Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy calls for faster weapons supplies; fighting in Donetsk ‘very tough’ – live | Ukraine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said for the first time that Ankara could accept Finland into NATO without its Scandinavian neighbor Sweden.

Erdogan’s television comments came days after Ankara suspended negotiations with the two countries to join NATO.

Finland and Sweden have abandoned decades of military non-alignment and have applied to join a defense alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey and Hungary remain the only members that have not ratified two applications by a vote in parliament.

If necessary, we can give a different answer for Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different answer to Finland,” Erdogan said.

He also reiterated his demand that Sweden hand over the suspects wanted by Ankara.

If you absolutely want to join NATO, you will return these terrorists to us,” Erdogan said.

Sweden has a larger Kurdish diaspora than Finland and more serious disagreements with Ankara.

Both countries tried to break Erdogan’s resistance during several months of delicate negotiations.

Russian missile strikes in Kherson in southern Ukraine have killed three people, Ukrainian officials said.

“The Russian army has been brutally shelling Kherson all day today,” Zelensky said in his Sunday evening address.

“Two women, nurses, were injured in the hospital. So far, there are reports of six injured and three dead.”

Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s allies to speed up the supply of new weapons to help his forces counter the Russian invasion.

The President of Ukraine, in his Sunday address, said that time should be used as a weapon.

The speed of supplies has been and will be one of the key factors in this war.

Russia hopes to prolong the war, to exhaust our forces. So we must make time our weapon.

We must speed things up, speed up the delivery and discovery of new necessary weapons options for Ukraine.”

Zelenskiy also noted “significant defense results” in the form of last week’s support for military aid from the United States, Germany, Poland, Canada, Belgium, Norway and Italy.

“We must make next week no less powerful for our defense,” he added.

Speaking about the situation on the battlefield, Zelensky called the situation “very difficult.”

“Bakhmut, Ugledar and other areas in Donetsk areas are under constant Russian attacks. Constant attempts to break through our defenses,” he said.

“The enemy… maintains a high intensity of attacks.”

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Samantha Lok and I will update you with all the latest developments as they develop over the next few hours.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukraine’s allies to expedite the supply of new weapons to help its forces overcome the Russian invasion.

“Speed ​​of supply has been and will continue to be one of the key factors in this war… We must make time our weapon,” the President of Ukraine said in an address on Sunday evening.

Speaking about the situation on the battlefield, Zelensky called it “very difficult.”

“Bakhmut, Ugledar and other areas in Donetsk areas are under constant Russian attacks. Constant attempts to break through our defenses,” he said.

If you’ve just joined us, here are all the latest developments:

• As a result of Russian shelling of residential areas of Kherson in southern Ukraine, at least three people were killed and five were injured. local authorities said. The Kherson regional military administration said on its Telegram channel that on Sunday, Russian forces targeted a hospital, a school, a bus station, a post office, a bank and residential buildings.

• According to the regional governor, a rocket hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring several others. Oleg Sinegubov said that the rocket hit the city center on Sunday.

• The Ukrainian military and the Russian private military group Wagner claim to control Blagodatne in eastern Donetsk Oblast. “Units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of … Blagodatny … in the Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian military said, adding that their forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements of the Donetsk region. Wagner, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organization, said on messaging app Telegram on Saturday that his units had taken control of Blagodatnoye.

• President Tayyip Erdogan has signaled that Turkey may agree to Finland joining NATO without Sweden, amid rising tensions in Stockholm. “We can deliver another message to Finland [on their Nato application] and Sweden will be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake as Sweden,” Erdogan said in a televised address broadcast on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year, and accession requires the approval of all member countries. Turkey and Hungary hold on.

• Vladimir Putin was open for contacts with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, although the phone call was not scheduledThis was reported to RIA Novosti by a representative of the Kremlin. Scholz told the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel: “I will also talk to Putin again because it is necessary.”

• Kyiv and its Western allies are conducting “fast-track” talks on the possibility of equipping Ukraine with long-range missiles and combat aircraftThis was announced by the chief assistant to the President of Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak said that Ukraine’s supporters in the west “understand how the war is developing” and that the US and Germany have committed to supply aircraft capable of covering armored vehicles.

• The US military is reportedly urging the Pentagon to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. so he can better defend himself against Russian missiles and drones.

For any updates or feedback you would like to share, please feel free to email or Twitter.