'NATO has yet to show what the Alliance can do to save people': Zelensky pleads with West to step up and give '1% of all your tanks and planes' along with a delivery of more anti-ship missiles

 NATO allies are set to provide new anti-ship weaponry to Ukraine – on a day when the Ukrainian Navy says it scored its first successful attack on a Russian ship off its coast.

President Joe Biden mentioned the assistance as he spoke to NATO allies about the U.S. and allied effort to support Ukraine in its fight to drive off the Russian invasion.'We have started consulting with allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine,' a senior administration told reporters Thursday.

But the official cautioned: 'There may be some technical challenges with with making that happen,' adding that it 'is something that we are consulting with with allies and starting to work on.'

The announcement came hours after Ukraine's Navy announced that the Russian landing ship Orsk had been destroyed in Berdyansk. 

Flames and smoke are seen rising from what appears to be a Russian Alligator-class landing ship docked at the port of Berdyansk, in southern Ukraine, after Kyiv's navy claimed to have destroyed a vessel called Orsk

It had been pictured just days ago offloading Russian attack vehicles in the Black Sea port.

The Russian navy has been firing missiles at Ukraine from its Black Sea fleet, stationed off the coast of Ukraine, but has held off a feared attack by sea on the port city of Odessa. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an explicit plea for arms during his video address to the summit here, although a senior administration official characterized his remarks as not renewing his request for a no-fly zone.  

'On February 24, I addressed you with a perfectly clear, logical request to help close our skies,' Zelensky told the group, according to remarks released by the Ukrainians.

'In any format. Protect our people from Russian bombs and missiles. We did not hear a clear answer. Ukraine does not have powerful anti-missile weapons, and has a much smaller aircraft fleet than Russia. Therefore, their advantage in the sky is like the use of weapons of mass destruction.'

Then he turned to other weapons. 

'You can give us one percent of all your aircraft. One percent of all your tanks. One percent! We can't just buy it. Such a supply directly depends only on NATO's decisions, on political decisions, by the way.'

'MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) systems. Anti-ship weapons. Means of air defense. Is it possible to survive such a war without it?' Zelensky said.

'You can give us one percent of all your aircraft. One percent of all your tanks,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with NATO heads to provide more weaponry to counter Russia's invasion

NATO allies have begun consulting on 'on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine,,' according to a senior administration official. Here President Joe Biden (left), Emmanuel Macron (center) and Boris Johnson (right)  speak at the start of the NATO summit Thursday

One vessel was shown consumed by fire (left) as two other boats fled (center), at least one of which also appeared to be on fire though was able to escape the port

The Russian Navy's large landing ship Orsk sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, January 24, 2022. Ukraine's navy said Thursday it had destroyed the vessel

The Orsk would be the largest ship taken out by the Ukrainians since Russia began its invasion last month. It had been anchored in BerdyanskPresident Joe Biden pointed to the latest tranche of aid in a statement released by the White House.

'In the past few weeks, the United States has announced $1 billion in new security assistance to Ukraine — anti-aircraft systems, anti-armor weapons, drones, and millions of rounds of ammunition. I welcome the steps by many other Allies to provide defensive support to Ukraine and together, we are committed to identifying additional equipment, including air defense systems, to help Ukraine,' Biden said.

The Biden administration has resisted Ukraine's flees to facilitate transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets from NATO allies to Ukraine, for fear it could lead to further 'escalation' of the conflict.

But allies have been seeking myriad other ways to arm the Ukrainians with anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft systems, grenade launchers, machine guns, and small arms. 

Ukraine's navy said it scored a direct hit on the Orsk, a 370ft Russian Alligator-class tank carrier, while it was at anchor.  

Multiple photos and videos showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from the port as one ship sat at the harbor in flames, while another two sailed away - one of which also appeared to be damaged.

The attack, if confirmed, would be Ukraine's largest successful effort to take out an enemy ship.   

'We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the start of the conference.

'We will discuss allied support to Ukraine. We will also address NATO's efforts to strengthen our defenses now and for the years to come,' he said.

The slate of sanctions are already taking a toll, with the administration pointing to independent analysis that Russia had wiped out 15 years of economic gains, with 400 private companies leaving and an estimated 200,000 people emigrating from Russia over a month. 

'Russia will soon face an acute shortage of Ideas, talent and technology to compete in the 21st century. And Putin will be left with a strategic failure of his own making,' said the official.