Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s effort to defeat Russia’s invasion ‘matters to the rest of the world’ and that U.S. support would continue ‘for the long haul.’

At least 2,442 children, including those with disabilities, were taken to Belarus from 17 cities of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine between Feb. 24, 2022, and Oct. 30, 2023.

The missile strike killed 19 Ukrainian soldiers and sparked a wave of criticism among Ukrainians who questioned on social media the planning of an event so close to the battlefield.

Russian forces hit troops of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade with an Iskander-M missile on Friday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a social media post late Saturday.

The overnight shelling set fire to a high-rise apartment building, blew out windows and reduced some apartments to rubble.

Ukraine is keen to show that billions of dollars’ worth of weapons supplied by its Western allies have allowed it to make progress in the fighting.