Germany pledges $1.4b for Ukraine; Russia deploys new missile

Germany has said it will give more military aid to Ukraine, during an unannounced visit to Kyiv by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

The European Union leader Charles Michel was also in Kyiv, becoming the latest high official to throw political clout behind Ukraine during a surprise trip.

A flurry of visits by senior Western officials has sought to reassure Ukraine of more military support as the world's attention shifts to the Middle East and questions emerge over United States funding for Ukraine.

The German aid, worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) and including four further IRIS T-SLM air defense systems as well as artillery ammunition, was announced by Pistorius after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, in Kyiv.

Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February last year, triggering the most serious confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Russia said on Tuesday that it had thwarted Ukraine's attempts to land on the occupied eastern bank of the southern Kherson region, and said Kyiv's army had suffered "colossal losses".

"All attempts by the armed forces of Ukraine to conduct a landing operation in the Kherson area have failed," Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting.

On Wednesday the news agency RIA cited Russia's defense ministry as saying Russia had deployed a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile at the Kozelsk base in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow.

Russia has described the missile, developed in the 2000s and capable of carrying multiple thermonuclear warheads, as one of its newer weapons capable of piercing the missile shield used by the US and its allies.

Upgrading begins

The Kozelsk regiment, where the new missile was loaded into a silo, was the first one in Russia's strategic missile forces to start upgrading to silo-based Yars missiles, RIA said.

The missiles were initially deployed at other regiments in a mobile version.

The Kremlin declined to comment on remarks by the White House spokesman John Kirby that Iran may be considering providing Russia with ballistic missiles.

"We are developing relations with Iran, including in the field of military-technical cooperation, but we do not comment on this information," a Kremlin spokesman said.

Kirby said the US would monitor what was happening between Iran and Russia and take appropriate action as needed.

A senior Russian official said on Tuesday that Russia cannot coexist with the present "regime" in Kyiv, reaffirming Moscow's aim of "demilitarizing" Ukraine.

"The current regime (in Kyiv) is absolutely toxic," Russia's Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said in Moscow. "We do not see any options for coexistence with it at the moment."

Russia could resist NATO as long as was needed to defeat Ukrainian forces, and the West would eventually lose interest, meaning the Kyiv leadership would collapse, Miroshnik said.

Agencies contributed to this story.