Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West will fail in its attempts to isolate Russia and face growing economic problems.
Speaking via video link to members of the Eurasian Economic Forum on Thursday, Putin said Russia would not shut down international co-operation. The forum includes several ex-Soviet nations.
Putin said trying to isolate Russia was “impossible, completely unrealistic in the modern world” and that “those who try to do so are hurting themselves.”
The Russian leader cited growing economic challenges in the West, such as “inflation not seen in 40 years, rising unemployment, disrupting supply chains and worsening global crises in areas as sensitive as food”.
“That’s not a joke,” he said. “This is a serious matter that will have an impact on the whole system of economic and political relations.”
He criticized the West for seizing Russian reserves, saying that “the theft of the assets of others never brought anything.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINE WAR:
– As the war in Ukraine progresses, the world is looking for ways to extract grain
– War scars seem to be everywhere in Ukraine after 3 months
– Save the children: the war ends in the city of eastern Ukraine
– The US intends to take advantage of the Russia-Ukraine bloc against China
– Russia is taking steps to strengthen the army, offering citizenship to some Ukrainians
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Follow AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
Kyiv, Ukraine – A regional governor in eastern Ukraine says bombings in the city of Kharkiv have killed at least four civilians.
Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synyehubov said seven other residents of Ukraine’s second largest city were injured in Thursday’s bombing.
He urged people to stay in the shelters, warning that the avalanche could continue.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – The Ukrainian governor of the eastern Luhansk region says Russian bombings have killed three people in and around the town of Lysychansk, which is a key focus of fighting.
Serhiy Haidai said on Thursday that one person was killed in Lysychansk and two in the nearby village of Ustynivka amid a Russian artillery bombardment on Wednesday. He said the strikes in the region had hit several targets, such as private homes and a humanitarian aid center, without specifying how people died.
Haidai is the Kyiv-backed governor of the Luhansk region, where the Ukrainian government clings to a small area around Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk in the face of concentrated push by Russian forces.
In the northern region of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Synehubov said two 64- and 82-year-old men had been killed in a bombing in the city of Balakliya and 10 others were injured, including a 9-year-old girl. Five others were injured in several other places in the region, he wrote in the Telegram messaging app.
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DAVOS, Switzerland – Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov says in recent years not enough strategic measures have been taken to prevent Europe’s growing dependence on Russian gas and to counter hybrid attacks.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Petkov said the war in Ukraine “caused us a lot of crises because we had allowed ourselves to depend on Russia.”
Petkov said that after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Europe criticized Moscow but did nothing to reduce its dependence.
“Although we linked the price of electricity to that of gas, now Russia can not only reduce its gas supply, but also regulate the prices of electricity in Europe,” he said.
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DAVOS, Switzerland – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reiterated his conviction that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not win the war in Ukraine.
“It has no longer achieved all of its strategic goals,” Scholz said Thursday in his speech at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The chancellor said that “a capture of all of Ukraine by Russia seems more distant today than at the beginning of the war. More than ever, Ukraine is emphasizing its European future. “
In addition, Scholz said on Thursday, the “brutality of the Russian war” has brought two states closer to NATO.
“With Sweden and Finland, two close friends and partners want to join the North Atlantic Alliance. They are welcome!” said the chancellor.
Scholz added that Putin had also underestimated the unity and strength with which the Group of Seven Great Industrialized Nations, NATO and the European Union had responded to his aggression.
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MILAN, Italy – The World Food Program has been pushing for wheat to be removed from Ukrainian ports to help feed the hungry in other parts of the world and prevent growing food insecurity in vulnerable regions, while leaving room for the recently planted grain crop. .
“We are pushing 100% to get the food that is trapped in this port. It has to be a continuous flow, it can’t be a few full ships. We have to get everything we can, not just for the Ukrainian economy, but to reach the people who need it in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, “said WFP spokesman John Dumont.
Dumont was in Odessa a couple of weeks ago, and says the grain silos are full. “It simply came to our notice then. Where will they put that wheat when it is harvest time in late June and July? There is no place to go. “
“It simply came to our notice then. It can’t be just a small one-time humanitarian convoy. The Black Sea must be opened. “
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MOSCOW – Kremlin says it expects Ukraine to see what’s happening in the country and accept Moscow’s demands
Asked on Thursday whether Russia expects Ukraine to make territorial concessions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: “Moscow expects acceptance of its demands and understanding of the de facto real situation.”
Russia has previously demanded recognition of its sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed to Ukraine in 2014. It also seeks recognition of the independence of Russia’s backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said in March that the Crimean state and separatist regions could be discussed later. In recent weeks, they have tightened their stance and said Russian troops should return to where they were before Moscow began military action in Ukraine on February 24.
In a telephone conference with reporters on Thursday, Peskov said: “Kyiv should recognize the de facto situation and only make a sober assessment.”
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DAVOS, Switzerland – Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger has warned that Russia will “go further” and his country could be next if Ukraine does not win the war.
Heger was speaking on Sky News at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Slovakia, a member of the European Union and NATO, borders Ukraine.
“We have to support Ukraine because if it fails, it will threaten us, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia,” Heger said.
He said that going beyond the borders of Ukraine is “fear”.
“But at the moment I am happy with the courage shown by the Ukrainian people, with their ability to defend their country.”
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina – British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says Russian President Vladimir Putin is “trying to keep the world afloat” by demanding that some sanctions be lifted before Russia allows resumption of shipments. cereals from Ukraine.
“It’s essentially hunger and food shortages among the world’s poorest people,” Truss said during a visit to Bosnia on Thursday. “We just can’t let that happen.”
Truss promises that “he will do everything, with our allies and partners, to get the grain out of Ukraine and supply the rest of the world.”
But he says sanctions must be maintained to cut off funding for the war in Ukraine.
“We have to make sure that Putin loses in Ukraine,” Truss said. What we can’t have is a lifting of sanctions, no pacification, which will simply make Putin stronger in the long run. “
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Moscow – The Kremlin says the West must lift some of its sanctions against Russia because grain shipments from Ukraine will resume.
Western allies have accused Russia of blocking grain exports from Ukraine to an extent that is exacerbating food shortages in Africa and other regions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that “we categorically reject the allegations and accuse Western countries of taking a series of illegal actions that have led to the blockade.”
Speaking at a conference call with reporters, he added that the West, in particular, “must cancel illegal decisions that hinder ship rental and grain exports.”
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VIENNA – An American diplomat based in Vienna has condemned the “pure barbarism, sadistic cruelty and illegality” of the Russian war in Ukraine.
U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter spoke on Thursday, three months after Russia began its invasion.
“I think we all know what would happen if Russia achieved” success “in Ukraine,” Carpenter said in a speech to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“Russian diplomats know that too,” he said. “There would be more horrific reports of leaks, more people forcibly displaced, more summary executions, more torture, more rapes and more looting.”
Carpenter called on OSCE member countries to provide Ukraine with “the support it now needs to defend itself against the retaliatory illusions of Putin (Russian President Vladimir).”
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Moscow – The Russian military says it has destroyed a large Ukrainian unit with equipment at a railway station in the east.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Thursday that Russian warplanes had hit the Pokrovsk railway station when an assault brigade arrived to reinforce Ukrainian forces in the region unloaded there.
Konashenkov also said that the Russian army destroyed the city of Ukraine …