The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
UK pledges to equip Ukraine with missiles
The UK has pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the United States and Germany in equipping the embattled nation with advanced weapons for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery.
Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in countering Russia’s much larger and betterequipped military during the war, now in its 99th day.
But as Russian forces closed in on a key city in recent days, the Ukrainian government said its fighters needed better rocket launchers to prevail.
A Kremlin spokesman again warned of “absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios” if the latest Western-supplied weapons were fired into Russia.
“This pumping of Ukraine with weapons... will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities overnight and to tighten their grip on the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.
The UK’S Ministry of Defence (MOD) reported that Russia had captured most of the city, one of two in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control.
As fighting raged in Ukraine’s east, some residents forced to flee Russian attempts to storm the capital Kyiv weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives.
Nila Zelinska and her husband Eduard returned this week for the first time to the charred ruins of what used to be their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and air strikes in the early days of the war.
She said: “May there be peace on Earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much.”
Speaking via video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for even more weapons and sanctions targeting Russia.
“As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory, almost 48,262 square miles,” he said.
Mr Zelensky said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles invading Ukraine on February 24, “most of them targeting civil infrastructure”.
Mr Zelensky also warned that if Russia prevails in its war in Ukraine “then the dark times will come for everyone” in Europe.
Addressing the parliament in Luxembourg he said: “If we win this war, all Europeans will be able to continue enjoying their freedom.
“But if this one person who wants to destroy any freedom in Ukraine and Europe prevails, then dark times will come for everyone on the continent,” he added, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.