The chief of Ukraine’s army says the country will continue to fight for its independence, a year after bodies of civilians were found in Bucha after Russian troops retreated.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made a rare phone call to his Russian counterpart since the start of the war in Ukraine and urged Moscow to immediately release a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained last week as well as another American imprisoned in Russia for more than four years, the Department of State says.
In the call with Sergey Lavrov, Blinken conveyed “grave concern” over the Kremlin’s detention of journalist Evan Gershkovich on espionage allegations, according to a state department summary of the call.
Blinken also sought the immediate release of Paul Whelan, whom the statement said has been wrongfully detained.
Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government have said are baseless.
The European Union will guard against any abuse during Russia’s presidency of the United Nations Security Council during the month of April, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.
United States basketball star Brittney Griner, released from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner exchange last year, has urged the White House to keep using “every tool possible” to win the release of US reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was accused of spying in Russia.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany has criticised former high-ranking politicians in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the country’s labour movement for issuing an appeal for peace talks with Russia.
A well-known Russian military blogger, Vladlen Tatarsky, has been killed in an explosion in a cafe in Russia’s second largest city of Saint Petersburg on Sunday, the RIA news agency reported, citing a source.
At least 15 others have been wounded in the explosion, TASS news agency quoted a spokesman from the local emergency services as saying
Russia says it is extending until the end of the year oil production cuts of 500,000 barrels per day, a response to Western sanctions that was due to expire at the end of June.
“As a responsible and preventive action, Russia is implementing a voluntary reduction of 500,000 barrels per day until the end of 2023,” Alexander Novak, a deputy prime minister in charge of energy issues, said in a statement.
Putin’s statement that Russian nuclear weapons will be stationed in Belarus has drawn sharp criticism from the West.
The EU has called Putin’s comments irresponsible and warned Belarus it could face more sanctions. Ukraine has called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, accusing Moscow of making Minsk a “nuclear hostage”.
The Russian president also warned he would be forced to react if the United Kingdom supplied Ukraine with armour-piercing ammunition containing depleted uranium.
So could the war take a new turn? And how might NATO respond?
It is Wednesday night and a steady stream of people looking forward to an evening of laughter are stepping into the bowels of a black-walled theatre-cum-bar in the central Berlin neighbourhood of Mitte.
What at first resembles just another comedy night in a city full of them is, in fact, much more than that. Most of those coming to Ma’s Comedy Club have little to laugh about, especially not in each other’s company. They are from warring Russia and Ukraine.
They come to perform or to watch. They speak Russian or Ukrainian. They are professionals and newcomers. They share an interest in stand-up comedy – and more than that, a contempt for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia will not send fencers to an Olympic qualifying event in Poland this month because of “unacceptable” conditions, the head of the Russian Fencing Federation has been quoted by Russian media as saying.
“Will Russian fencers take part in Poland? Of course not. It is unacceptable,” Ilgar Mamedov told RIA Novosti after Poland said Russian athletes had to sign a written statement saying they did not support Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.
A top Ukrainian official has outlined a series of steps the government in Kyiv would take after the country reclaims control of Crimea, including dismantling the strategic bridge that links the seized Black Sea peninsula to Russia.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, published the plan as Ukraine’s military prepares for a spring counteroffensive in hopes of making new, decisive gains.
Danilov suggested prosecuting Ukrainians who worked for the Moscow-appointed administration in Crimea, adding that some would face criminal charges and others would lose government pensions and be banned from public jobs.
All Russian citizens who moved to Crimea after 2014 should be expelled, and all real estate deals made under Russian rule nullified, Danilov wrote on Facebook.
Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, but most of the world does not recognise it as Russian territory. The peninsula’s future status will be a key feature in any negotiations on ending the current fighting.
Excessive alcohol consumption has been the cause of many deaths among Russian forces in Ukraine, the British Defence Ministry has said in its regular update on the war.
“While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant minority of these have been due to non-combat causes,” it said.
It noted a recent Russian Telegram news channel report of “extremely high” numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption among the Russian forces.
Zelenskyy has praised his country for having repulsed Russian troops from areas around Kyiv a year ago.
“You have stopped the biggest force against humanity of our time,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “You have stopped a force that despises everything and wants to destroy everything that gives people meaning.
Ukraine says at least six people killed, eight wounded in Russian shelling
Six civilians have been killed and eight wounded in Russian shelling of Kostiantynivka, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official says.
Kostiantynivka, home to about 70,000 people before the war, is 20km (12.5 miles) west of Bakhmut, the epicentre of fighting for the past eight months.
“Russians have carried out massive shelling of the town of Kostiantynivka,” Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He said 16 apartment buildings, eight private houses, a kindergarten and an administrative building were damaged.
