Ukraine has so far defied a Russian ultimatum to give up Sieverodonetsk. with Moscow controlling 80% of the city, a focal point of Russia’s advances in the east of the country. Russia, beginning Wednesday morning, called on Ukrainian forces to stop their “pointless resistance and lay down their arms,” accusing Kyiv of disrupting plans to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to flee.
Thousands of civilians, including women, children and the elderly, are trapped in Seyerodonetsk with dwindling supplies of food, clean water, sanitation and electricity. An acute situation is developing in the bunkers under the Azot chemical plant in the city, a UN spokesman said. About 500 civilians believed to be trapped in Azot along with soldiers prepared to flee the city through a possible humanitarian corridor.
The US will provide an additional $1 billion in security aid to Ukraine for its struggle in eastern Donbass, Joe Biden has confirmed. The support package included 18 additional howitzers with tactical vehicles to tow them, 36,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition for the howitzers and two Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems, the Defense Department said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the EU to tighten sanctions against Russia and warned that Moscow’s forces could attack other countries. Addressing the Czech parliament, the Ukrainian president said the invasion of Moscow was “the first step that the Russian leadership needs to open the way for other countries to conquer other peoples.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the allies would continue to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons and long-range systems. with agreement on a new aid package for Kyiv expected at the Madrid summit later this month. The deal would help Ukraine switch from old Soviet-era weapons to “more modern NATO standard equipment,” he said. Stoltenberg was addressing a meeting of defense ministers from NATO and other countries in Brussels to discuss and coordinate aid to Ukraine.
That said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the meeting in Brussels Ukraine faced a “decisive moment on the battlefield” in Sieverodonetsk. With Russian forces use long-range weapons to overwhelm Ukrainian positions. Austin urged America and its allies to “not slow down and lose steam” and “intensify our collective commitment to Ukraine’s self-defense.”
China’s Xi Jinping has pledged China’s support for Russia’s “sovereignty and security” to Vladimir Putin, prompting Washington to warn Beijing it risks ending up “on the wrong side of history.” China is “ready to continue to support each other [to Russia] on issues affecting core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security,” state broadcaster CCTV reported, as Xi said during a phone call with Putin. A US State Department spokesman replied: “China claims to be neutral, but its behavior makes it clear that it still invests in close ties with Russia.”
Turkey has agreed to do this hosting a meeting with the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine on organizing grain exports through the Black Sea, Safe routes could be formed without having to clear mines around Ukrainian ports. Ankara’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu said it would take “some time” to clear Ukrainian ports. “Since the location of the mines is known, certain security lines would be set up at three ports,” he said. “Ships could safely enter and leave ports under the guidance of the Ukrainian research and rescue ships, as planned in the plan, without having to clear the mines.”
That’s what Poland’s Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk said Building grain silos on the Polish-Ukrainian border to channel the harvest to world markets would take three to four months. Kowalczyk’s comments came after Joe Biden suggested building temporary silos along the border with Ukraine to export more grain and address a global food crisis.
Two US veterans from Alabama who fought on the side of Ukraine Members of the state’s congressional delegation said nothing had been heard for days. John Kirby, a White House spokesman for national security, said, “We will do our best to monitor this and see what we can learn about it.”
Europe’s unity over the war in Ukraine is in jeopardy As public attention shifts from the battlefield to the cost of living, polls in 10 European countries suggest. The poll found support for Ukraine remains high, but concerns have shifted to the wider implications of the conflict, with the gap widening between voters who want the conflict to end quickly and those who want punishment Russia’s want, deepened.