Russia ‘bound to lose’

Kyiv yesterday said that the massive new weapons package from Germany was another sign that Russia would lose in its war against Ukraine.

"States declare large defence aid packages for Ukraine," said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenksy, adding that the aid indicated that Russia was "bound to lose and sit on the bench of historical shame."

Germany is preparing a new weapons package for Ukraine worth 2.7 billion euros, reportedly Berlin's largest since Russia invaded last year, the defence ministry said yesterday.

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian military commander said yesterday that Kyiv's forces were advancing against Russian forces near Bakhmut.

Russia, on the other hand, said its forces were still pushing inside Bakhmut.

Moscow said yesterday also said that Kyiv used British long-range missiles to target civilian sites in the eastern city of Lugansk, wounding six children.

The defence ministry said that on Friday evening Ukraine's armed forces had struck two civilian enterprises.

"Storm Shadow air-to-air missiles supplied to the Kyiv regime by Great Britain were used for the strike, despite London's declarations that these weapons would not be used against civilian targets", the ministry said in a statement.

"Nearby residential buildings were damaged. Civilians were injured, including six children," the statement added.

The ministry said a Sukhoi Su-24 jet that carried the missiles and a MiG-29 aircraft had been shot down.

By announcing it would deliver the air-launched deep-strike weapon, Britain became first country to provide longer-range armament to Kyiv. Russia branded the move an "extremely hostile step."

About Bakhmut, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on social media that, "our soldiers are moving forward in some areas of the front, and the enemy is losing equipment and manpower."

Meanwhile Russian defence ministry said, "in the Donetsk direction, assault detachments liberated a block in the northwestern part of the city of Artemovsk," referring to Bakhmut by its Russian name.

The conflicting reports from the battlefront suggest an increase in fighting after months of relative stability, as expectations grow over Kyiv's spring counteroffensive.

Elsewhere, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement, "we all hope for a rapid end to this terrible war by Russia against the Ukrainian people, but unfortunately this is not in sight."

"This is why Germany will supply all the help that it can, for as long as necessary," he said.

The package, worth $3 billion, will include 30 additional Leopard-1 tanks, Marder armoured vehicles, air-defence systems and surveillance drones, the ministry said.

Der Spiegel magazine said it would be Germany's largest since the outbreak of the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to visit Germany today to meet with leaders of Europe's top economy, a government source in Berlin told AFP.

Zelensky is currently on a visit to Rome to thank Italy for its support and meet with Pope Francis.

Details of Zelensky's Germany trip have not been released, but media reports say he will meet with both Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Reports also suggest Zelensky could travel to the western city of Aachen to pick up the Charlemagne Prize, awarded for work done in the service of European unification.

"For the first time in its long history, the Charlemagne Prize is recognising that the freedom and fundamental principles of Europe must be defended with force if necessary," the prize committee's director Juergen Linden told Germany's Tagesspiegel newspaper this week.