Ukraine war: Russia regrouping for ‘powerful strikes’, Zelensky says
- US echoed that assessment, saying Moscow’s focus on Donbas could herald a ‘longer, more prolonged conflict’
- Russian forces have reduced Mariupol to rubble, trapping tens of thousands without food, water and medicine
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia is consolidating and preparing “powerful strikes” in the country’s east and south, including besieged Mariupol, where a new attempt will be made Friday to evacuate civilians from the devastated city.
Russia meanwhile threatened to turn off its gas taps to Europe if payments are not made in rubles, as US President Joe Biden ordered a record release of strategic oil reserves to ease soaring US prices.
In peace talks this week, Russia said it would scale back attacks on the capital Kyiv and the city of Chernigiv, but Ukrainian and Western officials have dismissed the pledge, saying Moscow’s troops were merely regrouping.
“This is part of their tactics,” said Zelensky in a late-night address. “We know that they are moving away from the areas where we are beating them to focus on others that are very important... where it can be difficult for us,” he said.
In particular, he warned, of the “very difficult”situation in the country’s south and east.“In Donbas and Mariupol, in the Kharkiv direction, the Russian army is accumulating the potential for attacks, powerful attacks,” he said.
Ukraine targets Russian fuel depot in cross-border strike
Washington echoed that assessment, with a senior US defence official saying Russia’s focus on Donbas could herald a “longer, more prolonged conflict”.
Military experts believe that Moscow is ditching efforts to advance simultaneously along multiple axes in the north, east and south, after struggling to overcome stronger-than-expected Ukrainian resistance.
Instead it wants to establish a long-sought land link between Crimea, which Moscow occupied in 2014, and the two Russian-backed Donbas statelets of Donetsk and Lugansk.
02:15
Russia continues assault on Ukraine despite promise to scale back attacks
Mariupol is the main remaining obstacle to that ambition, and Russian forces have encircled and relentlessly bombarded the city to try to capture it. Instead, it has been reduced to rubble, with tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside with little food, water or medicine.
Previous attempts to evacuate residents have collapsed, but the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is sending staff to the besieged city on Friday and is hopeful that evacuations of thousands of civilians can begin.
“We have permission to move today and we are en route to Mariupol,” ICRC spokesperson Ewan Watson said. “We are hopeful it (the safe passage operation) will commence today.”
However, the body did not receive permission to take humanitarian aid with the convoy, and it departed without the pre-positioned medical and other supplies, he added, without giving details.
Australia sending armoured vehicles to Ukraine to fight Russians
Russia has moved about 20 per cent of its troops from around Kyiv but its strikes have continued and troops are likely “going to be repositioned, probably into Belarus, to be refitted and resupplied and used elsewhere in Ukraine,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
Russian troops have also pulled back from the Chernobyl nuclear plant after weeks of occupation, but have taken a number of captive Ukrainian servicemen with them, according to officials in Kyiv.
And in a sign that the war could be expanding in scope, a Russian official said Friday that Ukrainian helicopters had carried out a strike on a fuel depot in the Russian town of Belgorod, some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
EU President Metsola visits Kyiv amid energy threats
With his economy crippled by unprecedented international sanctions, President Vladimir Putin has sought to leverage Russia’s status as an energy power, and warned Thursday that EU members will need to set up ruble accounts from Friday to pay for his country’s gas.
“If such payments are not made, we will consider this a breach of obligations on the part of our buyers” and existing contracts would be stopped, Putin said.
The EU has joined the United States in imposing sanctions, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is expected in Kyiv soon in a show of support. She is the first EU leader to visit the war-torn country.
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Mariupol residents struggle for survival as Russian siege of Ukrainian port city continues
But the bloc has not imposed an energy embargo, and Germany, which imported 55 per cent of its gas supplies from Russia before the war, insisted it will pay in euros or dollars as stipulated in contracts. Berlin and Paris were also “preparing” for Russian gas to simply stop flowing, France’s economy minister said.
Peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials resumed via video on Friday, but Moscow warned that the helicopter attack on a fuel depot in the town of Belgorod would hamper negotiations. It was the first Ukraine air strike on Russian soil.
Also, Lavrov began meetings with India’s leaders in New Delhi on Friday after seeing his Chinese counterpart earlier in the week, as Moscow tries to keep the Asian powers on its side amid Western sanctions.
