Truss tells allies to send tanks, warplanes to Ukraine

LONDON, Apr 28 (AP/AFP): Britain's top diplomat called Wednesday for Western allies to send tanks, warplanes and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, saying fears of escalating the war were misplaced and "inaction would be the greatest provocation."
Foreign Secretary (FS) Liz Truss said "this is a time for courage, not caution" among nations helping Ukraine fight Russia's invasion.
"Heavy weapons, tanks, airplanes - digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this," Truss said during an annual foreign policy speech at Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London.
NATO nations have supplied Ukraine with military weapons and gear, including missiles and armored vehicles. But they have been reluctant to send fighter planes - despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy - for fear of escalation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already accused NATO of effectively waging a proxy war against Russia.
Western officials deny that, saying the conflict is between Russia and Ukraine due to Russia's illegal invasion of its neighbor.
Britain has sent 450 million pounds ($565 million) in military aid to Ukraine, including thousands of missiles. But Despite Truss's call for jets, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman, Max Blain, said there were "no plans" for the U.K. to send planes.
He did not rule out Britain sending planes to another country, such as Poland, that would then give its own jets to Ukraine, but said there were "no specific plans" to do so.
Truss said Russia's attack on Ukraine must be a wake-up call for international institutions that failed to prevent the invasion.
"The architecture that was designed to guarantee peace and prosperity has failed Ukraine," Truss said. "The economic and security structures developed after the Second World War and then the Cold War have been bent out of shape so far that they have enabled rather than contained aggression."
Truss called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "desperate rogue operator" who was ripping up the global order and outfoxing international institutions.
"Russia is able to block any effective action in the U.N. Security Council," where it has a veto as a permanent member, she said, adding that the Group of 20 club of wealthy and emerging nations "cannot function as an effective economic body while Russia remains at the table."
UN chief condemns 'absurdity'
of war in Ukraine visit
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday visited sites of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, decrying war as "an absurdity in the 21st century" and urging Russia to cooperate with an international investigation into atrocities.
Making his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, Guterres toured several towns and villages outside Kyiv where Russian forces are accused of killing civilians.
"I imagine my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black. I see my granddaughters running away in panic," the UN chief said in Borodianka, a ruined town north-east of the Ukrainian capital.
"The war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil," he added.
In neighbouring Bucha, where dozens of bodies in civilian clothes, some with their hands tied behind their backs, were discovered this month after a Russian withdrawal, Guterres backed an International Criminal Court investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine.
"I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept, to cooperate with the ICC," he implored the Kremlin.
The UN head will later meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Tuesday, he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, repeating calls for both Moscow and Kyiv to work together to set up "safe and effective" humanitarian corridors in war-torn Ukraine.