The Ukrainian president said his country’s defense against the Russian invasion is at a “turning point” and again pressed the United States for more help, hours after the Kremlin’s forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.
Russian bombardment of areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks elsewhere in the country further undermined hopes for progress toward ending the brutal war. Talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia.
A delegation of Ukrainian lawmakers visited Washington on Wednesday to push for more U.S. assistance, saying their nation needs more military equipment, more financial help and tougher sanctions against Russia.
“We need to kick Russian soldiers off our land, and for that we need all, all possible weapons,” Ukrainian parliament member Anastasia Radina said at a news conference at the Ukrainian Embassy.
Meanwhile, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has released its latest intelligence update on Russia's assault on Ukraine.
The MoD says despite Moscow saying it plans to scale back its military activity around the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, "significant Russian shelling and missile strikes have continued".
The update warns there is likely to be "heavy fighting" in the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the coming days as Russian troops maintain positions to the east and west of the city - although a limited number of units have withdrawn.
Heavy fighting is continuing in Mariupol, but Ukrainian forces are still in control of the city, the update added.
The head of the UK's cyber and security agency, GCHQ, believes Russia has massively misjudged the situation in Ukraine and some of Vladimir Putin’s advisers are not telling him the truth.
Sir Jeremy Fleming has given a rare speech during a visit to Australia in which he said that Russian soldiers – short of weapons and morale – had refused to carry out orders, sabotaged their own equipment and even accidentally shot down their own aircraft.
Putin's advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, he said, but what's going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime.
"It all adds up to the strategic miscalculation that Western leaders warned Putin it would be. It's become his personal war, with the cost being paid by innocent people in Ukraine and, increasingly, by ordinary Russians too."
Sir Jeremy also said there were risks for China in being too closely aligned with Russia.
Beijing’s aspirations to become a leading player on the global stage would not be served by being associated with a regime in Moscow that had willfully and illegally ignored global rules, he said.
(with inputs from AP)
