Zelenskyy urges Ukraine allies to allow long-range weapons

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged his Western allies to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia and increase pressure on Moscow to end the war.

The United States pledged an additional $250m in military aid to Ukraine, which was announced by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin at the meeting of the UDCG – also known informally as the Ramstein group.

It has regularly gathered together representatives of some 50 nations which supply arms to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Moscow’s forces are currently advancing in the Donbas region, with Putin on Thursday declaring that capturing the eastern area was his “primary objective” in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s surprise push into Russia’s Kursk region last month caught Russian forces off-guard, though Putin on Thursday dismissed the offensive, stressing that the move had failed to slow Moscow’s advance.