Russia Warns US Rocket Supplies Could Widen Ukraine Conflict
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the supply of advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine by the United States raised the risks of a “third country” being drawn into the three-month-long conflict.The plans “firstly, overstep all bounds of decency and diplomatic relations and, secondly, are a direct provocation aimed at drawing the West into combat,” Lavrov told Russian media at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.
The Russian foreign minister was reacting to news that Washington plans to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that could strike with precision at long-range Russian targets.
U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with the advanced rocket systems as part of a $700 million weapons package unveiled on Wednesday.
US Providing New $700 Million in Military Aid for Ukraine
President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced another $700 million in military aid to Ukraine, coming just days after he signed a Congress-passed deal worth $40 billion.“The United States will stand with our Ukrainian partners and continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment to defend itself,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
In the statement, Biden said he is now sending precision, advanced rocket systems after receiving assurances from Kyiv’s government that it would not fire on targets inside Russia, which would surely escalate the conflict.
“Thanks to the additional funding for Ukraine, passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, the United States will be able to keep providing Ukraine with more of the weapons that they are using so effectively to repel Russian attacks,” said Biden.
The advanced weapons include High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) “with battlefield munitions,” said the president in the statement. “We will continue to lead the world in providing historic assistance to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.”
Ukraine Losing 60–100 Soldiers per Day in Fight Against Russia
Ukraine’s president says the country is losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day in the fighting with Russian forces.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told American TV channel Newsmax that “the most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine,” including Donetsk and Luhansk Provinces.
“The situation is very difficult. We’re losing 60–100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action. So we are holding our defensive perimeters,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine has largely refrained from disclosing its military losses since the beginning of the Russian invasion, but Zelenskyy previously said the country was losing between 50 and 100 soldiers a day.
Russia Cites Other Hurdles for Grain Exports
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said international sanctions are affecting Russia’s ability to export its own grain amid fears of a global food shortage.Speaking during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Lavrov said Russian grain exports may not be directly under sanctions, but the ships carrying the grain face extra hurdles.
“Although the West very loudly reminds that grain was not subject to sanctions, for some reason they shyly keep silent that ships that carry Russian grain did fall under the sanctions,” he said.
“They are not accepted in foreign ports, in European ports, and they are not insured. And, in principle, all the logistical and financial chains related to the supply of grain to world markets, they were under the sanctions of our Western colleagues.”
Netherlands Increases Military Spending
The Dutch government on Wednesday announced what it is calling the biggest boost in its military spending since the end of the Cold War as war rages in Ukraine.Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said “threats in the world and the war in Ukraine show that peace and security cannot be taken for granted.”
Ollongren unveiled 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) a year in increased military spending.
The extra money will fund military hardware purchases in coming years including six new F-35 fighter jets and a doubling of the military’s fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones from four to eight.
The Defense Ministry said the investment means the Netherlands will meet the NATO-agreed defense spending of 2 percent of its gross domestic product in 2024 and 2025.
It also aims to ease shortages in military supplies and equipment. That will enable military personnel to “work with the best equipment and train a lot without constant shortages of spare parts, transport and ammunition,” the ministry said.
Kremlin Says Talks With Zelenskyy Possible, but Negotiations Stalled
Russia said on Wednesday that it did not rule out a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that any such talks needed to be prepared in advance.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a call that work on a peace document with Ukraine had stopped a long time ago and had not restarted.
Peskov said that people in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donbass must decide their own futures and the Kremlin did not doubt they would make the “best decision.” Ukraine has previously said that annexation of the regions by Russia would end peace talks between the two sides.
West’s ‘Irrational Fear’ of Russia Driving Ceasefire Push: Ukrainian Negotiator
A Ukrainian presidential advisor and peace talks negotiator accused Europe and the United States of having an “irrational fear” of Russia in an interview released on Wednesday by news agency Interfax Ukraine.Mykhailo Podolyak, a key negotiator for Ukraine during previous talks with Russia, said the political elites of the West “want to return to the pre-war period and do not want to solve problems,” adding that their financial priorities took precedence in decision-making.
Finland and Sweden Say Will Continue NATO Talks With Turkey
Finland and Sweden said on Wednesday they would continue a dialogue with Turkey over their bids for NATO membership, but did not say whether there had been progress on overcoming Ankara’s objections to their joining the military alliance.The Nordic neighbors applied to join NATO last month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but they have faced resistance from Turkey, which accuses them of being safe havens for Kurdish militants and wants them to scrap arms export bans.
“Together with Sweden, we will do our homework and prepare for the questions Turkey has,” Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters in Helsinki, commenting on talks that took place in Ankara last week.
A bid to join NATO requires unanimous backing from the alliance’s current 30 member states.
Speaking at an event in Stockholm, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said she expected constructive meetings with Turkey to take place in the near future.
“Our responses to demands and also questions from Turkey we will take up directly with Turkey and also sort out any issues and misunderstandings that there might be,” she said.
Haavisto said he saw no need for the legislative changes related to terrorism that were demanded by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday.
Turkey has accused Finland and Sweden of harboring people linked to groups it deems terrorist organizations, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but Haavisto said the PKK was already considered a terrorist group by all EU members, including Finland.
Haavisto gave no timeline for the ongoing talks with Ankara, but struck an optimistic note.
“Perhaps such a thought still exists that at the Madrid summit, NATO could have something positive to tell about expansion,” he said, referring to a meeting of the alliance due to be held in Spain at the end of this month.
UN Had ‘Constructive’ Talks in Moscow on Russian Grain, Fertilizer Exports
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says there is “progress” in talks to allow the export of grain stored in Ukrainian ports and ensure Russian food and fertilizer have unrestricted access to global markets.“I think that there is progress, but we are not yet” there, Guterres said Wednesday, adding “these are very complex things,” because “everything is interlinked.”
Guterres reiterated that the world should have access to the Russian production of fertilizers and foods “that is also essential for global markets in the present situation.”
Russia Views ‘Negatively’ US Weapons Supply
A Kremlin spokesman says Moscow “negatively” views U.S. plans to supply more weapons to Ukraine.The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will send Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems. Ukrainian leaders have begged for rocket launchers as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbass region.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his daily conference calls with journalists on Wednesday that Moscow doesn’t trust Kyiv’s assurances that the multiple-launch rocket systems supplied by the United States will not be used to attack Russia.
U.S. officials say the aid package expected to be unveiled Wednesday tries to strike a balance between the desire to help Ukraine battle ferocious Russian artillery barrages while not providing arms that could allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia and trigger an escalation in the war.
Peskov nonetheless accused the United States of “deliberately and diligently pouring fuel into the fire.
“The U.S. sticks to the line of fighting with Russia until the last Ukrainian (left standing),” he said.
Ukraine Reports Battle Gains and Challenges
A regional governor in southern Ukraine says Russian troops are retreating and blowing up bridges to obstruct a possible Ukrainian advance.Mykolayiv region governor Vitaliy Kim claimed Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app that Russia was on the defensive.
“They are afraid of a breakthrough by the (Ukrainian Armed Forces), but we are not afraid and we support our troops,” he wrote.
Kim didn’t specify exactly where the retreat he described was happening. The parts of the Mykolayiv region which have been held by Russian forces in recent days are close to the large Russia-occupied city of Kherson.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday that Ukrainian fighters had seen “some success in the Kherson direction.”
Russia is concentrating most of its military power on trying to capture all of eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.
Italy Imports More Russian Oil Despite Impending Embargo
Even as the European Union decided to reduce Russian crude oil imports by 90 percent by the end of the year, Italy has become the only country in Europe to increase them, an unintended consequence of EU sanctions against Russia.Meant to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, the EU oil embargo is now putting at risk one of Italy’s largest refineries, located in Sicily, which would deal an economic blow to the depressed region’s economy.
Italy agreed with its EU partners to cut Russian crude imports by 2023, a move that Premier Mario Draghi called “a complete success,'' that ”just a couple of days ago wouldn’t have been believable.”
But Rome also has to deal with the fate of the refinery in Sicily owned by Russia’s Lukoil. As a result of previous sanctions against Russia, ISAB Srl has paradoxically gone from processing 15 percent of Russian crude to 100 percent.
That’s because banks have refused to take the risk of extending credit to Russia-controlled ISAB that would allow it to buy oil from non-Russian sources, even if not specifically barred from doing so, said Matteo Villa, an energy analyst at the ISPI think tank in Milan.
Ships continue to arrive at the port-side refinery with crude oil from the Russian parent company.
Italy in May received about 400,000 barrels of Russian oil a day in May, four times the pre-invasion levels, according to the Kpler commodity data company. Of that total, ISAB received 220,000 barrels a day from Russia.
“Italy is the only country in Europe increasing oil imports,’’ Villa said, going from the sixth-largest importer of Russian oil to the largest in the three months since the invasion.
The plant employs 3,500 people at three production sites, including a refinery, gasification, and electricity cogeneration plant, in Sicily’s Syracuse province, and risks closure if a solution isn’t found before the embargo kicks in. The plant and related activities generate half of the provincial gross domestic product and 8 percent of the region’s economic activity, processing one-fifth of Italy’s crude oil imports.
Since learning of the embargo, refinery workers are growing more concerned about their future.
“It will be a disaster,” said Marco Candelargiu. “We hope they find a solution. You cannot destroy a province. The choice was made a long time ago to base the economy prevalently on the refinery.”
Denmark Votes on EU Defense Amid Ukraine War
Polling stations opened in Denmark for voters to decide on Wednesday whether to abandon their country’s 30-year-old opt-out from the European Union’s common defense policy.The referendum is the latest example of European countries seeking closer defense links with allies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It follows Sweden and Finland’s historic bids to join NATO, which plans to take up their applications at the end of the month.
Some 4.2 million Danish voters are eligible to cast ballots in the referendum.
The “yes” side—in favor of getting rid of the 1992 opt-out—has been ahead in recent months. Polls showed it with around 40 percent support and the “no” side with 30 percent.
Denmark joining the EU’s defense policy would have a relatively modest impact on Europe’s security architecture, particularly compared to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
The main effect of abandoning the opt-out would be that Danish officials could stay in the room when EU colleagues discuss defense topics, and Danish forces could take part in EU military operations.
One of the founding members of NATO, Denmark has stayed on the sidelines of the EU’s efforts to build a common security and defense policy in parallel with the trans-Atlantic NATO alliance.
It was one of four opt-outs that Danes insisted on before adopting the EU’s Maastricht Treaty, which laid the foundation for political and economic union.
Russian Forces Advance in Factory City, US to Send Precision Rockets to Ukraine
Russian troops on Wednesday pressed their assault on a factory city targeted in their push to grab a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the United States said it would supply advanced rockets to Kyiv to help it force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces, now 98 days into their invasion, were pounding infrastructure in eastern and southern regions including the symbolically important industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, the main focus of Moscow’s offensive in recent days.
President Joe Biden announced the supply of precision rocket systems and munitions that could strike at long-range Russian targets, part of a $700 million weapons package expected to be unveiled on Wednesday.
“We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
Moscow assessed the new U.S. aid package “extremely negatively,” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency RIA Novosti.
Shortly after the U.S. decision was announced, the Russian defense ministry said Russia’s nuclear forces were holding drills in the Ivanovo Province, northeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.
Some 1,000 servicemen were exercising in intense maneuvers using more than 100 vehicles including Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, it cited the ministry as saying.
There was no mention of the U.S. decision to supply new weapons in the Interfax report.
Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces continued to pound northern, southern, and eastern districts of Sievierodonetsk, in Luhansk, one of two provinces in the eastern Donbass region that Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
If Russia captures Sievierodonetsk, and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the higher west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it will hold all of Luhansk, a key war aim of President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Gazprom Cuts Gas Supply to Orsted and Shell Energy
Russian gas producer Gazprom has cut off gas supplies to Denmark’s Orsted and to Shell Energy for its contract to supply gas to Germany, it said on Wednesday, citing the companies’ failure to make payments in rubles.Gazprom has already halted supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerra, as well as to Bulgaria, Poland, and Finland after their refusal to pay for gas in Russian rubles, as demanded by Moscow in response to Western sanctions over the Russia–Ukraine conflict.
German, Italian, and French companies, however, have said they would engage with Moscow’s payment scheme to ensure they can maintain supplies.
Bundesnetzagentur, Germany’s network regulator, on Wednesday said that Shell Europe accounted for only small gas supply volumes that could be sourced from other parties.
The flow of natural gas to Denmark via Germany remained steady on Wednesday, data from Danish system operator Energinet showed.
There is no gas pipeline directly from Russia to Denmark, and Danish buyers have the option of buying from sources other than Gazprom, the Danish Energy Agency has said.
Gas supply via Ukraine, a key Gazprom export route to Europe, continued at 41.2 million cubic meters on Wednesday, down slightly down from Tuesday’s volumes.
Russia Says It’s Completed Testing of Hypersonic Zircon Cruise Missile
Russia has completed testing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it before the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet, a senior military official said on Wednesday.Alexander Moiseyev, commander of the Northern Fleet, said the Admiral Golovko frigate would become the first to be armed full-time with the Zircon, TASS news agency reported.
President Vladimir Putin has described the Zircon as part of a new generation of unrivaled arms systems, traveling at nine times the speed of sound.
The defencse ministry said last week it had successfully test-fired a Zircon cruise missile from a vessel in the Barents Sea to a target some 1,000 km (625 miles) away in the White Sea.
Germany to Send Iris-T Air Defense System to Ukraine: Scholz
Germany will supply Ukraine with the IRIS-T air defense system, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, following pleas from Kyiv and German opposition parties to step up heavy weapons deliveries.Scholz said Germany had been “delivering continuously since the beginning of the war,” pointing to more than 15 million rounds of ammunition, 100,000 grenades, and over 5,000 anti-tank mines sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.
“Most recently, the government has decided that we will deliver the most modern air defense system that Germany has in the form of the IRIS-T,” Scholz told lawmakers in the Bundestag.
Responding to critics in his speech to parliament, Scholz said his government had responded to the Russian attack with a “massive change of policy in Germany” by opting to send heavy weapons into a war zone.
Ukraine’s requests for heavy weapons intensified in recent weeks when Moscow turned its fiercest firepower on the country’s east.
Scholz said talks were continuing with Germany’s partners on ways to further arm Ukraine against the Russian attack.
On Tuesday, the chancellor announced that Germany would deliver infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) to Greece so that the government in Athens can pass on Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine.
Governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk Region Says Russia Controls 70 Percent of Sievierodonetsk
Russian forces are now in control of around 70 percent of Sievierodonetsk, a strategically important city in Ukraine’s east, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Wednesday.“Some Ukrainian troops have retreated to more advantageous, pre-prepared positions,” Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app.
US Agrees to Send Advanced Rockets to Ukraine
Russian troops fought to take complete control of the eastern industrial city of Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday as the United States said it will provide Ukraine with advanced rockets to help it force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.President Joe Biden said the United States would provide Ukraine with more advanced rocket systems and munitions so it can “more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield.”
“We have moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
A senior Biden administration official said weaponry provided would include the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which Ukraine’s armed forces chief said a month ago was “crucial” to counter Russian missile attacks.
Addressing concerns that such weapons could draw the United States into a direct conflict with Russia, senior administration officials said Ukraine gave assurances the missiles would not be used to strike inside Russia.
“These systems will be used by the Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used on targets in Russian territory,” the U.S. official told reporters.
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Says Russian Forces Seize Half of City
Russian forces in a “frenzied push” have seized half of Sievierodonetsk, the eastern Ukrainian city that is key to Moscow’s efforts to complete the capture of the industrial Donbass region, the mayor said Tuesday.“The city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block,” Oleksandr Striuk said. He said heavy street fighting continued and artillery barrages threatened the lives of the estimated 13,000 civilians still sheltering in the ruined city that once was home to more than 100,000.
A Russian airstrike on Sievierodonetsk hit a tank of nitric acid at a chemical factory, causing a huge leak of fumes, according to Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region. He posted a picture of a big cloud hanging over the city and urged residents to stay inside and wear gas masks or improvised ones.
Haidai said later Tuesday that “most of Sievierodonetsk” was under Russian control, though he added that fierce fighting continued and the city wasn’t surrounded.
Sievierodonetsk is important to Russian efforts to capture the Donbass before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defense. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops in the region for eight years and held swaths of territory even before the invasion.
No Farm Trade Barriers, European Union Warns
The European Union urged its international partners to avoid placing trade barriers on farm products as the war in Ukraine risks further fueling a possible global food crisis.“We call on all partners not to restrict trade on agricultural products,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after an E.U. summit Tuesday in Brussels.
Ukraine has said Russia is blocking the export of 22 million tons of its grain, some of it destined for Africa. African countries imported 44 percent of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to the U.N.
Von der Leyen said the E.U. is trying to help get food out by road and rail, but land transport assistance might only provide for a fifth of Ukraine’s usual monthly exports.
“It is of course more tedious and expensive, but it is necessary to get this wheat out,” she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the E.U.’s sanctions are making things worse. Putin said he’s willing to help ease concerns if the restrictive measures are lifted.
