Ukraine's allies scramble to keep ammo flowing

Ukraine's Western backers pledged at a meeting to keep the huge amounts of ammunition and arms Kyiv needs flowing to the frontline, as Russia battled for the devastated city of Bakhmut.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has knuckled down on his plea for Western aircraft after securing commitments for tanks, air defence and precision missiles.

But allies meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels remained focused on ensuring his forces have the ammunition, armoured vehicles and air defences they need on the ground to push back renewed Russian offensives.

During the opening of a meeting regrouping NATO's defence ministers, Jens Stoltenberg, the organisation's Secretary General, asks for a minute of silence "in solidarity with our ally Turkey", as he conveys "our heartfelt condolences to all the victims" in Turkey and Syria.

He also underlined that it has almost been a year since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, reminding that NATO allies will continue to support Ukraine "as long as it takes".

Ukraine's Western supporters -- spearheaded by the United States -- have already supplied billions of dollars of arms to help Kyiv hold Moscow back.

Now, just under a year into the war, NATO says Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be starting a broader new offensive in east Ukraine.