Ukraine pleads for weapons as it braces for Russian offensive in the east

As Ukraine braced to battle for control of its industrial east, NATO foreign ministers concluded two days of meetings in Brussels with a promise to provide more support to fight the latest Russian offensive.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance members are "determined to do more" to help Ukrainians "defend their homes and their country, and push back the invading forces."

"We agreed that we must further strengthen and sustain our support to Ukraine, so that Ukraine prevails in the face of Russia's invasion," he said.

Officials in Ukraine told residents to leave the eastern Donbas region while they still can and urged Western nations to send more weapons Thursday, a week after Russian forces withdrew from the shattered outskirts of Kyiv to regroup for an offensive in the country's east.

The focus of Russia's six-week-old invasion failed to take Ukraine's capital quickly and achieve what Western countries say was President Vladimir Putin's initial aim of ousting the Ukrainian government. Russia's focus is now on the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region in Eastern Ukraine.

In Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha, northwest of Kyiv.

"My agenda is very simple. It's weapons, weapons and weapons," Kuleba said as he arrived for talks with NATO's foreign ministers.

"We know how to fight. We know how to win. But without sustainable and sufficient supplies requested by Ukraine, these wins will be accompanied by enormous sacrifices," Kuleba said on Wednesday. "The more weapons we get and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved."

After the meetings, Kuleba called for help from allies within days, not weeks, "or your help will come too late, and many people will die."

Kuleba said the discussion at NATO was not about the list of weapons Ukraine will get but rather about the timeline for when they will be given, noting that he has no doubt that Ukraine will have the weapons necessary to fight.

A U.S. defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said Russia had pulled all of its estimated 24,000 or more troops from the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas in the north, sending them into Belarus or Russia to resupply and reorganize, probably to return to fight in the east.

Growing numbers of Putin's troops, along with mercenaries, have been reported moving into the Donbas. "Later, people will come under fire," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in urging civilians to evacuate from the mostly Russian-speaking industrial region, "and we won't be able to do anything to help them."

She said Ukraine and Russian officials agreed to establish 10 civilian evacuation routes from Donetsk, Luhansk and the Zaporizhzhia region. She said residents would be able to seek safety in the cities of Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine and Bakhmut in the east.

Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas since 2014. Ahead of its Feb. 24 invasion, Moscow recognized the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as independent states.