Russia strikes military base near Poland, killing 35

The war in Ukraine widened significantly yesterday, reaching Nato's doorstep as Russia launched a missile attack on a large Ukrainian military training base less than 25km from the border with Nato member Poland.

The pre-dawn attack on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security in the western city of Yavoriv killed at least 35 people and wounded 134, Ukrainian officials said. Britain declared the incident a "significant escalation".

US President Joe Biden had previously vowed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will defend every inch of its territory if the fighting spills into the Western defence alliance's member states.

Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said Russian planes fired around 30 rockets at the training base yesterday, though some were intercepted before they hit.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the strike killed "up to 180 foreign mercenaries" and destroyed a large amount of weapons supplied by outside nations.

The attack - Moscow's bid to stem the flow of foreign arms into Ukraine - brought the Russian invasion farther west, after bombings on the cities of Lutsk in the north-west and Ivano-Frankivsk in the south-west late last week.

It upended the sense of security that people in that region had felt in the first days of the war, when Moscow's attacks were mostly focused on Ukraine's north, south, east and around its capital Kyiv.

The 360 sq km military facility in Yavoriv is about an hour's drive from the city of Lviv, where millions of Ukrainians, diplomats, businessmen and journalists from other parts of the country had fled when fighting started on Feb 24.

It is a key link in the region's role as a corridor for bringing weapons from Nato allies into Ukraine.

Most of Ukraine's military drills with Nato allies were held at the base, which also housed foreign military instructors and trained foreign volunteers for battle.

A Nato official yesterday said there were no Nato personnel at the facility, and local media reported that all foreign instructors there had already departed last month.

The United States had on Saturday committed an additional US$200 million (S$273 million) in arming Ukraine, hours after Moscow warned that foreign arms sent there would be "legitimate targets" for Russian forces.

The escalation in the conflict yesterday added to concerns in west Ukraine following reports that neighbouring Belarus might commit forces to aid Russia in the war.

Belarus has often served as a staging post for Russian offensives into Ukraine.

Ukraine yesterday reported renewed air strikes on an airport in Ivano-Frankivsk, heavy shelling on Chernihiv in the north, and attacks on Mykolayiv in the south, where nine people were killed.

In the east, Russian forces were trying to surround Ukrainian troops as they advanced from the strategic southern port of Mariupol and Kharkiv in the north, according to British intelligence.

Russian soldiers were also moving in from Crimea, seeking to reach Odessa, another strategic port city, through Mykolaiv.

As Moscow advanced, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday warned Russian forces that they faced a fight to the death if they tried to take the capital Kyiv.

"If they decide to... and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that's their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves," he said.

But things looked brighter on the diplomatic front as Russian and Ukrainian officials yesterday gave their most upbeat assessments yet of progress in their peace talks.

"We will not concede in principle on any positions. Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

"I think we will achieve some results in a matter of days." he added.

Russian delegate Leonid Slutsky said draft agreements could soon be reached following significant progress.

There have been three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday.