Ukraine pleads for ‘weapons, weapons, weapons’ at talks with Nato as Russian forces besiege Mariupol and eastern cities
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated calls for heavier weaponry as the best way to help in its defence against Russia
- 100,000 people still need urgent evacuation from Mariupol, mayor says, amid calls for Russia to be suspended from UN’s Human Rights Council
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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated calls for heavier weaponry to aid its defence against Russia at the start of talks with his counterparts from Nato countries on Thursday.
“It’s weapons, weapons, weapons,” Kuleba said of his agenda ahead of the meeting in Brussels. He said the best way to help Ukraine would be to provide the country with everything it needed to put Russian President Vladimir Putin in his place and defeat the Russian army.
Kuleba said that Germany could do more in terms of arms deliveries “given its reserves and capacities” and that decision-making was taking too long. “While Berlin has time, Kyiv has none,” he said. The more and the faster Ukraine received weapons, the more lives would be saved and the fewer cities would be destroyed, he added.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the alliance was trying to increase its help to Kyiv with “different military weapons.”
“We are looking closely with our partners how we can support Ukraine in the future, more intensively and more coordinated because they have a right of self-defence and we will support this right of self-defence together with different partners,” she said.
These discussions were also taking place between the G7 group of major powers, she said.
Regarding further sanctions on Moscow, EU’s foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell hoped the bloc would also restrict the import of oil from Russia as soon as possible. An oil embargo is not part of the sanctions package currently being discussed by EU member states, he said on Thursday. That would be a topic at the meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called for a willingness to compromise on the question of a possible embargo on Russian gas. “We are asking ourselves whether the price of gas may be traded for peace,” he said late Wednesday. “Do you prefer peace or running air conditioning? That is the question we have to ask,” he said.
Japan is coordinating with Group of Seven (G7) allies on devising further sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and “war crimes”. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday. He told reporters that Japan would unveil additional sanctions as early as possible from Friday onwards.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Mariupol said more than 100,000 people still needed urgent evacuation from the city.
A Ukrainian official in the east of the county warned residents remaining there on Thursday that time was running out to flee mounting Russian attacks, saying the entire region was being targeted.
“These few days may be the last chance to leave,” Luhansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday wrote to residents on Facebook.
There have been desperate evacuation attempts from eastern Ukraine over recent days as Ukrainian authorities warn of an imminent Russian offensive, following the devastation around Kyiv that has shocked the world.
“Do not wait to evacuate. The enemy is trying to cut off all possible ways of getting people out,” Gaiday said in his statement. His call was echoed by the mayor of the central city of Dnipro, who urged women, children and the elderly to leave.
The World Health Organization’s European head said on Thursday that the body was preparing for possible “chemical assaults” in Ukraine.
“Given the uncertainties of the current situation, there are no assurances that the war will not get worse,” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement sent to journalists from Lviv, Ukraine.
02:20
Russian factory city producing Lada cars braces for tough times amid sanctions for Ukraine invasion
Ahead of the UN General Assembly’s vote on Thursday on whether to suspend Russia from its Human Rights Council, the G7 nations called for Russia’s suspension over “atrocities” in Ukraine.
“We are convinced that now is the time to suspend Russian membership of the Human Rights Council,” G7 foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States said in a statement.
The Kremlin insisted on Thursday that Washington’s decision to keep supplying Ukraine with weapons and military help would probably damage chances of successful peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“Pumping weapons into Ukraine will not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian talks,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters when asked about US weapons supplies to Ukraine. “Of course this will most likely have a negative effect.”
Also on Thursday, the Kremlin said it would make a decision on whether President Putin takes part in a G20 summit later this year in Indonesia based on how events evolve.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about calls by some leaders of G20 countries to exclude Putin from the summit over his decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. “We will clarify this, after all Indonesia is the organiser,” said Peskov.
Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia said last month that Putin intended to travel to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the G20 summit in November despite opposition from Western countries in the group.
