Russian forces yesterday pounded targets across Ukraine, taking aim at supply lines for foreign weapons in the west and intensifying an offensive in the east, as the EU moved to further punish Moscow for the war with a proposed ban on oil imports.
The Russian military said it used sea and air-launched precision guided missiles to destroy electric power facilities at five railway stations across Ukraine, while artillery and aircraft also struck troop strongholds, and fuel and ammunition depots.
The strikes on the train stations were meant to disrupt the delivery of Western weapons, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said.
The Russian minister of defense repeated that Russian forces have blocked off a steel mill in Mariupol — the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in that city.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that was not true.
“There is no assault. We see that there are cases of escalation due to the fact that the militants take up the firing positions. These attempts are being suppressed very quickly,” Peskov said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said that attacks in the eastern Donbas region left 21 civilians dead.
The flurry of attacks over the past day comes as Russia prepares to celebrate Victory Day on Monday, marking the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
This year the world is watching for signs of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would use the occasion to declare a limited victory — or expand what he calls a “special military operation” to a wider war.
In addition to supplying weapons to Ukraine, Europe and the US have sought to punish Moscow with sanctions. The EU’s top official yesterday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban Russian oil imports.
“We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, in a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes and minimizes the impact on global markets,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
The proposals need to be unanimously approved to take effect and are likely to be the subject of fierce debate. Hungary and Slovakia have said they would not take part in any oil sanctions, but Von der Leyen did not elaborate on whether they would receive an exemption, which appears likely.
Von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.
The European Commission also singled out Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, calling him “a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin who has become one of the most prominent supporters” of the war.
Additional reporting by AFP
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