America has vowed not to let “anything stand in the way” of supplying Ukraine with the weapons it needs to defeat Vladimir Putin’s barbaric invasion.
The US, Britain and other allies agreed to supply "new and heavier" weapons to Ukraine as Kyiv warned it needs immediate reinforcement in its struggle against Russia or it will be "too late".
Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said Washington will send new weapon systems to Ukraine after Nato foreign ministers decided at a summit in Brussels to accelerate arms deliveries in the wake of the atrocities in Bucha, near Kyiv, which have been widely condemned as war crimes.
"We’re not going to let anything stand in the way of getting Ukrainians what they need, and what we believe, to be effective," he said.
He spoke of "new systems" that have so far not been provided by the West but declined to go into details.
Nato diplomats said that meant, in part, helping Ukraine transition from its Soviet-era arsenal to more modern weapons.
Asking for planes, land-based anti-ship missiles, armoured vehicles and air defence systems, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba made his plea to a special session at Nato headquarters - though the military equipment is being provided bilaterally by nations.
He addressed his counterparts from the military alliance’s 30 members plus the European Union, Finland, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, urging Germany in particular to speed up deliveries, saying procedures were taking too long in Berlin.
"I think the deal that Ukraine is offering is fair. You give us weapons, we sacrifice our lives, and the war is contained in Ukraine," Mr Kuleba said.
After six weeks of a war that Moscow describes as a "special military operation", Ukraine says Russia continues to shell eastern cities following its forces’ withdrawal from around Kyiv.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said there had been agreement at the Brussels summit to help the Ukrainian defenders upgrade their "Soviet era equipment to Nato standard equipment on a bilateral basis".
She also labelled Mr Putin’s Kremlin a "global pariah" after a United Nations vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
The UN General Assembly voted by 93 to 24 to suspend Russia from the human rights body, with 58 abstentions.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine issued three pleas to Nato members to defeat Mr Putin’s invasion: “Weapons, weapons, weapons”.
Ahead of the high-level talks at the summit, Mr Kuleba stressed more military equipment was vital to prevent “enormous sacrifices” and “more Buchas”, the town near Kyiv where Russian forces are accused of killing more than 300 civilians in war crimes including executions, torture, mass graves and rapes.
Britain, which has played a leading role in the West’s response to Mr Putin’s war which has left thousands, if not tens of thousands, of civilians dead, is now set to send protected mobility vehicles for Ukraine’s military.
A delegation led by Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Volodymyr Havrylov, including senior military officers, visited the Salisbury Plain training area earlier this week where they saw the armoured vehicles, as well as loitering munitions, which hang in the air and can then be later deployed against a target, and the high-speed Starstreak missile system which has already been sent to Ukraine.
The British army’s third Division and the Royal Marines demonstrated various weapons and talks are ongoing on which could be supplied and used by the Ukrainian military.
The protected mobility vehicles may have some sensitive equipment stripped out of them before being sent to Ukraine.
Boris Johnson also held talks with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda in No10, with Britain offering more humanitarian support to Warsaw to help with the huge number of refugees coming over the border from Ukraine.
Mr Kuleba urged more countries in the West to “put aside their hesitations, their reluctance” and to supply more arms, stressing that “as weird as it may sound today weapons serve the purpose of peace”.
Arriving at the summit, he said: “My agenda is very simple, it has only three items on it... Weapons, weapons and weapons.”
He stressed Ukraine had shown the world that “we know how to fight” and “how to win” against the Russian president’s troops.
His appeal came amid growing fears that Mr Putin is set to unleash within a week, or a few weeks, a “new bloody wave” in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after his original invasion plan, to seize Kyiv within days, failed.
British military intelligence chiefs said Thursday morning that Russian artillery and air strikes were continuing along the “line of control” in the Donbas which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, where Moscow-backed separatists hold some territory.
Ukrainian government officials were urging civilians to evacuate the eastern regions threatened by the new Russian onslaught.
Military experts say upcoming battles in the Donbas could be key to the outcome of the war, with suggestions the Russian president wants to declare some form of victory on May 9, to coincide with the annual parade in Moscow’s Red Square held to mark the Nazis’ surrender in the Second World War.
Ms Truss stressed Britain was responding to Ukraine’s call for more military hardware.
She said: “The UK is now banning all imports of Russian energy, we are sanctioning more banks and we are stepping up our supply of weapons to Ukraine.”
Germany has also started supplying military equipment to Ukraine. But Mr Kuleba pleaded for some nations in the West, including Germany, to do more.
“While Berlin has time, Kyiv doesn’t,” he said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that her country is “looking closely with our partners at how we can support Ukraine in the future more intensively, and more coordinated because they have a right of self defense and we will support this”.
Mr Kuleba stressed Ukraine’s military needs planes, heavy air defence system, and missiles vehicles from Nato members.
Nato is not itself providing any weapons, amid concerns that if it did this could allow Mr Putin to seek to escalate the conflict into one between Nato and Russia, so military equipment is being provided by individual nations in bilateral arrangements.
But the Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: “Ukraine is fighting a defensive war, so this distinction between offensive and defensive weapons doesn’t actually have any real meaning.”
The Czech government is reported to be sending Soviet era tanks which Ukrainian forces are trained in using.
The US has already provided more than $2.3 billion (£1.7 billion) of lethal assistance to Ukraine since January 2021, including a a $100 million (£76 million) transfer of Javelin anti-armour missiles announced days ago, and was also reported to be training Ukrainian forces in the use of military drones.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is also calling for tougher sanctions against Mr Putin’s regime otherwise the Kremlin would see it as “permission to start a new bloody wave in Donbas”.
A fifth round of European Union sanctions on Russia, including a ban on coal imports, could be agreed by the bloc on Friday, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said.
Ms Truss announced on Wednesday that the UK was freezing the assets of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and Credit Bank of Moscow, banning all new investment in Russia and targeting eight more oligarchs, with similar steps being taken in America.
