Russian forces have stepped up their shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, Kyiv said yesterday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said to expect greater hostilities ahead of a historic EU decision on Ukraine’s bid for candidate status.
Nearly four months after Russia launched a bloody invasion of his nation, Zelenskiy said in his evening address on Sunday that there had been “few such fateful decisions for Ukraine” as the one it expects from the EU this week.
“Obviously, we expect Russia to intensify hostile activity this week... We are preparing. We are ready,” he said.
Photo: Reuters / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states are to discuss at a summit on Thursday and Friday whether to add Ukraine to the list of nations vying for membership.
EU foreign ministers gathering in Luxembourg began the week urging Moscow to stop blocking the export of vitally needed grain from Ukraine, a top global supplier.
“One cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine, while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger. This is a real war crime,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said.
Moscow has denied responsibility for the food crisis, and blames Western sanctions for the disrupted deliveries that have pushed up cereal prices and fanned fears of famines in vulnerable regions.
On the ground, Russia appeared to be making some battlefield advances in the east.
In its daily update yesterday, Ukraine’s presidency reported heavier Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
In the Donetsk region, the intensity of the attacks “is growing along the entire front line” it said, leaving at least one person dead and injuring seven people, including a child.
Fighting also continued in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk in the east, with Ukraine saying that it had lost control of the adjacent village of Metyolkine.
“Unfortunately, we do not control Metyolkine anymore and the enemy continues to build up its reserves,” Lugansk Governor Sergiy Gaiday wrote on social media.
Moscow’s forces have for weeks been battling to seize the eastern Donbas region, after being repelled from other parts of the nation following the Feb. 24 invasion.
A chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians are said to be sheltering, was being shelled “constantly,” Gaiday said.
On Sunday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the war could grind on “for years,” and urged Western nations to be ready to offer long-term military, political and economic aid.
Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western nations to step up their deliveries of arms, despite warnings from nuclear-armed Russia that it could trigger wider conflict.
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Sunday said that it had launched missile strikes during the previous 24 hours, with one attack on a top-level Ukrainian military meeting near the city of Dnipro killing “more than 50 generals and officers.”
It said that it also targeted a building housing weapons in Mykolaiv, destroying Ukrainian artillery and armored vehicles.
There was no independent verification of the claims.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS