MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West will fail in its attempts to isolate Russia and face growing economic problems.
Speaking on Thursday via video link with members of the Eurasian Economic Forum, Putin said Russia would not withdraw from international co-operation. The forum includes several former Soviet states.
Putin said that the attempt to isolate Russia was “impossible, completely unrealistic in the modern world” and “those who try to do so, above all, hurt themselves.”
The Russian leader cited the West’s growing economic challenges, including “unprecedented 40 years of inflation, rising unemployment, broken supply chains and worsening global crises in such sensitive areas as food.”
“It’s not a joke,” he said. “This is a serious thing that will affect the whole system of economic and political relations.
He criticized the West for seizing Russia’s reserves, saying “stealing foreign assets has never done any good.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– As the war in Ukraine continues, the world is looking for a way to get the grain out
– Signs of war seem to be everywhere in Ukraine in 3 months
– Rescue of children: The war is approaching the eastern Ukrainian city
– The United States seeks to increase the Russia-Ukraine bloc against China
– Russia is taking steps to strengthen the army, offering some Ukrainians citizenship
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Follow the AP’s 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 has said at least four civilians have been killed in the shelling of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv Governor Oleg Sinegubov said seven other residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city were injured in Thursday’s shelling.
He urged people to stay in shelters, warning that the barrage could continue.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk governor says Russian bombings have killed three people in and around the city of Lisichansk, a key focus of the fighting.
Sergei Haidai said on Thursday that one man had been killed in Lisichansk and two in the nearby village of Ustinovka in a Russian artillery bombardment on Wednesday. He said the strikes in the region have affected various targets, including 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 is holding a small area around Lisichansk and Severodonetsk in the face of targeted pressure from Russian forces.
In the northern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleg Sinehubov said two men, aged 64 and 82, were killed in the shelling of the town of Balaklia, and 10 others were injured, including a 9-year-old girl. Five other people were injured in various other places in the region, he wrote in the Telegram news app.
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DAVOS, Switzerland – Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov says not enough strategic steps have been taken in recent years to prevent Europe’s growing dependence on Russian gas and counter hybrid attacks.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Petkov said the war in Ukraine “has caused us many crises because we have allowed ourselves to be dependent on Russia.”
Petkov said that after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Europe criticized Moscow, but did nothing to reduce its dependence on it.
“While we linked the price of electricity to that of gas, Russia can now not only reduce gas supplies but also regulate electricity prices in Europe,” he said.
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DAVOS, Switzerland – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated his conviction that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not win the war in Ukraine.
“It has no longer achieved all its strategic goals,” Scholz said in a speech Thursday at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The chancellor said that the conquest of the whole of Ukraine by Russia today seems further 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 prompted two countries to move 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 also underestimated the unity and strength with which the Group of Seven major industrialized nations, NATO and the European Union responded to his aggression.
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MILAN, Italy – The World Food Program is urging to remove wheat from Ukrainian ports to help the hungry elsewhere in the world and prevent growing food insecurity in vulnerable regions, while freeing up space for a grain crop that has recently been planted.
“We are making 100% efforts to remove the food that is stuck in this port. It must be a continuous stream, there cannot be several full ships. “We need to get the most out of it, not only for the Ukrainian economy, but also to reach the people who need it in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan,” said WFP spokesman John Dumont.
Dumont was in Odessa a few weeks ago and says the grain silos are full. “They are planting now. Where will they put this wheat when it’s harvest time in late June and July? He has nowhere to go. “
“It simply came to our notice then. This cannot be just a small one-off humanitarian convoy. The Black Sea must open up. “
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MOSCOW – The Kremlin says it expects Ukraine to see what is happening in the country and to accept Moscow’s demands
Asked on Thursday whether Russia expects Ukraine to make territorial concessions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Moscow expects to accept its demands and understand the real de facto situation.”
Earlier, Russia demanded recognition of its sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It also sought to recognize the independence of Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said in March that the status of Crimea and the separatist regions could be discussed later. In recent weeks, they have strengthened their position, saying Russian troops should withdraw to where they were before Moscow launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24th.
Speaking to reporters in a conference call Thursday, Peskov said: “Kyiv must acknowledge the factual situation and simply have a sober assessment of it.”
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DAVOS, Switzerland – Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger has warned that Russia “will go further” and his country could be next if Ukraine fails to win the war.
Heger spoke to Sky News at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Slovakia, a member of the European Union and NATO, borders Ukraine.
“We must support Ukraine, because if they fail, it will threaten us, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,” Heger said.
He said that going beyond Ukraine’s borders was “fear”.
“But at this moment I am happy with the courage shown by the Ukrainian people, how much they are able 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 a ransom”, demanding that some sanctions be lifted before Russia allows Ukraine’s grain supplies to resume.
“It is essentially arming hunger and food insecurity among the world’s poorest people,” Trus said during a visit to Bosnia on Thursday. “We just can’t let that happen.”
Trus promised that he would do everything with our allies and partners to get the grain out of Ukraine and supply the rest of the world. “
But she says sanctions must remain in place to cut off funding for the war in Ukraine.
“We have to ensure that Putin loses in Ukraine,” Trus said. What we cannot have is no lifting of sanctions, no reassurance that 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 in order to resume grain supplies from Ukraine.
Western allies have accused Russia of blocking grain exports from Ukraine in a move that exacerbates food shortages in Africa and other regions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that “we strongly reject the accusations and accuse Western countries of taking a series of illegal actions that led to the blockade.”
Speaking to reporters in a conference call, he added that the West in particular “must repeal illegal decisions that hinder the hiring of ships and the export of grain.”
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VIENNA – A US diplomat based in Vienna has condemned the “pure barbarism, sadistic cruelty and lawlessness” of the Russian war in Ukraine.
US Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter spoke on Thursday, three months after Russia launched its invasion.
“I think we all know what would happen if Russia achieved ‘success’ in Ukraine,” Carpenter told the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“Russian diplomats know that, too,” he said. “There will be more horrific reports from filter camps, more IDPs, more executions, more torture, more rape and more looting.
Carpenter called on OSCE member states to provide Ukraine with “the support it needs right now to protect itself from the revanchist delusions of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
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MOSCOW – The Russian military said it had destroyed a large Ukrainian unit with equipment at a railway station in the east.
A spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said on Thursday that Russian military planes had struck the Pokrovsk railway station as an assault brigade landed there to reinforce Ukrainian forces in the region.
Konashenkov also said that the Russian military destroyed the Ukrainian …
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