Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Air raid sirens have been heard across most cities in Ukraine, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying his country has “reached a strategic turning point” in the war with Russian forces appearing to regroup for a possible assault on Kiev.
Sirens started in the capital city, the western city of Lviv in Odessa, and Kharkiv, Cherkasy, as well as in the Sumy region in northeast of the country early Saturday, reports said.
Speaking in a video posted online, Zelensky urged Ukrainians to be patient, insisting the country will prevail despite reports of Russian forces striking near airports in the western part of Ukraine for the first time.
Zelensky implored those who have stayed to “hold on,” adding, “Be sure to fight. Be sure to give your all strength.”
On Friday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk airfields had been “put out of action” in missile attacks.
Russia says it will halt the military operation instantly if Kiev meets Moscow’s list of conditions, including that Ukraine never attempts to join NATO.
‘Bennett wants us to surrender’: Senior Kiev official
A Ukrainian government official said Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has urged Zelensky to accept his Russian counterpart’s demands.
The official sharply criticized Bennett’s efforts at mediating the crisis, saying the prime minister was “using the mediation as an excuse to justify the fact that Israel is avoiding transferring military aid to Ukraine or joining the sanctions slapped on Russia”.
The senior official, who spoke to the Walla and Haaretz news sites on condition of anonymity, said Bennett was serving as a mailbox between Ukraine and Russia.
Last week, Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine crisis in Moscow, followed by a phone call with Zelensky. In his last phone call with Zelensky, Bennett sought to persuade the Ukrainian president to accept Putin’s offer, the official said, according to the Walla and Haaretz reports.
On February 24, Putin announced a “special military operation” in Ukraine after weeks of shelling of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) by Ukrainian forces.
Russia on Monday set conditions to stop the military strikes, saying Kiev needed to “recognize that Crimea is Russian territory,” and Donetsk and Lugansk are “independent states. And that’s it. It will stop in a moment.”
Pentagon revives team to speed arms to Ukraine and allies, sources say
The Pentagon is planning to use a special team in response to increased demand for new weapons sales and requests to transfer existing weapons among US allies, three people familiar with the effort said.
This comes as countries including Ukraine are scrambling to obtain arms following Russia’s military operation, the people told Reuters.
The Pentagon’s office of Acquisition and Sustainment, the weapons buyer for the US Department of Defense, has been dealing with increased demand from European allies hoping to send weapons to Ukraine through third party transfers or to purchase arms to strengthen their own defenses, the sources said.
