccan source has yet confirmed this information.

The Ukrainians surprised the world in March by repelling a Russian attack on Kyiv, but they face relentless bombardment and slow advances by the Russian army in eastern Donbass – which has since been controlled by partly pro-Russian separatists. 2014 – South Country Country.

The Russians demonstrate their goal of complete control of these two regions.

Austin said on Monday, the day after his visit to Kyiv with Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken, the first to Ukraine since the conflict began, that Ukrainians “can win if they have the right equipment, the right support.”

After reluctance to provide offensive weapons to Ukraine, the United States, like Great Britain, France or the Czech Republic, retreated.

Even Germany is expected to announce on Tuesday the delivery of Gibbard tanks specializing in anti-aircraft defense, according to a government source.

According to Mike Jacobson, a civilian artillery expert, the West wants to allow the Ukrainians to respond to Russia’s long-range bombing, which is intended to hold off most of the Ukrainian forces so that they can then send tanks and soldiers to occupy the area. Land.

They hope that, thanks to its anti-aircraft defenses, attack drones, and intelligence provided by the West, the Ukrainian army will be able to destroy much of Russia’s firepower.

– Russian strikes –

As Mr. Austin emphasized in the long run, “We want to see Russia so weak that it can no longer do the same things as invading Ukraine.”

President Zelensky stressed on Monday evening that Ukraine’s victory is only a matter of time. “Thanks to the courage of all Ukrainians and all Ukrainians, our state is a true symbol of the struggle for freedom,” he said Monday evening.

But on the Donbass front, the situation is complicated, and “in terms of morale, it is not at all rosy,” Irina Rybakova, press officer of the 93rd Ukrainian Brigade, told AFP.

Several areas such as Izium and Kreminna have fallen over the past two weeks, the Russian army continues to gnaw on the ground, pocket by pocket, while for the Ukrainians, it was a matter of containing it for several days.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that “the enemy is carrying out strikes on the positions of our forces along the entire front line in Donbas as well as in the south.”

In the south, two Russian missiles hit the city of Zaporizhia, on Tuesday morning, killing at least one person and wounding an unspecified company, according to the regional administration.

Zaporizhia, a major industrial center on the Dnieper River, to the south of which is also the largest nuclear power plant, has in recent weeks been a reception point for Ukrainian civilians fleeing the siege of Mariupol and other bombed Donbass cities.

But the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said, on Tuesday, that the city was now preparing for an attack by Russian forces from the coast.

– Azovstal still bombing –

The situation also appears to be obscured in Mariupol, which is almost completely controlled by the Russians but where about 100,000 civilians are still trapped according to how.

The governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, said Tuesday on Facebook that Russian forces continue to bombard the vast Azovstal mineral complex there, where the last Ukrainian fighters are holed up with nearly 1,000 civilians.

He added that “the bombing continues with heavy artillery and aviation.” “We can only rely on our own strength,” he added.

Moscow accused Kyiv of preventing civilians from leaving Azovstal on Monday. But Ukraine responded by not having an agreement with Russia to guarantee its security.

– Guterres in Moscow –

The Russian-Ukrainian negotiations seem to be deadlocked more than ever.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed Monday evening that he wanted to prosecute them, while accusing President Zelensky of “pretending” to discuss with Moscow.

“He is a good actor (…), if you look carefully and carefully read what he says, you will find thousands of contradictions,” said Mr. Lavrov.

Lavrov was scheduled to receive the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on Tuesday afternoon, in his first visit to Russia since the start of the conflict, which disturbed major global balances and destroyed all forms of cooperation between Moscow and the West. The diplomats were expelled.

Mr. Guterres is scheduled to be received by President Vladimir Putin before his departure for Kyiv.

The conflict has put some 13 million Ukrainians on the roads, more than five million of whom have fled Ukraine, according to the latest United Nations figures.

The organization estimated, on Tuesday, that the number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country may reach 8.3 million, and that the deterioration of the situation calls for doubling the appeal for humanitarian aid to help Ukraine, to 2.25 billion dollars.

(AFP with Media24)