Ukrainian troops have repulsed several Russian attacks in the east, at the center of a new offensive by invading forces, British intelligence said Monday as the Austrian leader planned to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and call for an end to the conflict.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nechamer has said he will meet with Putin in Moscow on Monday for the Russian leader’s first face-to-face meeting with a European Union counterpart since the Russian invasion began on February 24th.
Austria, a non-NATO member, is a member of the European Union and has backed sanctions against the 27-nation bloc against Russia.
“We are militarily neutral, but we have a clear position on the Russian aggression war against #Ukraine,” Nehamer wrote on Austria on Twitter. “He has to stop! It needs humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire and a full investigation into war crimes. “
Nehammer’s planned meeting with Putin comes after his trip to Kyiv on Saturday, where he met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky welcomed Austrian Chancellor Karl Nechamer ahead of a meeting in Kyiv on Saturday. Nehamer was scheduled to travel to Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Press office of the President of Ukraine / Distribution / Reuters)
Zelenski, meanwhile, continued his tireless campaign to generate international support and unite his compatriots, warning that next week will be important and tense.
“Russia will be even more afraid. He will be afraid of losing. He will be afraid that the truth will have to be acknowledged, “Zelenski said in a video message late at night.
“Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our country. They can use even more missiles against us, even more air bombs. But we are preparing for their actions. We will respond.”
Addressing the South Korean parliament via video link, Zelensky said Russia was concentrating tens of thousands of troops for the next offensive and asked Seoul for any military assistance it could provide.
The United Kingdom says Russian attacks in the east have been repulsed
Russian forces have abandoned their attempt to take the capital Kyiv, at least for now, but are redoubled their efforts in eastern Ukraine. The British Ministry of Defense announced that the Russian shelling continues in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
However, Ukrainian forces have repulsed several attacks and destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery equipment, according to its regular intelligence bulletin.
Air raid sirens rang across Ukraine early Monday.
“It is likely that the enemy, in order to disrupt the supply of goods to the sites of hostilities, will continue to strike at the facilities of the transport infrastructure in Ukraine to destroy or neutralize them,” said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Oleg, 56, mourns Sunday for his 86-year-old mother, Ina, who was killed in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)
Russian forces are continuing their offensive to gain full control of the southern city of Mariupol, trying to storm an iron and steel plant and a seaport, the statement said.
Russia may also take provocative actions in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova to accuse Ukraine of aggression against a neighboring country, the General Staff said, without providing evidence.
Sergei Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, said infrastructure, including grocery stores, had been attacked by Russian “informants”, also without providing evidence. Reuters could not confirm the allegations.
The Russian invasion forced about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people to flee their homes, turning cities into ruins and killing or wounding thousands.
It failed to capture large cities, but Ukraine says Moscow is gathering forces in the east for a major offensive and has called on people to flee.
WATCH Ukrainian village of Andrievka, marked by war. Warning: This video contains graphics:
The Ukrainian village of Andrievka is struggling with its trauma
WARNING: This video contains graphics. Like many in the newly liberated areas near Kyiv, people in the village of Andrievka are just beginning to process their traumatic experiences while living under Russian occupation. 3:03
Russia says it is hitting air defense systems
A series of powerful explosions were heard in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and in Nikolaev, near the Black Sea in the southern part of the country, Ukrainian media reported on Sunday.
Earlier, missiles destroyed the airport in the city of Dnipro, said Valentin Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Separately, the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General. Igor Konashenkov said the military used cruise missiles to destroy four S-300 air defense launchers on the southern outskirts of the central Dnieper city. He said about 25 Ukrainian soldiers were also affected by Sunday’s strike.
Konashenkov said Ukraine received air defense systems from a European country he did not specify. Last week, Slovakia said it had handed over S-300s designed by the Soviet Union to Ukraine, but Slovakia said there was no evidence that its system had been hit.
Reuters could not confirm Russia’s reports.
People fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine boarded a train at the Slavyansk railway station in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. (Marco Jurica / Reuters)
Following Russia’s invasion, Zelensky called on Western powers to provide more defense assistance and punish Moscow with tougher sanctions, including an embargo on its energy exports.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News: “We will give Ukraine the weapons it needs to repel the Russians, to stop them from taking over more cities.
Zelenski said he trusted his own armed forces, but “unfortunately I am not sure we will get everything we need” from the United States.
“They have to deliver weapons to Ukraine, as if defending themselves and their own people,” Zelensky said in a 60-minute CBS interview. “They need to understand that. If they don’t speed up, it will be very difficult for us to resist this pressure.”
Zelenski said earlier on Twitter that he had spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the phone about additional sanctions, as well as more defense and financial support for his country. Zelensky also discussed with Ukrainian authorities Kyiv’s proposals for a new package of EU sanctions, his office said.
The EU on Friday banned imports of Russian coal, among other products, but has not yet touched on oil and gas imports from Russia.
The deaths of civilians impose new sanctions
Rising civilian casualties have sparked widespread international condemnation and new sanctions.
Lyudmila Zabaluk, head of the Dmitrov village department north of the capital Kyiv, said dozens of civilian bodies had been found in the area.
“There were over 50 dead. They were shot at close range. There is a car in which a 17-year-old child was burned, only bones remain. One woman’s head was scattered. A man lies a little farther away. he was burned alive near his car. “
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
WATCH The fronts in the war in Ukraine are moving east:
The Russians regroup, the Ukrainians recover, while the front lines of the war move east
People in the recently liberated parts of Ukraine near Kyiv are rebuilding their lives and ties with the rest of the country, even as the front line of the Russian invasion moves east to the Donbass region. 2:36
Moscow has dismissed allegations of war crimes from Ukraine and Western countries. She has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in what she calls a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denationalize” her southern neighbor. Ukraine and Western countries have dismissed this as an unfounded pretext for war.
The World Bank predicts on Sunday that the war will lead to a 45% drop in Ukraine’s economic output this year, with half of its businesses shutting down, and grain exports being largely interrupted by Russia’s naval blockade and destruction. economic activity is impossible in many areas.
The bank predicts that Russia’s GDP will shrink by 11.2% this year due to Western sanctions.
What questions do you have about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Send ask@cbc.ca an email
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