Russian landing ship destroyed at Ukrainian port, naval forces say

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Ukraine's navy reported on Thursday that it had destroyed the Russian landing ship Orsk in the Sea of Asov, docked at the occupied Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk.

The Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released photos and video on Facebook of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim.

Russia has been in possession of the port in southern Ukraine since Feb. 27 — a few days after Russia's invasion of the country began — and the Orsk had debarked armoured vehicles there on Monday for use in Moscow's offensive, the Zvezda TV channel of the Russian Defence Ministry said earlier this week.

According to the report, the Orsk was the first Russian ship to enter Berdyansk, which is about 80 kilometres west along the coast from the besieged city of Mariupol.

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since the Second World War, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely. But a month into the fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign of attrition after meeting fierce Ukrainian resistance.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky called on people worldwide to gather in public on Thursday to show support for his embattled country as he prepared to address U.S. President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.

"Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard," Zelensky said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. "Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters."

He also urged NATO to take "serious steps" to help Kyiv fight Russia's invasion, as an unprecedented one-day trio of NATO, G7 and EU summits got underway.

"At these three summits we will see who is our friend, who is our partner and who sold us out and betrayed us," Zelensky said.

To keep up the pressure on Russia, Zelensky said he would ask in a video conference with NATO members that the alliance provide "effective and unrestricted" support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs.

Biden was expected to discuss new sanctions and how to co-ordinate such measures, along with more military aid for Ukraine, with NATO members, and then talk with leaders of the G7 industrialized nations and the European Council in a series of meetings on Thursday.

On the eve of the meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another 500 million euros ($691 million Cdn) in military aid for Ukraine.

The first U.S. shipment from a new, $800 million US arms package for Ukraine will start flying out in the next day or so, a U.S. defence official said.