Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Ukraine ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk as the United States announced more weapons for Kyiv, which warned that arms deliveries were taking too long.
Sievierodonetsk, now largely in ruins, has become the focal point of the war. Russia had told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant there to lay down their arms from Wednesday morning as it fights for control of eastern Ukraine.
US President Joe Bide announced $1 billion worth of new weapons aid for Ukraine that includes anti-ship rocket systems, artillery rockets and rounds for howitzers. Biden, who spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Wednesday, also announced an additional $225 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Kyiv is pleading for faster and more frequent deliveries of weapons as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks full control of the Donbas and a swathe of southern Ukraine. Ukrainian soldiers in the south are fighting to retake ground in wheat fields and empty villages northwest of Kherson, a Russian-occupied city that straddles tributaries to the Black Sea.