Reducing to Ashes

Ukraine’s leader pleaded for global street protests and for US-led allies meeting in Brussels to dramatically raise their arms supplies as the Russian-Ukraine conflict passed on month by March 24. All peace-loving people in the world hope that this bloody conflict, which could have been avoided, could end soon. However, the US and Nato, which hold the key to resolving the conflict have made no practical moves to end the war. Instead, they are still intensifying contradictions and escalating confrontation, creating obstacles for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Nato to provide Kyiv with unrestricted military aid. “To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions. In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us,” he told Nato representatives via video-link.

While thanking members of the Western military alliance for the defensive equipment provided so far, he appealed for offensive weapons. “You can give us one per cent of all your planes. One per cent of your tanks. One per cent!”

Zelensky also accused Russia of deploying phosphorus weapons, which spread a powder that ignites when in contact with oxygen and causes severe burns.

“The Alliance can once more prevent the death of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation, by giving us all the weapons we need.”

According to reports, US President Joe Biden will work with European allies to coordinate next-stage military assistance to Ukraine and will announce a new round of sanctions against Russia after attending the Nato summit, the G7 summit and the European Council meeting.

Ahead of a Nato summit in Brussels Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making a “big mistake” by invading Ukraine, as leaders gathered to discuss overhauling the alliance’s eastern defences.

“President Putin has made a big mistake and that is to launch a war against an independent sovereign nation. He has underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, the bravery of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces,” Stoltenberg said.

Nato has already rushed tens of thousands of troops to its eastern flank in the wake of Russia’s invasion to counter the threat of any spillover from the conflict into alliance countries.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the summit will see leaders agree to “major increases of forces” on the alliance’s eastern borders, including four new battle groups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

Nato officials believe that — armed with an arsenal of Western anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons — Ukrainian forces may have already killed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers and wounded perhaps 30,000 to 40,000.

While Kyiv and Western intelligence report battlefield gains against the Russians, the vast scale of civilian suffering was made stark as the UN said more than half of all Ukraine’s children have been driven from their homes.

“The world must stop the war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night television address delivered in English.

“Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life,” he said.

Addressing leaders of the G7, NATO and the European Union meeting in the Belgian capital, he called for a major shift in weapons deliveries — including more advanced fighter jets, missile defence systems, tanks, armoured vehicles and anti-ship missiles.

“Freedom must be armed,” Zelensky said bluntly, demanding “meaningful steps” from NATO. “At these three summits we will see: Who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money. Life can be defended only when united.”

In the back-to-back Brussels summits, Biden and other leaders are expected to bring pledges of more lethal weapons to Ukraine and more punishing sanctions for Russia’s tottering economy.

Britain’s Johnson said that as well as increasing military support to Ukraine, “we’ve got to go further” economically — including by preventing Russia using its gold reserves.

“The more we do that now, the more pressure we apply now, particularly on things like gold… I believe the more we can shorten the war, shorten the slaughter in Ukraine,” he said. “Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Britain slaps sanctions on 59 more Russian individuals and entities, including the shadowy mercenary group Wagner.

The government says its latest asset freeze targets 33 individuals and 26 entities as well as six other entities linked to the Belarus regime.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain will send 6,000 missiles and £25 million ($33 million, 30 million euros) in financial aid to Ukraine’s army to help it fight Russian forces. Germany says it is sending 2,000 additional anti-tank weapons to Ukraine to help it repel the Russian invasion, a parliamentary source tells AFP, confirming media reports.

French car giant Renault announces it is immediately suspending operations at its Moscow factory after Kyiv calls for a boycott of the company for remaining in Russia. Renault is also considering “the possible options” for its Russian affiliate AvtoVAZ, the company says in a statement.

A conflict that is feared to have killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians, along with thousands more soldiers on both sides.

More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, as cities have faced sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air. The month of war has displaced 4.3 million children — more than half of Ukraine’s estimated child population of 7.5 million, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef. “This is a grim milestone that could have lasting consequences for generations to come,” Unicef chief Catherine Russell said.

UN figures show that more than 3.6 million Ukrainians including 1.8 million children have fled abroad, and more are now displaced inside Ukraine after harrowing journeys out of cities like Mariupol.