Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska before the US Congress on July 20, 2022 (POOL/SAUL LOEB)
Almost five months after the start of its offensive, Russia broadened its targets to areas other than eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, with Kyiv in turn asking its allies for more weapons and new sanctions against Moscow.
To overcome the fall in Russian gas supplies, Brussels has proposed a plan to reduce European demand by 15%, limiting heating of certain buildings, postponing the closure of nuclear power plants and asking companies to reduce their needs. But Spain has already signaled its opposition.
Map of the situation in Ukraine as of July 20 at 7am GMT (AFP /)
On the military front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia’s goals are no longer limited to eastern Ukraine, but also involve “other areas” and could expand further.
As part of the Feb. 24 attack, Russia said it wanted to focus on the Donbass Basin, a mining region partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 after failing notably to take Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to take
“It’s no longer just the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, ed.), but also the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions (in the south, ed.) and a number of” other territories and this process is constantly going on,” Lavrov told the Ria Novosti news agency and the RT TV channel.
Lavrov also said that talks with Kyiv “wouldn’t make any sense in the current situation” and said previous contacts “only revealed the lack of will on the part of the Ukrainian side to seriously discuss anything it would be”.
View of a destroyed shopping center in the city of Kherson (Ukraine), July 20, 2022 (AFP / STRINGER)
Ukraine responded to the Russian announcement by calling for more weapons and additional sanctions against Moscow. “The Russians want blood, not negotiations. I urge all partners to tighten sanctions against Russia and speed up arms supplies to Ukraine,” wrote the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba.
For her part, Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska, during a visit to the United States, made a vigorous plea to the American Congress: “I ask you for more guns (…) for the protection of everyone’s homes and the right to wake up alive in those homes,” said you.
– Russian advances –
The Russian army has made progress in Donbass in recent weeks, including breaching the twin locks of Severodonetsk and Lysyhansk, two cities in the Luhansk region, which has cleared the way for an attempt to advance further towards the cities from Kramatorsk and Slovyansk west in the Donetsk region.
Fierce fighting continues in this part of Ukraine, with Kyiv benefiting from recent deliveries of more powerful Western artillery pieces.
Lavrov also warned that Russia’s geographic goals would continue to evolve if the West continued to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, such as America’s Himars multiple rocket launchers.
In the south, new bombings in the city of Nikopol claimed at least two lives and injured nine, regretted its mayor Oleksandre Saïouk.
A relative kneels in front of the body of a teenager killed by a Russian missile attack at a bus stop in Saltivka, near Kharkiv, a northern district of Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, July 20, 2022 (AFP / SERGEY BOBOK)
According to local authorities, at least three people were killed by shelling in Kharkiv in the north-east. Among the victims were a 13-year-old teenager, killed near a bus stop whose body was seen by AFP journalists, and relatives who knelt beside him in shock amid broken glass.
– Concerns about gas –
In the near future, Europe is exposed to Moscow’s decision to reopen the valves of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which mainly supplies Germany and has only been supplying 40 percent of its capacity since mid-June.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted that the pipeline could be back online as of Thursday morning, but that it would only be at 20% capacity if Russia didn’t get a missing turbine. “A pretext,” Germany responded immediately.
German operator Gascade pledged to foresee a restoration to “pre-maintenance” levels, or 40% of capacity, from Thursday. At the beginning of the evening, the President of the German Network Agency, Klaus Müller, estimated that delivery on Thursday could only be “around 30 percent” of Nord Stream 1’s capacity.
In Brussels, the European Commission is preparing people for gas shortages that could slow economic activity and cause difficulties heating in winter.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after the presentation of a gas savings plan on July 20, 2022 in Brussels (AFP / JOHN THYS)
Until last year, Russia covered 40% of Europe’s gas supply.
But the European plan is not unanimous. The Spanish government has opposed Brussels’ target of reducing gas consumption by at least 15% for all Member States of the European Union, arguing that this measure is not necessarily “fair” and “effective”.
Madrid also regretted that this measure was not discussed beforehand. This plan must be discussed on July 26 during a European Council.
In addition to the six packages of sanctions passed since the war began, the European Union has also approved an embargo on gold exports from Russia. It will also freeze the assets of Russian bank Sberbank and blacklist several personalities and organizations.
But for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “that’s not enough”. “Russia has to pay a higher price for the war that would force it to seek peace,” he said in a video.
– Diplomatic setback for Kyiv –
At the diplomatic level, the Ukrainian leader suffered with the refusal of the South American economic bloc Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, to give him a speech at its summit Thursday.
All decisions of the economic bloc are made unanimously. The name of the state or states that opposed the Ukrainian president’s intervention was not disclosed.
After the outbreak of war, Brazil and Argentina refrained from supporting a statement by the Organization of American States (OAS) condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Since the start of the Russian offensive, President Zelensky has multiplied virtual interventions at summit meetings, in front of parliaments and at media events.