BRUSSELS
\nThe United States will send new weapon systems to Ukraine, Washington\u2019s top diplomat said on Thursday after Nato foreign ministers agreed to accelerate arms deliveries in response to Russia\u2019s invasion.
\nUrged by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to end bureaucracy-driven delays, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and 30 other countries were sending weapons to Ukraine and that that process would intensify.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not going to let anything stand in the way of getting Ukrainians what they need, and what we believe, to be effective,\u201d Blinken said.
\nHe spoke of \u201cnew systems\u201d that have so far not been provided by Nato allies, but declined to go into details. Nato diplomats said that meant, in part, helping Ukraine transition from its Soviet-era arsenal to more modern weapons.
\nBlinken said the United States had already agreed to send Kyiv anti-aircraft systems, shoulder-held anti-tank weapons and armoured vehicles.
\nAsking for planes, land-based anti-ship missiles, armoured vehicles and air defence systems, Kuleba made his plea to a special session at Nato headquarters.
\nHe addressed his counterparts from Nato\u2019s 30 members plus the European Union, Finland, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, urging Germany in particular to speed up deliveries, saying procedures were taking too long in Berlin.
\n\u201cI think the deal that Ukraine is offering is fair. You give us weapons, we sacrifice our lives, and the war is contained in Ukraine,\u201d Kuleba said.
\nAfter six weeks of a war that Moscow describes as a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d, Ukraine says Russia continues to shell eastern cities following its forces\u2019 withdrawal from around Kyiv.
\nKuleba also reiterated a demand that the EU stop buying Russian oil and gas, as the bloc promised a fifth round of sanctions against Moscow by Friday.
\n\u201cWe will continue to insist on a full oil and gas embargo,\u201d Kuleba said.
\nOutrage over killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kyiv \u2014 where Russia denies any wrongdoing and says evidence was fabricated \u2014 appears to have galvanised Western support.
\nEU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said a fifth package of sanctions, including a ban on coal, would be agreed on Thursday or Friday, while EU lawmakers voted in a non-binding resolution for \u201can immediate full embargo\u201d on Russian energy imports.
\nBut Blinken, while saying he had a strong sense that Europeans were committed to ending their dependency on Russian energy, also conceded that that could not be as quick as \u201cflipping a light switch.\u201d The bloc\u2019s high level of dependency on Russian oil and particularly gas makes a broader energy embargo \u2014 which would cut off a significant source of revenue for Moscow\u2019s war \u2014 unlikely for the time being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS The United States will send new weapon systems to Ukraine, Washington\u2019s top diplomat said on Thursday after Nato foreign ministers agreed to accelerate arms deliveries in response to Russia\u2019s invasion. Urged by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to end bureaucracy-driven delays, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and 30 other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5759,456,444],"class_list":{"0":"post-253824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-nato-allies","9":"tag-ukraine","10":"tag-us"},"yoast_head":"\n