Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for more weapons to counter the threat from advancing Russian forces in the east of the country and Moscow's devastating missile strikes. He pressed his nation's case to allies meeting at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where Washington unveiled a new $250 million in military aid for Ukraine, and later in the day at an international forum on the Italian Lakes. "We need more weapons to drive Russian forces off our land," said Zelensky, who Friday also met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and will meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday. The gatherings came as Moscow's forces advance in the Donbas region, Russian President Vladimir Putin having declared on Thursday that capturing the eastern area was his "primary objective" in the conflict. Zelensky urged Kyiv's supporters to follow through on previous commitments. "The number of air-defence systems that have not been delivered is significant," he said.

And he again called for restrictions to be lifted on the use of long-range Western weapons. "We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory," Zelensky said. In Italy, he assured his backers that the weapons would only be used to hit military targets. Asked about Zelensky's appeal, US defence chief Lloyd Austin said: "I don't believe that one specific capability is going to be decisive. "It's not just one thing, it's a combination of capabilities and how you integrate those capabilities to achieve objectives," said Austin. Zelensky arrived late Friday in Cernobbio, northern Italy, for the European House-Ambrosetti forum on the banks of Lake Como. He will meet Meloni there on Saturday. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- who upset his EU counterparts and Zelensky by meeting Putin in Moscow in July -- is also attending the three-day economic forum. Zelensky rejected Orban's calls at Cernobbio for a ceasefire, saying that Putin had never respected earlier accords.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan