Kyiv: Ukraine will ask US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin for more powerful weapons during an expected visit by the officials to Kyiv on Sunday, seeking to build the country’s defences against the Russian military operation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would overcome “dark times,” in an emotional address at Kyiv’s 1,000-year-old Saint Sophia Cathedral to mark Orthodox Easter as fighting in the east overshadowed the religious celebrations. The trip by Blinken and Austin, announced earlier by Zelensky, would be the highest-level visit to Ukraine by U.S. officials since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the military operation the country two months ago. The White House has not confirmed any visit by Blinken and Austin. The State Department and Pentagon declined to comment.
“We are inspired by the resilience of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine in the face of President Putin’s brutal war of aggression,” Blinken said on Twitter. “We are continuing to support them and, today, we wish them and all others celebrating Easter hope and a swift return to peace.”
After Ukrainian defence forced a Russian retreat from around Kyiv, Moscow’s assault is now focused on the eastern Donbas region and the south of the country. With a semblance of normal life returning to the capital, several countries have reopened embassies in recent days and some residents who fled the fighting returned for Easter. Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region in the Donbas, said Easter celebrations had been shattered there, with seven churches in his region “mutilated by Russian artillery”. He also said an unspecified number of civilians were killed by Russian shelling.
Reuters could not independently verify his report.
Moscow, which describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation”, denies targeting civilians and rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities, saying Kyiv staged them to undermine peace talks.
Pope Francis called for an Easter truce: “Stop the attacks in order to help the exhausted population. Stop,” he said. Ukrainian refugees filled churches across central Europe. “I pray that this horror in Ukraine ends soon and we can return home,” said Nataliya Krasnopolskaia, who fled to Prague from Odesa last month, one of the more than 5 million Ukrainians estimated to have escaped the country.
Ukrainian officials plan to tell Blinken and Austin of the immediate need for more weapons, including anti-missile systems, anti-aircraft systems, armoured vehicles and tanks, Zelensky aide Igor Zhovkva told media on Sunday. –Agencies
