KYIV, June 01 (Reuters): Russian troops pressed closer to the centre of a factory city in their drive on Wednesday to grab a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the United States said it would supply advanced rockets to Kyiv to help it force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.
Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces, now 98 days into their invasion, were pounding infrastructure in eastern and southern regions including the symbolically important industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, which they entered on May 27. It has been the main focus of their ground offensive for several weeks.
Sievierodonetsk is a Soviet-era city that houses a large chemical factory. According to the local governor, a Russian airstrike hit a large chemical plant in the city on Tuesday, blowing up a tank of toxic nitric acid.
Russia "attacked the Azot factory from a plane, resulting on the release of toxic substances," Governor Serhiy Gaidai said, urging residents to remain inside. Reuters could not independently confirm the cause of the incident.
President Joe Biden announced the supply of precision rocket systems and munitions that could strike at long-range Russian targets, part of a $700 million weapons package expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. read more
"We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table," Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
A senior Biden administration official said the new supplies - which comes on top of billions of dollars worth of equipment such as drones and anti-aircraft missiles - included the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which Kyiv has said is "crucial" to counter Russian missile attacks.
Ukraine welcomed the West's supply of weapons, which has included M777 howitzers deployed along the frontline in the Luhansk region that includes Sieverodonetsk, although regional governor Gaidai decried a "rose-coloured" view of the situation.
"Weapons are coming but not in the volumes we wanted," he said. "There will be no victory just in an instant because of the 777 howitzer."
Addressing concerns that weapons such as HIMARS could draw the United States into direct conflict, senior administration officials said Ukraine had given assurances the missiles would not strike inside Russia.
Russia, however, warned of an increased risk of direct confrontation with the United States. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency RIA Novosti that Moscow viewed the development "extremely negatively." read more
Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday sharply criticised a US decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine, warning of an increased risk of direct confrontation with Washington.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire."
When asked how Russia would respond if Ukraine used US-supplied rockets to strike Russian territory, Peskov said: "Let's not talk about worst-case scenarios".
US President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at long-range Russian targets as part of a new US package to help Kyiv defend itself in the three-month-old war that began with Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.
Washington agreed to supply the rockets, which are capable of hitting targets as far away as 80 km (50 miles), after Ukraine gave "assurances" they will not use the missiles to strike inside Russia itself, senior US officials said.
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