Ukraine to call for heavy arms when top US officials visit 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.

More equipment

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 NBC News on Sunday.

The United States and NATO allies have shown growing readiness to supply heavier equipment and more advanced weapons systems. Britain has promised to send military vehicles and is considering supplying British tanks to Poland to free up Warsaw’s Russian-designed T-72s for Ukraine.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks by phone with Zelensky that Ankara was ready to assist in negotiations with Russia. Zelensky said he discussed with Erdogan the need for the immediate evacuation of civilians from the southern city of Mariupol, the site of biggest battle of the conflict.

Russian forces are attempting to storm the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol by land, backed up by aerial and artillery bombardment, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said.

“Russian troops are trying to finish off the defenders of Azovstal and more than 1,000 civilians who are hiding at the plant,” Arestovych wrote on Facebook.

Moscow has previously declared victory in the city and said it did not need to take the plant.

Capturing Mariupol would link pro-Russian separatists who control parts of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk that make up the Donbas with the southern Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are still in the city. The United Nations and Red Cross say the civilian toll is at least in the thousands.

‘Human tragedy'

Zelensky said eight people, including a 3-month-old child, were killed in the Odesa strike.