Ukraine demands more weapons as Russia moves East

By Stefan J. Bos 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters he arrived in Brussels to ask the NATO military alliance to provide his war-torn nation with more military support. 

“We are confident that the best way to help Ukraine now is to provide it with all necessary to contain Putin and to defeat the Russian army in Ukraine, in the territory of Ukraine, so that the war does not spill over further," he said.

Minister Kuleba suggested that the weapons are crucial to avoid further Russian atrocities, such as the mass killings of hundreds of civilians reported in the town of Bucha near Kyiv this week.

He urged Germany, in particular, to go further and speed the dispatch of sorely needed equipment and arms, saying that “while Berlin has time, Kyiv doesn’t.”

Ukraine also blasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for saying Hungary is ready to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles. Ukraine claims it would help finance Moscow’s war machine.

Kuleba said he hopes all NATO allies will unite behind his country. “I call on all Allies to put aside their hesitations. Their reluctance to provide Ukraine with everything it needs. 

War crimes

His comments came as Ukrainian authorities identified hundreds of bodies found in Bucha and other towns after Russian troops withdrew. They say they want to document evidence of possible war crimes.

Moscow has denied wrongdoing calling footage of the human remains fake and Ukrainian propaganda. 

As the death toll climbs, Ukraine has told residents of its industrial heartland to leave while they still can. 

Russia’s six-week-old invasion failed to take Ukraine’s capital quickly and achieve what Western countries say was President Vladimir Putin’s initial aim of ousting the Ukrainian government. 

But Russia’s focus is now on the Donbas area, a mostly Russian-speaking region in eastern Ukraine in a war that has already uprooted millions of people. 

Besides pledging more military and humanitarian support, the European Union and the United States also extended sanctions against Russia. On Friday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting the EU’s executive European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv, the capital that Moscow so far failed to capture.