Ukraine calls for more arms, says Russia destroying fuel and food depots
SMA NEWS – LVIV
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to fend off Russian forces as his government said Moscow’s forces were targeting the country’s fuel and food depots.
US President Joe Biden’s three-day tour of Europe ended with comments suggesting Washington was taking a much sharper line on Russia, when he said on Saturday (Mar 26) Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”.
Biden’s improvised remarks during a speech in Warsaw were not a call for regime change in Russia, but meant Putin should not be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region, a White House official said afterward. Moscow dismissed Biden’s comments, saying it was not up to the US president to decide who governed Russia.
The Russian invasion has devastated several Ukrainian cities, caused a humanitarian crisis and forced millions to flee their homes.
In a late-night television address on Saturday, Zelenskyy demanded that Western nations hand over military hardware that was “gathering dust” in stockpiles, saying his nation needed just 1 per cent of NATO’s aircraft and 1 per cent of its tanks.
Western nations have so far given Ukraine anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms and protective equipment, but have not offered any heavy armour or planes.
“We’ve already been waiting 31 days. Who is in charge of the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it really still Moscow, because of intimidation?” Zelenskyy said, suggesting Western leaders were holding back on supplies because they were frightened of Russia.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said on Sunday that Russia had started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage centres, meaning the government would have to disperse stocks of both in the near future.
Appearing to confirm that, the Russian defence ministry said its missiles had wrecked on Saturday a fuel deposit as well as a military repair plant near the western city of Lviv, just 60km from the Polish border.
Local officials said four missiles had hit the city, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky, in a rare strike on the west of Ukraine with much of the fighting since the Feb 24 Russian invasion so far focused on southern and eastern regions and near the capital Kyiv in the north.
