Ukraine war: Five things you need to know about the conflict on Tuesday
Ukraine is facing "brutality" unseen in Europe "since World War II" amid Russia's invasion, said Jens Stoltenberg on the opening day of a pivotal NATO summit in Madrid.
The comments come a day after a Russian attack on a crowded shopping centre at Kremenchuk in central Ukraine killed at least 18 people, according to a provisional toll. The strike was described as a "war crime" by G7 leaders.
NATO countries, which have already supplied billions of euros worth of weapons to Kyiv, will agree in Madrid "a comprehensive programme of assistance" to help Ukraine "enforce its right to self-defence", Stoltenberg said at a briefing alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
"It is extremely important that we are ready to continue to provide support because Ukraine is now facing a brutality that we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War," said Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general.
The military alliance summit, which runs until Thursday, brings together more than 40 heads of state and government in the Spanish capital. It will be largely devoted to the war Russia launched against Ukraine on 24 February.
On Monday, Stoltenberg announced a massive increase in NATO's rapid reaction troops from 40,000 to 300,000, in a major reinforcement of the alliance's eastern flank.
Survivors of the Russian missile attack on a shopping centre in central Ukraine on Monday have been describing their experiences, with one calling it simply "hell."
At Kremenchuk's public hospital, five people are crammed into a room in an intensive care ward, their wounds bound up in bloodied bandages. A dead body lies on a stretcher outside, covered in a blanket.
Yulia, a 21-year-old woman covered with deep cuts, said Monday was her first day working in one
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