Moscow details a plan to boost the army while Ukraine warns of a new Russian attack

Mr. Shoigu said Russia would create new military districts in the regions around Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as military corps in Karelia on the border with Finland. He said the country would also set up “self-sufficient” units in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Russian president

Russian President Vladimir Putin

It was quoted by TASS on Tuesday as saying that Russian military suppliers continue to increase their capabilities, with many companies working in several shifts or around the clock.

Russian officials have portrayed the military buildup and the Ukraine war as part of a direct confrontation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a claim vehemently denied by the West.

“This is due to the war that Western countries are waging – a proxy war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. “The security of our country must be guaranteed.”

Representatives of more than 50 countries that support Ukraine are scheduled to meet in Rammstein, Germany, later this week To discuss supplies to Kyiv. The US-led assembly, known as the Contact Group, includes all NATO member states and key allies providing lethal and non-lethal aid.

Valeriy Zalogny, the chief officer of the Ukrainian military, and US Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met at an undisclosed location in southeastern Poland on Tuesday. Mr. Zalogny said on Telegram that he was grateful for the unwavering support and assistance provided by the United States and its allies and outlined the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“Russia continues to act in ways that are almost unbelievable,” President Biden said Tuesday.

Biden met at the White House with Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, and said the two countries were working to ensure “we have a coherent European response” to Russia’s war.

Mr. Rutte said the Netherlands intends to join the United States and Germany in helping Ukrainian forces use the weapons Patriot missile defense system. He said he discussed the system earlier in the day with German Chancellor Olaf Schultz.

The question for Ukraine hinges on how quickly and in what quantities its main allies will provide heavy equipment, including tanks, that can aid its advance into Russian-held areas and push back Moscow’s swathes of territory, especially in those areas. east of the country.

German officials said they would send main battle tanks and approve third country exports only to Ukraine as part of a joint NATO effort. Mr. Schulz is under pressure to rebuild the German army, which has been weakened by years of low spending, and to increase arms shipments to Kyiv.

“Russia is preparing for a new attempt to take the lead in the war,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address Monday night. “This just highlights how important it is to coordinate our efforts…and expedite the decision.”

Last week, Mr. Shoigu appointed Russia’s chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, as commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. He succeeded General Sergei Surovikin, dubbed “General Armageddon” by Russia’s war hawks for his brutal tactics, and was chosen to lead Russian forces in Ukraine three months ago.

Mr. Zelensky’s renewed calls to help expel Russian forces come as Ukraine continues to dispute Moscow’s claims that Russia is in control. Solidar town in eastern Ukraine, a possible launching point for an expanded attack on Bakhmut in the south. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s armed forces said they had repelled Russian attacks on 20 different settlements in the eastern Donbass region, including Solidar and Bakhmut.

Dennis Pushlin

Acting leader installed by Moscow In the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, he said clean-up operations are underway in Solidar, where the city’s railway station and other major buildings are under the control of Russian forces.

Robert Brophy, a Ukrainian who serves in a drone unit at Solidar, dismissed allegations that Solidar is under complete Russian control as Russian propaganda. He said parts of the Russian-controlled town are being successfully targeted by his unit. “Every day we launch strikes on Solidar,” he said in an interview with Ukrainian television.

The Russian force that stormed the town consisted mostly of units belonging to the Wagner Group, its paramilitary force Recruit thousands of inmates from Russian prisons of the war in Ukraine, promising them an amnesty in exchange for six months of brutal front-line service. Mr Provdy, observing Solidar from drones, said he sees no regular Russian troops in the town, only Wagner mercenaries.

In Dnipro, a major city in eastern Ukraine about 150 miles west of Soledar, emergency crews on Tuesday continued digging through rubble. Bombing of a residential building with a Russian missile on Saturday.

Valentin Reznichenko, head of the surrounding Dnipropetrovsk region, said the work of the rescue teams was 90% complete after 63 hours. He explained that the death toll reached 40, while 79 people were injured, including 16 children, and 25 residents of the building are still missing.

In his speech on Monday evening, Mr. Zelensky said that the Ukrainian security services were gathering information on the identities of the Russian service personnel who prepared and carried out the strike with the Kh-22 anti-ship missile. “There is no doubt: every accomplice to this war crime will be identified and held accountable for its commission,” he said.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said nighttime bombing through Tuesday had damaged power lines and left some residents without electricity. Residents reported the sound of explosions, which Mr. Gladkov said were the result of the city’s air defenses intercepting the projectiles. He did not say who was responsible for the bombing.

—Ken Thomas contributed to this article.

Write to Matthew Luxmoore at [email protected]