Muristek
Kyiv, April 26
Russia unleashed a string of attacks on Monday against rail and fuel installations deep inside Ukraine, far from the front lines of Moscow's new eastern offensive, in a bid to thwart Ukrainian efforts to marshal supplies for the fight.
The US, meanwhile, moved to rush more weaponry to Ukraine and said the assistance from the Western allies is making a difference in the two-month-old war.
"Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared, a day after he and the US secretary of defence made a bold visit to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Blinken said Washington approved a $165 million sale of ammunition—non-US ammo, mainly if not entirely for Ukraine's Soviet-era weapons—and will also provide more than $300 million in financing to buy more supplies.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin took his comments further, saying that while the US wants to see Ukraine remain a sovereign, democratic country, it also wants "to see Russia weakened to the point where it can't do things like invade Ukraine".
Austin's comments about weakening Russia appear to represent a broader US strategic goal.
Previously, the US position had been that the goal of American military aid was to help Ukraine win and to defend Ukraine's NATO neighbours against Russian threats.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said weapons supplied by Western countries "will be a legitimate target" for Russian forces.
He also warned that the risk of a nuclear conflict "should not be underestimated".
Speaking in an interview on Russian television, Lavrov said the arming of Ukraine is an attempt to drag on the fighting "until the last soldier" to inflict the most suffering on Russia.
Regarding the possibility of a nuclear confrontation, Lavrov said: "I would not want to see these risks artificially inflated now, when the risks are rather significant."
"The danger is serious," he said. "It is real. It should not be underestimated."
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US and its allies of trying to "split Russian society and to destroy Russia from within".