As Russia touts progress on its goal of seizing all of eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday tried to shake the European determination to punish his country with sanctions and to continue supplying weapons. who have supported the defense of Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin had an 80-minute phone call with leaders of France and Germany on Saturday warning against continued transfers of Western weapons to Ukraine and blamed the disruption on the conflict in the global supply of food to Western sanctions.
The war has caused food shortages worldwide because Ukraine is a major exporter of cereals and other commodities. Moscow and Kyiv have negotiated charges over which side is responsible for keeping shipments tied, with Russia saying Ukraine’s sea mines prevented safe passage and Ukraine citing a Russian naval blockade.
The press service of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said that two Russian ships “capable of carrying up to 16 missiles” were ready for action in the Black Sea, adding that only the sea routes established through treaties multilaterals can be considered safe.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the chancellor’s spokesman. They called on Putin to start serious and direct negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to end the fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on Saturday at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence on the outskirts of Moscow. (Mikhail Metzel / Sputnik / AFP / Getty Images)
A Kremlin reading of the call said Putin had stated “the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue”. The three leaders, who had spent weeks without speaking during the spring, agreed to keep in touch, he added.
But Russia’s recent progress in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, could further discourage Putin. Since failing to occupy Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Russia has set out to seize the last parts of the region not controlled by the separatists.
“If Russia were to seize these areas, the Kremlin would most likely consider it a substantial political achievement and would be represented to the Russian people as evidence of the invasion,” the British Defense Ministry said in an assessment on Saturday.
Germany and France negotiated a peace agreement in 2015 between Ukraine and Russia that would have given a high degree of autonomy to Moscow-backed rebel regions in eastern Ukraine. However, the deal stalled long before the invasion of Russia in February. Any hope that Paris and Berlin will anchor a renewed peace deal now seems unlikely with Kyiv and Moscow taking uncompromising positions.
Donbas Offensive
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Lyman, the second small town to fall this week, had been “completely liberated” by a joint force of Kremlin-backed Russian and separatist soldiers who had been at war in the region for eight years. industrial estate of Donbas, bordering Russia.
Ukraine’s train system has transported weapons and evacuated citizens via Lyman, a key railway hub in the east. Its control would also give the Russian army another foothold in the region; it has bridges for troops and equipment to cross the Siverskiy Donets River, which has so far prevented Russian advance on the Donbas.
Russia has stepped up efforts to capture the largest cities in Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, which are the last major Ukrainian-controlled areas in Luhansk. Zelenskyy described the situation in the east as “difficult”, but expressed confidence that his country would prevail with the help of Western weapons and sanctions.
“If the occupiers think Lyman or Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas will be Ukrainian,” he said.
Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai reported that Ukrainian fighters repelled an assault on Sievierodonetsk, but Russian troops still pushed to encircle them. On Saturday, he said, Russian forces had seized a hotel on the outskirts of the city.
Pro-Russian troops fire rockets near Panteleimonivka in the Donbas region on Saturday. (Alexei Alexandrov / The Associated Press)
The mayor of Sievierodonetsk, Oleksandr Striuk, said the previous day that about 1,500 civilians in the city, which had a population of about 100,000 before the war, had died, even from lack of medicines or diseases they could be treated.
Russia’s advance has raised fears that residents may experience the same horrors as in the southeastern port city of Mariupol in the weeks before the fall. Residents who had not yet fled were faced with the option of trying it now or staying.
A nearly three-month siege of Mariupol ended last week when Russia claimed full control of the city. Mariupol became a symbol of mass destruction and human suffering, as well as Ukraine’s determination to defend the country.
TARGET | The war reaches its “maximum intensity” on the Eastern Front:
Russia hits Ukraine’s Donbas as war peaks on Eastern Front
Fighting in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine has reached “maximum intensity,” according to Ukrainian officials who say their troops are being outnumbered by Russian forces, which are bombing heavily. supply lines and escape routes to the east.
The port of Mariupol has reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces cleared the mines in the Sea of Azov. The Russian state news agency Tass reported that a ship bound for Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia entered port early Saturday.
In a call with Macron and Scholz, the Kremlin said, Putin stressed that Russia was working to “establish a peaceful life in Mariupol and other liberated cities from the Donbas.”
Ukrainian authorities have reported that Kremlin-based officials in confiscated cities have begun broadcasting Russian news, entering Russian area codes, importing Russian school curricula and taking other measures to annex the areas.
The Russian-controlled areas of southern Kherson region have shifted to Moscow time and “will no longer be switched to daylight saving time, as is usual in Ukraine,” the state news agency was quoted as saying. Russian RIA Novosti, citing Krill Stremousov, a local official based in Russia. saying Saturday.