Top Ukraine, US military leaders meet over ‘urgent needs’

Al Jazeera:

The top United States military officer travelled to Poland and talked with his Ukrainian counterpart face to face for the first time as Russia’s war on Ukraine nears the one-year mark.

US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met for a couple of hours with Ukraine’s chief military officer, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, at an undisclosed location in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine.

Zaluzhnyi said he outlined his forces’ “urgent needs” on Tuesday with Milley.

The two leaders have talked frequently about Ukraine’s military requirements and the state of the war over the past year but had never met.

The meeting comes as the international community ramps up military assistance to Ukraine, including expanded training of Ukrainian troops by the US and the provision of a Patriot missile battery, tanks and increased air defence and other weapons systems by the US and a coalition of European and other nations.

It also marks a key time in the war. Ukraine’s troops face fierce fighting in the eastern Donetsk province, where Russian forces – supplemented by thousands of private Wagner Group contractors – seek to turn the tide after a series of battlefield setbacks in recent months.