内容摘要：Bicycles are displayed at a Walmart, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Groton, Conn. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Bicycles are displayed at a Walmart, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Groton, Conn. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine’s president on Wednesday urged Western backers to speed up deliveries of air defense systems to counter Russian missile strikes and to help boost weapons production.The emphasis should be on U.S.-made Patriot systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskky told a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“These are the most effective way to force Russia to stop its missile strikes and terror,” he said via video link, urging representatives of around 50 countries to make good on past pledges.did not attend, the first time asince the forum for organizing Ukraine’s

was set up three years ago. Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, created the group afterHis absence is the latest step that the Trump administration has taken to distance itself from Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to U.N. estimates, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Zelenskyy also appealed to the participants to buy weapons direct from Ukraine. “Ukrainian industry still has significant untapped capacity, it just needs financing,” he said, underlining that a funding gap for weapons procurement amounts to about $18 billion.

Soldiers of Ukraine’s 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade fire a Grad multiple rocket launcher towards Russian positions at the frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)in China passed like any other weekday. And that’s just how the ruling Communist Party wants it.

Security was tight Wednesday around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where weeks of student-led protests shook the party in 1989. Under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the military was sent in to end the protest on the night of June 3-4. Using live ammunition, soldiers forced their way through crowds that tried to block them from reaching the square. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.The party has tried, with some success, to erase what it calls the “political turmoil” of 1989 from the collective memory. It bans any public commemoration or mention of the June 4 crackdown, scrubbing references from the internet.

Security personnel stand on duty near the Tiananmen Gate which is under renovation on the anniversary of China’s bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)Security personnel stand on duty near the Tiananmen Gate which is under renovation on the anniversary of China’s bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)