Macron, Scholz, Draghi visit Kyiv

KYIV, June 16 (AFP): French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Kyiv on Thursday for their first visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

The leaders arrived on a special train from Poland, with AFP images showing them descending onto a platform in the Ukrainian capital.

It is their first trip to Ukraine since the Russian invasion of the country launched on February 24.

Macron said they will meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and go to "a war site where massacres have been committed."

The French leader has called alleged Russian atrocities in towns near Kyiv "war crimes".

"This is a message of European unity addressed to Ukrainian men and women, of support," Macron said as he descended from the train.

He said he came "to talk about both the present and the future since the coming weeks, we know, will be very difficult."

The visit comes as Ukraine is pushing to be given official candidate status to join the European Union.

The trio had travelled onboard a special train that left Poland in the early hours of Thursday.

German media said they had met "in the night" in Poland's south-eastern city of Rzeszow, which has an international airport.

They arrived separately and met on board shortly after the train's departure.

The French leader had just finished a visit to Moldova, one of Ukraine's neighbours.

Romanian leader Klaus Iohannis is due to join his French, German and Italian counterparts in Kyiv later on Thursday.

Other Western leaders have also visited Kyiv in recent weeks, after the Russian army retreated from its advance on the Ukrainian capital at the start of the invasion.

US sending $1.0b more

military aid to Ukraine

The U.S. announced it will send an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, as America and its allies provide longer-range weapons they say can make a difference in a fight where Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and outgunned by their Russian invaders.

President Joe Biden and his top national security leaders said Wednesday the U.S. is moving as fast as possible to get critical weapons to the fight, even as Ukrainian officials protest that they need more, faster, in order to survive.

The latest package, the U.S. said, includes anti-ship missile launchers, howitzers and more rounds for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that U.S. forces are training Ukrainian troops on now.

All are key weapons systems that Ukrainian leaders have urgently requested as they battle to stall Russia's slow but steady march to conquer the eastern Donbas region.

"Gen. Milley and I have been in a number of fights. And when you're in a fight, you can never get enough," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a press conference in Brussels, referring to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"I certainly understand where the Ukrainians are coming from, and we're gonna fight hard to give them everything they need."

The HIMARS and anti-ship systems are the kinds of longer range capabilities that over time can make a difference in the fight, Milley said. He said Ukraine will have trained HIMARS crews in the fight in a few weeks.