U.K. bolsters Ukrainians; Syria vet put in command of Russians ...

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For Sunday’s live updates, click here.European leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, visited Kyiv and announced the reopening of embassies in the capital Saturday in a diplomatic show of support a day after a devastating attack at a Ukrainian rail station.Ukrainians were still trying to flee the eastern part of the nation, but the governor of the Luhansk region said that “far fewer people” were willing to evacuate after at least 52 people were killed and 98 injured in the attack on the Kramatorsk station.Johnson pledged 120 more armored vehicles and new anti-ship missiles during his visit to Kyiv and was photographed while walking the city’s streets alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. And a lot of them.The message has been broadly the same from the start of Russia’s invasion, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly said “I need ammunition, not a ride,” to this past week, when Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told NATO leaders in Brussels that he had a threefold agenda: “weapons, weapons and weapons.”But in the United States and Europe, the discussions over what types of weapons to send is far different than it was just six weeks ago.Ukraine is bracing for a new and potentially more challenging phase in its war to repel Russia’s invasion as the battles shift east to new terrain that could give more of an advantage to the Russians.The wide-open spaces will make it harder for the Ukrainians to run guerrilla operations as they did in the forests of the north and the west and play to Russia’s ability to muster large mechanized formations of tanks and armored vehicles.But much will depend on whether the Russians can rectify the mistakes they made in the first phase of their invasion, ranging from the failure of supply lines, logistical challenges and poor planning to using insufficient manpower for the size of the area they were attempting to seize, analysts say.That the Ukrainians have not only managed to hold the Russian army at bay but also forced its troops into a humiliating retreat from the north of the country is testament to their fighting ability and to the Russians’ poor performance, experts say.Photojournalist Nicole Tung is on assignment for The Washington Post in Odessa, the country’s third largest city.She filed these photos today of people walking among fortifications, registering for humanitarian aid and boarding trains set for Poland.Russian forces have refocused their invasion on eastern Ukraine, where this Black Sea port city has been preparing for possible attack. Federal immigration minister Sean Fraser said Wednesday that Canada has received more than 112,000 applications.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on leaders of Western democracies to “follow the example of the United Kingdom” during British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday.“We have to exert pressure in the form of sanctions, and I’m grateful to the United Kingdom that continues and intensifies the sanctions and also provides significant support to Ukraine by reinforcing our defense capacities,” Zelensky said at a news conference, calling on Western countries to impose an embargo on Russian energy sources and supply more weapons to Ukraine.Calling Moscow’s war “inexcusable,” Johnson pledged to intensify sanctions on Russia, “not just freezing assets in banks and sanctioning oligarchs, but moving away from the use of Russian hydrocarbons.” He also promised Britain’s help with clearing mines Russian forces left behind and said that Britain would liberalize trade with Ukraine.“What this war is certainly producing is a clarity about a vision for the future of Ukraine, where together with friends and partners, we, the U.K., and others, supply the equipment, the technology, the know-how, the intelligence, so that Ukraine will never be invaded again — so that Ukraine is so fortified and so protected that Ukraine can never be bullied again, never be blackmailed again, never be threatened in the same way again,” Johnson said at the news conference alongside Zelensky.The trip was Johnson’s first to the war-ravaged country since the Russian invasion began. Johnson and Zelensky reportedly speak most days, and Britain moved to help Ukraine before other European countries.Zelensky expressed gratitude on Saturday toward Johnson for the “direct, very clear and specific position of your wonderful and powerful country,” thanking him for visiting and calling him “our most sincere friend.”“You came here, and we are especially grateful that this happened — this is a true reflection of the decisive and significant support to Ukraine from the United Kingdom, and we always are grateful for that, we shall always remember that,” Zelensky said.Johnson’s trip came a day after he announced that Britain would provide an additional $130 million worth of weapons for Ukraine after the “unconscionable bombing” of fleeing Ukrainians at a train station in eastern Ukraine on Friday.The military equipment will include Starstreak antiaircraft missiles and 800 antitank missiles, Johnson said, as well as precision munitions and more helmets, body armor and night vision equipment.In Kyiv on Saturday, Johnson pledged 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missiles to Ukraine.