Ukraine: ‘Fast-track’ talks underway for missiles, planes

By SUSIE BLANN
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A top aide to Ukraine’s president says Kyiv and its Western allies are engaged in “fast-track” talks on the possibility of equipping the invaded country with long-range missiles and military aircraft. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine’s supporters in the West “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for the armored fighting vehicles that the United States and Germany pledged at the beginning of the month. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that Ukrainian forces used U.S.-made HIMARS rockets to strike a civilian hospital in an occupied town in eastern Ukraine, killing 14 people. The strike claim couldn’t be independently verified.