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• Mayor Ihor Terekhov of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city that has been subject to a Russian onslaught, said that the use of foreign weapons to strike missile launch positions in Russia has helped reduce the number of attacks on his city.
• President Joe Biden late last month approved the use of American weapons to strike targets inside Russia that were being used to attack Kharkiv.
• Terekhov also stressed the need for Western air defenses to help protect Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s army has struck missile launch positions in Russia, helping to reduce the number of attacks on the embattled city of Kharkiv, its mayor told Reuters on Tuesday.

His comments came after U.S. President Joe Biden late last month approved the use of American weapons to strike targets inside Russia that were being used to attack Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city located close to the Russian border.

While missile and drone strikes continue, Ihor Terekhov said the change had helped bring relative “calm.”

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“This has helped,” Terekhov said in an interview in Berlin, when asked whether the ability to strike inside Russia had alleviated the situation following weeks of heavy bombardment.

“That is why maybe Kharkiv has … this period of … calm the last couple of weeks … that there were no great strikes as it was, for example, in May.” He was speaking through a translator.

Terekhov is visiting a conference in Germany which aims to encourage European support and investment in Ukraine.

The mayor said that about 11,500 people had arrived in Kharkiv city from regions that were being actively bombarded.

Terekhov also stressed the need for Western air defenses to help protect his city.

Ukraine has struggled to intercept incoming Russian drones and missiles because of the lack of systems to shoot them down. Kyiv’s allies are scrambling to find more, but deliveries have been held up by political wrangling in Washington and the lack of availability of suitable weapons.

“It is very important to have the weapons on time. It is very important to have these weapons, especially the multi-defense air system.”

Russia launched three guided bombs at Kharkiv on Monday, damaging at least two houses, according to local officials, underlining the continuing threat.

The city and surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks but the strikes had become more intense in recent months, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.

In recent months, Moscow’s forces have made slow but steady gains along several parts of the sprawling eastern front and are attempting to push deeper into the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The regional capital has been repeatedly hit by Russian bombs and missiles, including an attack on a printing works that killed seven people and another on a DIY hardware store in late May that killed at least 14.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is set to visit Budapest this week to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“It is part of my job as secretary general to see the leaders of NATO countries to make sure we have an agreement,” Stoltenberg explained in Riga at a B9 Summit press conference.

“I look forward to sitting down and discussing (with Orbán) the agenda of the Washington summit, which includes both NATO security and deterrence and support for Ukraine,” he added.

“I expect all allies to give the OK to strengthen aid coordination in Kyiv and approve financial support,” Stoltenberg concluded.

The leaders will hold a joint press conference on Wednesday, according to the press release from the alliance.

Currently, Stoltenberg is on a visit to Riga — which recently marked one year of a successfully revived military conscription policy — to take part in the B9 Summit, hosted by Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs and his Romanian and Polish counterparts Klaus Iohannis and Andrzej Duda.

At a joint press conference in the Latvian capital, Stoltenberg praised the Baltic country for “leading by example” by allocating 2% of GDP to its defence portfolio — expected to increase to 3% by 2027 — and its military efforts in support of Ukrainian soldiers.

“Latvia also provides robust military support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg added.

“You provide extensive military training to Ukrainian soldiers. You lead a coalition that works with industry to supply drones. And you contribute to the Czech-led initiative to provide more artillery shells.”

The Romanian president announced in March he would join the race to become the next leader of the 32-nation NATO military alliance, emphasising the country’s strategic position in Europe and proximity to Ukraine.

“Russia is proving to be a serious and long-term threat to our continent, to our Euro-Atlantic security,” Iohannis previously said. “Under these conditions, NATO’s borders become of paramount importance, and the strengthening of the eastern flank … will remain a long-term priority.”

He said he believes NATO needs a “renewal of perspectives” and that Eastern Europe’s historical challenges could provide that in the face of Russian aggression.

Many of NATO’s easternmost members have expressed concern about Russia’s attempts to reassert influence over their region, with memories of living under Soviet influence still strong for some.

Stoltenberg, who has been in the post since 2014, has made it clear he was not seeking a successive term.