Top US officials set to visit Kyiv amid call for heavy arms

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin were set to visit Kyiv on Sunday (Apr 24) to discuss Ukraine's call for more powerful weapons, 2 months after Russia's invasion began.

The trip, announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, would be the highest-level by US officials since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on Feb 24.

The White House has not confirmed any visit by Blinken and Austin. The State Department and Pentagon declined to comment.

On Sunday, there was no end in sight to a war that has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions more and reduced cities to rubble.

Zelensky said in an Easter video message from Kyiv's 1,000-year-old Saint Sophia Cathedral that Ukraine would not be defeated by "wickedness" and prayed for "endurance to those who, unfortunately, would not see the return of their child from the front".

The United States and Nato allies have shown growing readiness to supply heavier equipment and more advanced weapons systems. Britain has promised to send military vehicles and said it was considering supplying British tanks to Poland to free up Warsaw's Russian-designed T-72s for Ukraine.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks by phone with Zelensky that Ankara was ready to assist in negotiations with Russia, after earlier rounds of talks showed no sign of helping end the conflict. He also called for evacuating civilians from the devastated southern city of Mariupol.

Ukraine said Russia was continuing to bombard the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol where Ukrainian defenders were holding out, although Moscow previously declared victory in the city and said it did not need to take the plant.

British military intelligence said Ukrainian resistance had been strong, especially in Donbas, despite some Russian gains.

Russia said on Sunday its missiles hit 8 military targets overnight, including 4 arms depots in the north-east Kharkiv region and one facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region producing explosives for the Ukrainian army. REUTERS