Kyiv - Russian forces are relying on weapons able to cause mass casualties, warned Ukrainian and British officials on Saturday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine would prevail in its war with Russia, now focused on a artillery slugging match over an eastern Ukrainian city.
Russian forces have been trying to seize Sievierodonetsk in their advance in the east, turning it into one of the bloodiest battles so far in the four-month-old conflict.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said, Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine. The Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead. When used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, they “are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties,” the ministry said.
Both sides have expended large amounts of weaponry in what has become a grinding war of attrition for the eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas, placing huge strains on their resources and stockpiles.
Ukraine has appealed for swifter deliveries of heavy weapons from the West to turn the tide of the war with Russian forces - which it says have at least 10 times more artillery pieces than Ukrainian forces. Yet even when outgunned, Ukraine's army has proved more resilient than expected in early phases of fighting.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said a verdict on a captured South Korean "mercenary" was being prepared, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
The family of one of the two British fighters sentenced to death in a brief court appearance last week said on Saturday they were "devastated and saddened at the outcome of the illegal show trial" and called for Shaun Pinner to be treated as a prisoner of war and released or exchanged.
The conflict between the neighbours - two of the world's biggest grain exporters - has reverberated well beyond Ukraine.
The United Nations said on Friday up to 19 million more people in the world could face chronic hunger in the next year because of reduced wheat and other food exports.
Turkey has tried to secure a deal so Ukraine can resume shipments from its Black Sea ports, which accounted for 98% of its cereal and oilseed exports before the war. But Moscow says Kyiv must clear the ports of mines and Ukraine says it needs security guarantees so it is not left exposed.
-Reuters/Ap