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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the close of the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, that the obliteration of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut by Russian forces harkens back to the Hiroshima bombing at the end of WWII.
"Hiroshima is a rebuilt city now. And we dream of rebuilding all of our cities that are now in ruins, and every village where not a single house is left intact after Russian strikes," Zelenskyy said Sunday.
The Ukrainian leader delivered the warning that if the world does not unite against the Russian aggressor, it will be "a matter of time before other criminals in public office want to start similar wars," adding, "I am here in Hiroshima so that the world can hear the Ukrainian call for unification from here."
Zelenskyy contested Russia's claims Sunday that it had occupied Bakhmut.
On Saturday, Russia said it had seized the beleaguered city after a nine-month battle there, the longest and bloodiest since WWII. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian troops and Wagner forces for their victory, which was contested by Kyiv, which said it still occupied a small part of the eastern city.
Even during their alleged victory, Russia revealed the rift between Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner mercenary forces and the Russian military establishment.
Prigozhin on Sunday played down the role of the regular Russian army in capturing Bakhmut, the east Ukrainian city that Moscow claimed to have taken a day earlier.
Meanwhile, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Sunday he had visited front-line positions near Bakhmut and thanked the Ukrainian troops defending the area.
Syrskyi said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv's forces still controlled a part of Bakhmut- albeit - he conceded an "insignificant" area. He noted, however, that their foothold would be enough to advance into the devastated city once the tide turned.
He said Kyiv's forces controlling the suburbs were forming a "tactical encirclement" around Russian troops in the city.
G-7 support for Ukraine
At a G-7 news conference Sunday in Hiroshima, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Western allies "will not waver" in their support for Ukraine.
Biden said the major powers would remain united behind Ukraine against Russian aggression. He also announced Sunday a new $375 million package of military aid to Ukraine.
Meeting with the Ukrainian leader on the sidelines of the G-7 summit, Biden said the military aid package included ammunition, artillery, armored vehicles and training.
"Together with the entire G-7, we have Ukraine's back and I promise we're not going anywhere," Biden told Zelenskyy.
Biden affirmed U.S. support for a joint effort with allied and partner nations to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter aircraft such as the F-16.
Biden told reporters that he had received a "flat assurance" from Zelenskyy that Ukraine would not use Western-provided F-16 fighter jets to go into Russian territory and that such warplanes would be used "wherever Russian troops are within Ukraine and the area."
But Ukraine has not yet won commitments to receiving F-16 jets from allies.
Biden has defended his initial hesitancy to providing the high-tech jets to Ukraine, arguing that they would not have made any difference in stopping Russian advancement on Bakhmut.
However, responding to a question by VOA's Russian Service at the G-7 Summit, Zelenskyy said that discussions on the delivery of F-16 have come a "step further," starting with the training of Ukrainian pilots on the aircraft, which he affirmed that Ukraine plans to complete as soon as possible.
"We will be working for these people to be as educated as possible, as trained and experienced as possible with huge experience to decrease this process of training to make it short," he told VOA. "I cannot tell you how many aircraft we'll be able to get. I cannot tell you definitely when it will take place, but we will speed it up because it's important for us every day. We're losing our people."
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.