KYIV, April 24 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin will go to Kyiv on Sunday to debate Ukraine’s name for extra highly effective weapons, two months after Russia’s invasion started.
The journey, introduced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday, could be the highest-level by U.S. officers since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The White Home has not confirmed any go to by Blinken and Austin. The State Division and Pentagon declined to remark.
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As Christians in Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Easter on Sunday, there was no finish in sight to a battle that has killed hundreds of individuals, uprooted tens of millions extra and decreased cities to rubble. Ukraine mentioned two kids have been amongst these killed in shelling on Sunday. learn extra
“Often we might come to our church buildings with Easter baskets. However now that is unimaginable,” Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the jap Luhansk area, wrote on Telegram, saying seven church buildings within the Luhansk area had been “mutilated by Russian artillery.”
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm his report.
“We’re all satisfied that we’ll not be destroyed by any horde or wickedness,” Zelenskiy mentioned in an Easter video message from the 1,000-year-old Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, praying God would “give endurance to those that, sadly, wouldn’t see the return of their little one from the entrance.” learn extra
He informed a information convention on Saturday that talks together with his U.S. guests would cowl the “highly effective, heavy weapons” Ukraine wanted and the tempo of provides that he mentioned could be used to retake territory. learn extra
Moscow, which describes its actions in Ukraine as a “particular army operation”, denies concentrating on civilians and rejects what Ukraine says is proof of atrocities, saying Kyiv staged them.
Ukraine mentioned on Sunday that Russian forces have been bombarding the metal works in Mariupol the place Ukrainian defenders have been holding out, days after Moscow declared victory within the southern port metropolis and mentioned it didn’t must take the plant.
“The place the place our civilians and army are situated is shelled with heavy air bombs and artillery,” senior Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak mentioned on Twitter, calling for “an actual Easter truce in Mariupol”.
Preventing in Mariupol, the most important battle of the battle, has raged for weeks. Capturing town would hyperlink up pro-Russian separatists who management elements of the jap areas of Donetsk and Luhansk that make up the Donbas with the southern Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
Ukraine estimates tens of hundreds of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are nonetheless within the metropolis. The United Nations and Purple Cross say the civilian toll is at the least within the hundreds.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, mentioned troops within the large Mariupol metal complicated have been trying counterattacks. Greater than 1,000 civilians are additionally within the plant, Ukraine says.
A brand new try and evacuate civilians from Mariupol failed on Saturday, an aide to town’s mayor mentioned.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the non secular head of Jap Orthodox Christians worldwide, known as for humanitarian corridors in Mariupol and different areas of Ukraine, the place he mentioned “an indescribable human tragedy is unfolding”. learn extra
Ukraine’s army mentioned Russian forces have been persevering with their offensive within the east of the nation to attempt to set up full management over Donetsk and Luhansk with assaults on each army and civilian infrastructure.
The governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, mentioned two kids have been killed by shelling in his space on Sunday.
Ukraine mentioned its forces repulsed 12 assaults on Donetsk and Luhansk a day earlier, destroying 4 tanks, 15 armoured gear items and 5 artillery methods.
Reuters couldn’t independently affirm the studies.
British army intelligence mentioned Ukrainian resistance had been robust, particularly in Donbas, regardless of some Russian beneficial properties.
“Poor Russian morale and restricted time to reconstitute, re-equip and reorganise forces from prior offensives are possible hindering Russian fight effectiveness,” it mentioned. learn extra
Russia mentioned on Sunday its missiles hit eight army targets in a single day, together with 4 arms depots within the northeast Kharkiv area and one facility within the Dnipropetrovsk area producing explosives for the Ukrainian military.
Moscow had mentioned on Saturday its missiles destroyed a logistics terminal within the southern metropolis of Odesa containing weapons equipped by the USA and European states.
Zelenskiy mentioned eight folks, together with a three-month-old little one, have been killed within the Odesa strike.
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Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets and different Reuters journalists
Writing by Kim Coghill and Edmund Blair
Enhancing by William Mallard, Frances Kerry and Frank Jack Daniel
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