“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the occupying forces have no logistical opportunity in our country,” he said in an address on Wednesday evening (Thursday AEST).
Russian officials had previously said pontoon bridges and ferries would be used to cross the river.
Russian-backed forces said Wednesday they had captured the Soviet-era Vuhlehirsk coal-fired power plant, Ukraine’s second-largest, in what was Moscow’s first significant gain in more than three weeks.
Unverified images posted on social media appeared to show fighters from the Russian private military company Wagner posing in front of the power plant, which some Russian state media, citing Russian-backed officials, reported had been stormed.
The Azovstal Metallurgical Combination Plant in Mariupol is under the control of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Russia has tried to capture other Ukrainian power plants, including Vuhlehirsk. Credit: Russian Defense/AP
One of Wagner’s fighters in front of the plant showed his watch to the camera: the time was 10:01 local time and he gave the date July 26.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video or whether the plant had come under Russian control.
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Russia invaded Ukraine in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “desazify” its neighbor. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he planned a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the first between the two diplomats since before the war began.
The call in the coming days would not be “a negotiation on Ukraine,” Blinken told a news conference, reiterating Washington’s position that any negotiations to end the war must be between Kyiv and Moscow.
Russia has not received a formal request from Washington about a phone call between Blinken and Lavrov, the TASS news agency reported.
The United States has made a “substantial offer” to Russia to release the American citizens of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Blinken said, without elaborating on what the U.S. United offered in exchange.
Blinken said he would press Lavrov to respond to the offer.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed a CNN report that Washington was willing to exchange Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States, as part of a deal.
Apart from discussing the Americans detained by Russia, Blinken said he would raise with Lavrov the tentative agreement on grain exports reached last week between Russia, the United States, Turkey and Ukraine.
Russia cut gas flows to Europe on Wednesday in a further escalation of the energy shutdown with the European Union that will make it harder and more expensive for the bloc to fill storage ahead of the winter heating season.
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The supply cut, marked by Gazprom earlier this week, has reduced the capacity of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the main delivery route to Europe for Russian gas, to just a fifth.
While Moscow has blamed the delay in the return of a turbine to service and sanctions for supply cuts, Brussels has accused Russia of using energy as a weapon to blackmail the bloc and retaliate against Western sanctions. for his invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has blocked grain exports from Ukraine since its invasion, but agreed last week to allow deliveries across the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus strait and to world markets.
The deal was thrown into doubt almost immediately when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port, on Saturday, just 12 hours after the deal was signed.
Before the invasion and subsequent sanctions, Russia and Ukraine accounted for nearly a third of world wheat exports.
Reuters