Mr Zelensky said his government was seeking the green light to hit Russian military airfields used on a daily basis to attack “purely civilian infrastructure – dams, energy grid, schools, universities”, as well as hospitals.

He added that Russia continued to use artillery, long-range fire, and some 300 weapons systems carrying tens of thousands of missiles on its side of the border to target the Ukrainian population.

“So they have these weapons there and they do not remove them because they know that Ukraine cannot target them with Western weaponry even if they fire against us,” he said.

The Ukrainian president made his comments at Asia’s top security summit in Singapore. He made a surprise visit this weekend to appeal to Asia and Pacific leaders to attend a June peace summit in Switzerland where he hopes to forge a path for the “just” ending of Russia’s war.

Mr Zelensky met with Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, as well as the leaders of Singapore, Timor Leste and Indonesia, but not with the Chinese delegation that was led by Dong Jun, their defence minister.

Beijing has publicly criticised the Ukrainian peace initiative because Russia is not invited, and confirmed that it would not be attending as the arrangements for the meeting “falls short of China’s requirements”.

It was reported that Mr Zelensky had hoped to engage with the Chinese in Singapore. Instead, he accused China of being “an instrument in the hands of Putin”, claiming that the country was dispatching its diplomats at Russia’s behest to persuade countries to snub the summit.

“Regrettably, Russia using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt this summit,” Mr Zelensky said.

‘China’s support will make war last longer’

Mr Zelensky said “with China’s support to Russia the war will last longer. That is bad for the whole world, and the policy of China – who declares that it supports territorial integrity and sovereignty and declares it officially. For them it is not good”.

He also echoed the US accusation that China has been providing military support to Russia, which Beijing denies. Washington has alleged that China’s export of dual-use goods to Moscow is bolstering its defence industrial base.

Mr Zelensky accused Beijing of undermining its pledges not to arm Russia, saying that “today, there are various signals from various intelligence services… that somehow, some way, something comes to Russia’s markets via China”.

China claims neutrality in the conflict while providing an economic lifeline to Russia, which is subject to international sanctions, and also as the two countries have stepped up their diplomatic partnership.

In a speech to the defence conference on Sunday morning, Mr Jun said China had been “promoting peace talks with a responsible attitude”.

Russia claims US-made weapons fired 

Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine had fired US-made weapons at targets inside Russia for the first time after Mr Biden gave the green light.

Russia’s ministry of defence and Russian military bloggers have reported that Himars, long-range artillery, were fired by Ukraine at Russia on Saturday evening.

“The enemy has begun using Western-made weapon systems to attack ‘old’ Russian territory. These are fragments of M142 Himars MLRS shells,” said Evgeniy Poddubny, the sanctioned Russian war reporter and Kremlin propagandist, on his Telegram channel underneath a slideshow of several photos. 

“The Russian Army’s air defence crews destroyed more than 10 missiles in the sky over the Belgorod region.”

Ukraine did not comment.