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The Ukrainian president asked for more tanks and planes from Europe.
Are war crimes happening in Ukraine?
Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time last week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for 1% of NATO’s arsenal during his latest national address.
“One percent! We did not ask for more. And we do not ask for more. And we have already been waiting for 31 days!” he said.
Zelenskyy, who similarly pleaded for more military aid during an address at this week’s NATO summit, said Ukraine is especially in need of more planes and tanks.
“Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles using shotguns, machine guns, which are too much in supplies,” he said. “And it is impossible to unblock Mariupol without a sufficient number of tanks, other armored vehicles and, of course, aircraft.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs and the minister of defense met with U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, in Poland Saturday to address these “vital interests.”
President Joe Biden spoke on the phone with Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya from Air Force One, the White House said Saturday.
Biden “underscored the continued support of the United States for the Belarusian people in defending and advancing human rights, including freedom of expression, and free and fair elections,” the readout of the call stated.
Tsikhanouskaya attended Biden’s address in Warsaw on Saturday, according to the readout.
Belarus has served as a staging area for Russian attacks on Ukraine during the war. Its president, Alexander Lukashenko, is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
-ABC News’ Armando Garcia
The U.S. will be providing Ukraine with $100 million in “civilian security” assistance, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Saturday, hours after he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with their Ukrainian counterparts.
The aid will provide equipment including armored vehicles, medical supplies, personal protective equipment and communications equipment, according to the Department of State.
The aid will go to Ukraine’s border guard, law enforcement and government infrastructure protection, Blinken said in a statement.
“With the U.S. government’s vital assistance, Ukrainian law enforcement officers are playing a key role in rescuing victims of the Russian government’s brutal assault, leading and protecting convoys of those displaced by attacks, and providing security to civilian areas torn apart by ruthless and devastating bombing,” Blinken continued in the statement.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Two Russian missile strikes in Lviv hit an oil depot and a defense facility, Maksym Kozytskyi, Lviv’s regional governor, confirmed in a press briefing Saturday.
Kozytskyi confirmed five people were injured at the site of the first strike and said firefighters are still putting out fires at the facility.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi told reporters a school near the oil depot was damaged in the strike.
Both officials asked the media not to film the sites of the strikes.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack