Britain will reportedly soon send armoured missile launchers to Ukraine
(Picture: PA Archive)Britain is sending more weapons to Ukraine, a minister disclosed on Tuesday, after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said a “battle for the Donbas” had begun.
Russia has launched a huge ground offensive in a bid to take control of the country’s eastern region, with Kremlin forces said to be attacking Ukrainian positions along a 300-mile frontline. Moscow has declared the capture of the Donbas to be its main objective after attempts to seize the capital, Kyiv, failed.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said more weapons would be sent from the UK to Ukraine to help it defend itself.
“We’re seeing a further push, it seems, from Putin’s regime. So we will continue to do all we can to support Ukraine,” Mr Lewis told BBC Breakfast. “As the Prime Minister said when he was in Kyiv with the president just a week or so ago, we will be sending out further defensive arms.”
It is believed the UK will be handing armoured anti-aircraft Stormer vehicles to Ukraine. The 13-tonne vehicles launch Starstreak missiles, which can be used to target planes and helicopters.
The Ministry of Defence demonstrated the equipment for Ukrainians on Salisbury Plain two weeks ago, the Sun reported. The Stormer is manufactured by BAE Systems and needs just three people to operate it.
Security officials believe Vladimir Putin’s army will attempt to fully seize Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland in the coming days.
Fighting was said to be focused on the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, with Russian troops attempting to advance in several sections.
Mr Zelensky said that a “significant part of the entire Russian army is now concentrated on this offensive”.
It comes as Ukrainian officials said the Russian military is continuing to blockade and shell the strategic port city of Mariupol.
Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Mariupol-based Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard, accused Russia of dropping bunker-buster bombs on the Azovstal steel plant where the regiment and hundreds of civilians are believed to be sheltering in the building’s warren of tunnels.
He said “women, children and families” were among those seeking refuge in the plant. In a video message, he added: “They found their only available shelter next to the Ukrainian soldiers, who are still defending the city from Russian invaders.
“Russian occupational forces know about civilians and they keep their fire on the factory willingly. They use free fall bombs, rockets, bunker-buster bombs, all varieties of artillery, both ground and naval for indiscriminate attacks.”
He asked for western countries to help secure “a proper green corridor” to allow civilians and wounded soldiers still trapped in Mariupol to evacuate safely. Mr Putin’s army has Mariupol surrounded and has been fighting a bloody battle to capture it.
If the Russian army takes the city it would free up troops to be redeployed elsewhere in the Donbas and deprive Ukraine of a vital port. It would also complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, allowing troops to link up with comrades and Ukrainian-separatist allies in the Donbas region.
Meanwhile, in western Ukraine at least seven people are believed to have been killed yesterday in missile strikes on Lviv. The city, near the Polish border, has been a haven for Ukrainians fleeing the fighting elsewhere and a major gateway for Nato-supplied defensive weapons.
The most recent Russian attack hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto shop, according to the region’s governor Maksym Kozytskyy. A hotel sheltering refugees was also badly damaged, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.
Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, was also hit yesterday by shelling that killed at least three people, according to reports. Bombs continued to rain down overnight and into this morning.
In a message on his Telegram social media channel, Mr Zelensky said: “We will defend ourselves. We will fight. We will not give up anything Ukrainian, and we do not need what’s not ours.
“I am grateful to all our fighters, to all our heroic cities in Donbas, to Mariupol, and also to the cities of the Kharkiv region which are holding on, defending the fate of the whole state, repelling the forces of invaders.”
