Europe

Ukraine braces for Russian ‘storm’ in east in run-up to EU meeting

Russia warns Lithuania it will respond to blockade of goods into Kaliningrad

Lilia, who asked not to be further identified for her personal safety, surveys her destroyed home, which was occupied by Russian troops in late February, in Hostomel, Ukraine. Photograph: Mauricio Lima/The New York Times

Tue Jun 21 2022 - 12:14

Ukraine acknowledged on Tuesday difficulties in fighting in its east as Russian forces regrouped after stepping up pressure and making advances on two cities ahead of an EU summit this week expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc.

The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said Russian forces had launched a massive attack and gained some territory on Monday though it was relatively quiet overnight.

“It’s a calm before the storm,” governor Serhiy Gaidai said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had predicted Russia would step up attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. He was defiant in a late Monday address to the nation, though referring to “difficult” fighting in Luhansk for Severodonetsk and its sister city, Lysychansk.

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“We are defending Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, this whole area, the most difficult one. We have the most difficult fighting there,” he said. “But we have our strong guys and girls there.”

Mr Gaidai said Russian forces controlled most of Severodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where more than 500 civilians, including 38 children, have been sheltering for weeks. The road connecting Severodonetsk and Lysychansk to the city of Bakhmut was under constant shell fire, he said.

Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the self-styled Luhansk People's Republic, said its forces were “moving from the south towards Lysychansk” with firefights erupting in a number of towns.

“The hours to come should bring considerable changes to the balance of forces in the area,” he said on Telegram.

Ukrainian soldiers respond to a missile strike on what appeared to be a military depot in Druzhkivka, Ukraine on Monday. Photograph: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24th in what it called a “special operation” to degrade its military capabilities and root out what it calls dangerous nationalists.

It has also introduced a law making the spread of “knowingly fake” information or reporting that could discredit the Russian military an offence.

Dmitry Muratov, the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and editor of an independent Russian newspaper, auctioned off his Nobel medal for a record $103.5 million (€98 million) to aid children displaced by the war. His paper, fiercely critical of President Vladimir Putin, suspended operations in Russia in March after warnings over its coverage of the war.

The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Russia claims on behalf of separatists.

In Odesa, Ukraine's biggest Black Sea port, which is blockaded by the Russian navy, a Russian missile destroyed a food warehouse on Monday, Ukraine's military said.

The United States and its European allies have provided weapons and financial assistance to Ukraine but avoided direct involvement in the conflict.

British military intelligence said Ukraine forces claimed their first successful use of western-donated Harpoon anti-ship missiles, destroying a tug delivering weapons and personnel to a Russian held island in the Black Sea.

“Ukrainian coastal defence capability has largely neutralised Russia's ability to establish sea control and project maritime force in the north-western Black Sea,” it said.

Detained Americans

Some foreign citizens have volunteered to fight for Ukraine.

On Monday, the Kremlin said two Americans detained in Ukraine were mercenaries not covered by the Geneva conventions who should face responsibility for their actions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments were the first formal acknowledgment that the two, identified in US reports as Andy Huynh (27) and Alexander Drueke (39) were being held.

A US State Department spokesperson said they had been in touch with Russian authorities regarding any US citizens who may have been captured and called on Russia and its proxies “to live up to their international obligations” in their treatment of any captive.

This month, a separatist court sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan to death after they were caught fighting for Ukraine.

Mr Peskov also said US basketball star Brittney Griner, held in Russia for more than two months, was being prosecuted for drug offences and was not a hostage.

At least two Americans have been killed in the war.

International concern has focused on trying to restore Ukrainian exports of food, now shut by a de facto Russian blockade. Ukraine is one of the world's main sources of grain and food oils, leading to fears of global shortages.

Russia blames the food crisis on western sanctions.

The war has also disrupted energy markets, including Russian shipments of oil and gas to Europe, still the continent's main source of energy and Russia's primary income source. Russia says EU sanctions prevented it from restoring pipeline equipment.

Kaliningrad

One of Mr Putin’s top allies warned Lithuania on Tuesday that Russia would respond to a halt in the transit of EU-sanctioned goods to the exclave of Kaliningrad in such a way that the citizens of the Nato and EU member would feel the pain.

With East-West relations at a half-century low over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania banned the transit of goods sanctioned by the European Union through Lithuanian territory to and from the exclave, citing EU sanction rules.

Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB spy who is now the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Lithuania’s “hostile” actions showed that Russia could not trust the West.

“Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Mr Patrushev was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.

“Appropriate measures are being worked out in an interdepartmental format and will be taken in the near future,” he was quoted as saying.

“Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.”

Kaliningrad, formerly the port of Koenigsberg, capital of East Prussia, was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after second World War. It is sandwiched between Nato members Poland and Lithuania.

Lithuania said the ban on the transit of sanctioned goods across its territory was merely the implementation of EU sanctions, part of a swathe of measures intended to punish Mr Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the EU’s ambassador to Moscow, Markus Ederer, over the situation which the Kremlin said on Monday was beyond serious.

“Lithuania is not taking unilateral measures — it is implementing EU sanctions,” Mr Ederer was quoted as saying by RIA. — Reuters

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