Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow orders more weapons to ‘maintain pace of offensive’
Good morning and welcome to our Ukraine blog.
Reuters is reporting that the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has ordered more, and swifter, delivery of weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
At a meeting with the top military command for Moscow’s fight in Ukraine, the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of the operation, delivered a report to Shoigu, the Russian defence ministry wrote on Telegram.
“To maintain the required pace of the offensive … it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops, primarily weapons,” it cited Shoigu as saying in a statement posted on Telegram.
With Kyiv blaming lack of weapons, Russian forces have made nearly daily tactical advances in recent weeks along the frontline in Ukraine’s southeast. Russia has taken about half a dozen villages in the Donetsk region, while firming up battlefield positions in the Kharkiv region.
In other news:
Ukraine launched drones on several Russian regions in hours leading to Wednesday morning, Russian officials said, with unofficial Russian news outlets reporting a fire at the Ryazan oil refinery after the attack. Pavel Malkov, governor or the Ryazan region, which shares a border with the Moscow region in its northwestern parts, said that there were no injuries in the drone attacks there.
Russian Telegram channel Baza, which is close to the security services, reported that the attack sparked a fire at the Ryazan oil refinery. The governors of the Kursk and Voronezh regions in southwest Russia that border Ukraine also reported drone attacks on their territories, saying there was no damage or injuries.Russian strikes on Kharkiv, in north-east Ukraine, killed at least one person and injured nine others on Tuesday, the regional governor said. Ukraine’s railway company said the 24-year-old victim was one of its employees.
A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine has escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 10km (six miles) alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane. Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska became separated from her family and continued alone after they decided to leave the frontline town of Ocheretyne.
Russian-occupied Crimea has come under Ukrainian attack, the Moscow-installed authorities said, from what they described as US-supplied Atacms missiles.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country needed “a significant acceleration” in deliveries of weaponry. “We are very much counting on prompt deliveries from the United States,” he said. “These supplies must make themselves felt in disrupting the logistics of the occupiers, in making them afraid to base themselves anywhere on occupied territory and in our strength.”
The International Rescue Committee described a worsening situation in Kharkiv, which lies near the Russian border and is Ukraine’s second-largest city, with an increasingly anxious population. The IRC said recent attacks had caused “extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and led to a sharp increase in casualties among the local population … air raid sirens sound day and night”, with people “experiencing heightened anxiety and distress”.