or around the world. within the past 2a hours, both the us and germany have announced that they re to send new weapons systems to ukraine. germany has this morning promised kyiv an air defence system the iris t system which chancellor olaf scholz says will enable ukraine to defend an entire city against russian air attacks. it comes after president biden confirmed that the us is to provide more advanced rocket systems something the ukrainians have long been requesting. mr biden said it would enable ukraine to strike russian targets more precisely. in the last 2a hours, a russian airstrike hit a chemical plant in the eastern city of severodonetsk releasing a cloud of dangerous gas. residents have been told to stay in bomb shelters to avoid the fumes. both sides are suffering heavy casualties here and the ukrainian command may decide on a tactical retreat. russia now occupies almost