Russia yesterday said that it had destroyed Western-supplied weapons in Ukraine, while it halted gas supplies to EU and NATO members Poland and Bulgaria in a move that Brussels branded attempted blackmail.
With the conflict that has claimed thousands of lives entering its third month, Ukraine conceded that Russian forces had pushed deeper into the country’s east and captured several villages as Moscow intensifies a renewed offensive to take control of Donbas.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces had destroyed the “large batch” of weapons and ammunition in southeastern Ukraine supplied by the US and European countries.
Photo: AFP
They targeted hangers at a factory near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with “high-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles,” the ministry said, without specifying the weapons destroyed.
That came a day after a summit in Germany of 40 Western allies to discuss arms supplies to Ukraine, with Washington pledging to move “heaven and earth” to enable Kyiv to emerge victorious.
Tensions are also rising in a breakaway region of Moldova bordering southwestern Ukraine, where the Moldovan Ministry of the Interior said that shots had been fired at a village housing a Russian arms depot after drones flew over from Ukraine.
The unrecognized region has reported a series of explosions in the past few days that it called “terrorist attacks,” leading Kyiv to accuse Moscow of seeking to expand the war further into Europe.
Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had stopped all gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after not receiving payment in rubles from the two nations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month said that Moscow would only accept payment for deliveries in its national currency, with buyers required to set up ruble accounts.
The EU said it was “prepared” for the stoppage and was planning a “coordinated” response, labeling it “another attempt by Russia to blackmail us with gas.”
“Europeans can trust that we stand united and in solidarity with the member states impacted,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
Bulgaria and Poland said they would make up the shortfall from other sources.
The targeting of arms supplied by the West came as the US and Europe appear to be heeding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s call for heavier firepower.
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