<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered an increase in weapons production for the war in Ukraine, his ministry said, days after the United States approved a delayed multibillion-dollar military aid package for the Ukrainian government.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">At a meeting on Wednesday with Russia’s top military brass, Shoigu said the volume, quality and speed of arms production needed boosting, and also ordered the repair of units on the front lines in Ukraine’s east and south to improve their efficiency, the Ministry of Defence said on the Telegram messaging app.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“To maintain the required pace of the offensive … it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops, primarily weapons,” Shoigu said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While Russian troops are advancing at key points along the 1,000km (620-mile) front line, some Russian officials have expressed concerns that the US support will escalate the conflict.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine’s troops are running out of ammunition. Outnumbered, they have been forced to make tactical retreats from at least three villages in the country’s east.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskii, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, warned on Sunday that the country is at risk of losing more ground if its Western allies do not deliver weapons quickly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia has taken about half a dozen villages in the Donetsk region while firming up battlefield positions in the Kharkiv region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the military alliance’s members failed to deliver what they promised to Ukraine in time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg told a news conference in Kyiv on Monday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On April 24, US President Joe Biden signed off on more than $61bn in military aid for Ukraine, including an array of artillery, rocket systems, antitank munitions and ammunition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zelenskyy said that vital US weapons were starting to arrive in Ukraine in small amounts, but that deliveries needed to be faster in the face of advancing Russian forces.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Russian military attacked the command headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s southern grouping, which is based in the port of Odesa, the defence ministry said on Wednesday, but did not provide details.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While Ukrainian prosecutors said residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged in Odesa in an overnight strike, the southern military command said administrative and residential buildings, and medical and educational institutions were hit. - Al Jazeera </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>