Ukraine can, if it has the “right equipment”, “win” the war against Russia, the Pentagon chief said on Monday after returning from a visit to kyiv, while Moscow announced a ceasefire in the strategic port of Mariupol to allow civilians entrenched with the last Ukrainian fighters to evacuate.
“The first thing to win is to believe that you can win. And they’re confident they can win,” said Lloyd Austin. “They can win if they have the right equipment, the right support,” he added, the day after his visit, the first of American ministers since the start of the conflict on February 24.
“We want to see Russia weakened to such a degree that it cannot do the same kinds of things as the invasion of Ukraine,” the US defense minister said after meeting Sunday with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“She’s already lost a lot of military capabilities, and a lot of troops to be frank, and we wouldn’t want her to be able to quickly replenish those capabilities.”
The United States – which announced a new direct and indirect military aid for Ukraine of 700 million dollars – recently accelerated its deliveries of military equipment, which President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to demand from the West.
They are now delivering heavy weapons, in order to resist the Russian offensive which is concentrating on the east and south of the country, after Moscow’s troops failed in the kyiv region, from which they withdrew at the end of March.
Arms deliveries to Ukraine are expected to be the focus of a meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Germany, bringing together the Pentagon chief and defense ministers from 40 allied nations. “We’re going to push as hard as we can, as fast as we can, to ensure that (Ukrainians) get what they need,” Austin said.
President Zelensky on Monday thanked Washington, the American people and President Joe Biden “personally” for their support. He underlined that the “unprecedented” US military aid, totaling $3.4 billion, was “the most significant contribution to the strengthening of Ukrainian defense capabilities. »
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the forthcoming appointment of a new United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, current Ambassador to Slovakia. The United States had only been represented in Ukraine by charges d’affaires since 2019.
Russian unilateral ceasefire in Azovstal?
The visit of the American leaders to kyiv coincided with the Orthodox Easter, synonymous with hope for many faithful, even if the fighting has not stopped.
The UN had in particular called in vain for an “immediate” truce in Mariupol, a strategic port in the Sea of Azov almost entirely controlled by the Russian army, to allow the evacuation of civilians who would still be 100,000 civilians still stuck in the besieged and devastated city, where more than 20,000 people have already died, according to Mayor Vadim Boitchenko.
The last Ukrainian fighters in this industrial port on the Sea of Azov, at the southern tip of the Donbass, are entrenched in the underground passages of the vast metallurgical complex of Azovstal, with, according to them, nearly 1,000 civilians. The Azov Battalion has been broadcasting images of women and children apparently entrenched with them in recent days, calling for a ceasefire “with guarantees” to get them out.
On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces would “unilaterally cease” hostilities on Azovstal from 2 p.m. (7 a.m. ET), “withdraw units to a safe distance and ensure the departure” of civilians “in direction of their choice.
kyiv did not immediately react to this announcement. Moscow had already offered a truce to Azovstal several times, before accusing the Ukrainians of not respecting it.
Ukrainians generally accuse the Russians of preventing any evacuations to quieter areas of Ukraine, and of only allowing departures to Russia or Ukrainian localities occupied by the Russians.
In the rest of the Donbass, the Ukrainian army said on Monday that it repelled a series of Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, in the Donbass, where many localities, such as Roubijné, are daily under bombs.
In Lyssytchansk, one of the points of the front line, a Ukrainian pensioner, named Mykola, observes every day with binoculars, from his house-turret, the slow progression of the Russian forces.
If he says he is ready to resist “to the end”, he recognizes that part of the population of this region with a complex history would not take a dim view of the takeover of Donbass by the Russians. This is one of the stated objectives of Moscow, as is total control of southern Ukraine, where fighting is also daily, particularly in the region between Kherson and Mykolaiv.
On the Russian side, a large fuel depot was on fire Monday in Bryansk, a city located 150 km from the Ukrainian border and serving as a logistics base for Russian forces, according to Moscow.
If the Russians regularly accuse kyiv of attacks on border localities, the authorities did not immediately specify the reasons for the fire.
“I hope it will end”
Part of the city of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, is also under daily bombs, forcing civilians to sleep for weeks in underground passages.
“It was scary the first week, after we got used to it,” Alex, 14, one of the children holed up daily in an underground car park in the city, told AFP.
“Weekdays in the morning I go home to do my homework, then I come back here for lunch, play games, cards, on the phone […] Our parents don’t tell us the details of the war. We know that missiles hit buildings, playgrounds. We know the war is going on,” he explained.
“I hope it will end, that the presidents (Ukrainian and Russian) will agree to achieve peace,” he added.
But many now expect a long war, as talks between Moscow and Kyiv appear to have stalled and the war has thrown nearly 13 million people onto the roads, more than 5 million of whom have fled Ukraine , according to the UN.
In this context, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was expected in Turkey on Monday, a country which is trying to mediate in the conflict, before going to Moscow and then kyiv on Tuesday.