‘We must make time our weapon,’ Zelenskiy says in call to speed up supply of arms; Bakhmut, Vuhledar and Donetsk region under ‘constant Russian attacks’
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Ukraine’s allies to speed up the supply of new weaponry to help his forces overcome Russia’s invasion.
The Ukrainian president said time should be used as a weapon in his Sunday night address.
The speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war.
Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon.
Russian shelling of residential areas in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead and five injured, local authorities said. The Kherson regional military administration said on its Telegram channel that Russian forces targeted a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank and residential buildings in a strike on Sunday.
A missile hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring others, according to the regional governor. Oleh Synehubov said the missile struck the city centre on Sunday.
Ukraine’s military and Russia’s Wagner private military group are both claiming to have control in the area of Blahodatne, eastern Donetsk region. “Units of Ukraine’s defence forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of … Blahodatne … in the Donetsk region,” Ukraine’s military reported, adding its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
President Tayyip Erdoğan signalled that Turkey may agree to Finland joining Nato without Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm. “We may deliver Finland a different message [on their Nato application] and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdoğan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied last year to join Nato and need all member countries’ approval to join. Turkey and Hungary are holding out.
Vladimir Putin was open to contacts with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, though no phone call was scheduled, a Kremlin spokesperson told the state Ria Novosti news agency. Scholz told the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel: “I will also speak to Putin again – because it is necessary to speak.”
Kyiv and its western allies are engaged in “fast-track” talks on the possibility of equipping Ukraine with long-range missiles and military aircraft, a top aide to Ukraine’s president said. Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine’s supporters in the west “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for armoured vehicles the US and Germany have pledged.
US military officials are reportedly urging the Pentagon to supply F-16 jets to Ukraine so it is better able to defend itself from Russian missiles and drones.
