MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the barrage of Western sanctions against Russia has failed.
Putin said Monday that the West “expects to quickly upset the financial and economic situation, cause panic in the markets, collapse of the banking system and shortage of shops.” He added that “the economic blitz strategy has failed”.
The Russian leader spoke in a televised speech during a video interview with senior economic officials.
Putin noted that “Russia has withstood unprecedented pressure,” claiming that the ruble has strengthened and the country has registered a historically high trade surplus of $ 58 billion in the first quarter of the year.
Instead, he argues that sanctions have the opposite effect on the United States and its European allies, accelerating inflation and lowering living standards.
Putin acknowledged the sharp rise in consumer prices in Russia, saying they had risen 17.5 percent year-on-year in April, and urged the government to index wages and other payments to ease the impact of inflation on people’s incomes.
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KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– “No capitulation”: Ukrainians continue to fight at the steel plant in Mariupol
– Russia resumes strikes on the capital of Ukraine, strikes other cities
– Mother, grandmother cry over 15-year-old killed in the shelling of Kharkov
Follow all AP stories about Russia’s war against Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says Russia could be prosecuted for war crimes for refusing to allow humanitarian corridors for civilians trapped in Mariupol.
Earlier on Monday, Irina Vereshchuk said an evacuation was not possible for the second day in a row due to Russian attacks on civilian convoys.
“Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors in the future will lead to the prosecution of all those involved in war crimes,” she wrote on her Telegram and Facebook channels.
Vereshchuk again called on Russia to allow the safe evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, especially from the Azovstal steel plant, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is covered with tunnels.
According to Vereshchuk, the government has negotiated crossings from Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other cities, as well as from the Luhansk region. The Luhansk government said four civilians trying to flee the region had been shot dead by Russian forces.
The Russians, for their part, accused “neo-Nazi nationalists” in Mariupol of obstructing the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – The State Security Service of Ukraine has released a video of a Ukrainian politician arrested on charges of treason offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of civilians trapped in Mariupol, while two Britons who surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol appeared in the Russian media with a request to be part of the exchange.
The video of Viktor Medvedchuk, a former leader of a pro-Russian opposition opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was released on Monday. In it, he called on Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to consider the exchange.
Medvedchuk was detained last Tuesday in a special operation conducted by Ukraine’s State Security Service or SBU. The 67-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest a few days before the fighting broke out on February 24 in Ukraine. He faces between 15 years in prison and life in prison on charges of treason and aiding a terrorist organization to mediate coal purchases for the separatist Russian-backed Donetsk Republic in eastern Ukraine.
The British introduced themselves as Sean Piner and Aidan Aslin. In a video, Piner asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to hope for an exchange. Piner had deep circles under his eyes and looked exhausted, but said the two men had been treated appropriately.
Ukrainian authorities say Kyiv wants to prosecute Medvedchuk and eventually trade him for Ukrainian prisoners.
The circumstances surrounding the videos were unclear. The two videos were released within an hour of each other.
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ROME – Italian officials will continue an energy trip to Africa this week as part of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s efforts to quickly reduce the country’s heavy dependence on Russian gas, but he will not go because he tested positive for COVID-19.
The prime minister’s office, announcing the infection, said on Monday that Draghi had no symptoms. The mission in Angola and Congo, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, will instead see the government, represented by its foreign and environmental transition ministers.
Italy buys almost 40% of its gas from Russia. Draghi is determined to drastically reduce this dependence over the next two or three years, largely by concluding deals with other energy-producing countries. Draghi recently traveled to Algeria to conclude such an agreement as part of the strategy.
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BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbian President Alexander Vucic has accused the secret services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union country of being behind a series of fake bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia.
The Serbian national carrier is the only European airline that has not joined the sanctions for international flights against Russia over its war in Ukraine. Several of his flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg were delayed or he had to return to Belgrade after anonymous bomb threats.
In an interview with pro-government Pink TV late Sunday, Vucic said that “the foreign (intelligence) services of two countries are doing this. One is an EU country and Ukraine is another.
The Serbian pro-Russian leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials say threatening emails were sent from either Ukraine or Poland.
Vucic said that although Air Serbia’s flights to Russia did not win due to frequent returns to their base in the Serbian capital, the flights would continue “on our principle”.
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MADRID – Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain would reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in a few days.
Following similar decisions by several European neighbors, Sanchez said the reopening was “to show again the commitment of the Spanish government and the Spanish people to the Ukrainian people.”
“Spain is with Ukraine and we are against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Sanchez said in an interview with Spanish television station Antena 3. “This is Putin’s war against what the European Union is upholding.
Spain closed its embassy within hours of the Russian invasion on February 24th.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovi has said seven people have been killed and 11 others, including a child, injured in Russian strikes in a western Ukrainian city.
Jets of thick black smoke can be seen rising over the city, as many explosions are believed to have been caused by missiles, according to Lvov officials.
Lviv Regional Governor Maxim Kozitsky said there were four Russian missile strikes, three of which hit military infrastructure and one a tire shop. He said emergency services were putting out fires caused by the strikes.
Alexander Kamyshin, chairman of Ukraine’s railway service, said the strikes were close to railway facilities. He said train trains had resumed with some delay and promised to repair the damaged network.
Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine are less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country and are considered relatively safe havens.
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MOSCOW – The Russian military said it had hit more than 20 Ukrainian military targets with missiles.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday that precision-guided air missiles had destroyed 16 military facilities, including five command headquarters, a fuel depot, three ammunition depots and concentrations of Ukrainian military vehicles and personnel in several region in Kharkov, Zaporozhye and Dnieper.
Konashenkov also said the military had fired Iskander ground-based missiles to destroy four ammunition depots and three groups of Ukrainian troops near Popasna and Kramatorsk in the east and Yampil in central Ukraine.
He said the military had used artillery to hit 315 Ukrainian targets, and Russian warplanes had struck 108 strikes against Ukrainian troops and military equipment.
Konashenkov’s allegations could not be verified independently.
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LONDON – The British Ministry of Defense claims that the ongoing siege of Mariupol binds Russian forces and delays their advance before a planned major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
In a daily intelligence update, the British military said that “the concerted Ukrainian resistance has severely tested Russian forces and diverted people and materials, slowing Russia’s progress elsewhere.”
The port city of the Sea of Azov has been devastated for weeks by Russian strikes. Britain says “large areas of infrastructure have been destroyed” and there are “significant” civilian casualties.
Britain has accused Russia of using similar tactics in a total war against civilian areas in Chechnya and Syria, despite Russian claims at the start of the invasion that “Russia will neither strike at cities nor threaten the Ukrainian population.”
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LVIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russian troops in southern Ukraine are carrying out torture and abductions, and he called on the world to respond on Sunday.
“Torture chambers have been set up there,” Zelenski said in an evening address to the nation. “They are kidnapping representatives of local authorities and anyone who is considered visible to local communities.
Zelenski said humanitarian aid had been stolen, creating hunger.
In the occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing the Russian currency, the ruble. Intensified Russian shelling in Ukrainian …
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