Russia-Ukraine war live: Nato ministers discuss stepping up support for Kyiv

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has given a wide-ranging interview to the Guardian.

President Biden’s delay in sanctioning the use of western weapons against targets in Russia has left the Kremlin’s forces laughing at Ukraine and able to “hunt” its people, the Ukrainian president said.

In an interview in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said that the White House’s equivocation had cost lives and he urged the US president to overcome his perennial worries about possible nuclear “escalation” with Moscow.

On Thursday night it emerged that, after months of lobbying, the US had taken a small but symbolic step – and for the first time would permit some American made weapons to be used by Kyiv’s military to fire inside Russia in its defence of the city of Kharkiv.

But in his Guardian interview, Zelenskiy made clear he needs to be able to use “powerful” long range weapons that can hit targets inside deep Russian territory – a red line the White House has refused to lift.

The US, he said, needed to “believe in us more”.

Without this green light, Zelenskiy said other allies, such as the UK, may not allow Ukraine to use their long range weapons either. “Believe us, we have to respond. They don’t understand anything but force. We are not the first and not the last target,” he said of Russia.

“I think it is absolutely illogical to have [western] weapons and see the murderers, terrorists, who are killing us from the Russian side. I think sometimes they are just laughing at this situation,” he said. “It’s like going hunting for them. Hunting for people. They understand that we can see them, but we cannot reach them.”

Read the full interview, by Katharine Viner, Luke Harding , Shaun Walker and Nick Hopkins in Kyiv.

Joe Biden has allowed Ukraine to use some US-made weapons over one part of the Russian border, to allow Kyiv’s forces to defend against an offensive aimed at the city of Kharkiv, relaxing an important constraint on Ukraine’s able to defend itself.

“The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use US-supplied weapons for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkiv region so Ukraine can hit back against Russian forces that are attacking them or preparing to attack them,” a US official said.

Limits on the use of US long-range weapons such as the army tactical missile system (Atacms) will remain, however.

“Our policy with respect to prohibiting the use of Atacms or long-range strikes inside of Russia has not changed,” the official said.

Read the full story here, by Julian Borger and Andrew Roth in Washington.

Missiles fired by the Ukrainian navy struck an oil terminal at the Russian port of Kavkaz today, Reuters reported citing a statement from the Ukrainian military.

Poland is currently organising its 45th package of aid for Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said today, Reuters reported.

“Poland has sent 44 packages of aid to Ukraine, we are now organising our 45th... we think we’ve contributed in military assistance alone around 4 billion euros,” Radek Sikorski told reporters in Prague.

Hello, we are restarting our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Speaking as Nato ministers gather for talks in Prague, the alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said this morning that allies will address how to sustain and step up support for Kyiv.

Allies have provided unprecedented support to Ukraine. Just last week Belgium announced 30 more F-16s and Spain and Sweden announced new packages of more than one billion euros each for air defence, for artillery and for other important equipment for Ukraine. These and other announcements come on top of the US decision of 61 billion extra US dollars for Ukraine.

But we will address how to make sure we sustain and step up our support for Ukraine and I have proposed that NATO should play a bigger role in the coordination and supply of security assistance and training for Ukraine.

I also proposed a multi-air financial pledge to ensure more accountability and predictability in the support we provide to Ukraine because we need to make sure that Moscow understands that we are prepared for the long haul in our support for Ukraine.

Four people have been killed and 25 injured in Russian missile attacks overnight in Kharkiv, Ukrinform reports.

The regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said “unfortunately, another body was found in the destroyed building. At this time, there are four dead.”