The Austrian Chancellor is due to meet Vladimir Putin on Monday, the Russian president’s first face-to-face meeting with an EU leader since the invasion of Ukraine was ordered, amid warnings of a new offensive and shelling in the east.
Karl Nehammer said the meeting would take place in Moscow and that Austria had a “clear position on the Russian war of aggression” and called for humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire and a full investigation into war crimes.
The British Ministry of Defense warned on Monday morning that Russian forces in Mariupol could resort to the use of phosphorus weapons if fighting around the city intensified. She cited the earlier use of the ammunition by Russian soldiers in Donetsk.
On the ground, Russian forces shelled targets in eastern Ukraine with rockets and artillery on Sunday, and Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, said there would be an offensive not only on the besieged southern port of Mariupol but also on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. “Luhansk and Donetsk – we will first completely liberate … and then take Kyiv and all other cities,” Kadyrov said in a video published on his Telegram channel.
The US has warned that the appointment of a new general to command Russia’s military campaign is likely to herald a new round of “crimes and brutality” against civilians. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, rose to prominence at the head of Russian forces in Syria in 2015-16 when Aleppo saw particularly brutal bombing of rebel-held areas, including civilians.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser in Washington, said: “This particular general has a resume that includes brutality against civilians in other theaters – in Syria – and we can expect more of that in Ukraine.”
Nehammer met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Saturday – the same day as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who vowed to supply Ukraine with 120 armored vehicles and anti-ship missile systems. Washington has also pledged to give Ukraine “the weapons it needs” to defend against a new Russian offensive.
Russia has failed to take larger cities, but Ukraine says it has massed its forces in the east for a full-scale attack, urging people to flee.
Russian forces fired rockets at Ukraine’s Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk regions on Sunday, officials said. Rockets completely destroyed the airport in the city of Dnipro, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The Russian Defense Ministry said high-precision missiles destroyed the headquarters of Ukraine’s Dnipro Battalion in the city of Zvonetsky. Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
For other developments:
Ukrainian officials said on Sunday the death toll from a rocket attack on a train station on Friday in the Donetsk region’s city of Kramatorsk has risen to 57, while 109 were wounded. The station was packed with people trying to flee the area. Russia has denied responsibility, saying the missiles used in the attack were only used by the Ukrainian military.
Joe Biden is set to hold a virtual meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, with the US President expected to urge India not to increase its imports of Russian crude. Biden has previously accused India of being the only “somewhat shaky” country in the quad group of nations that also includes Japan and Australia on Ukraine. It has not yet imposed any sanctions on Russia.
The World Bank has forecast that Ukraine’s GDP will contract by about 45% this year as the Russian invasion and the aftermath of a “deep humanitarian crisis” take their toll. Russia will also fall into recession and many countries around Ukraine will suffer severe hardship
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 2,824 people were evacuated through humanitarian corridors on Sunday, including 213 from Mariupol, which has been under siege for weeks.
Since Russia invaded, Zelenskyy has called on Western powers to provide more defense aid and punish Moscow with tougher sanctions, including embargoes on Russian energy exports.
In an interview aired on CBS 60 Minutes, Zelenskiy said he has faith in his own armed forces, but “unfortunately, I don’t have faith that we’re going to get everything we need” from the US.
“They must supply arms to Ukraine as if defending themselves and their own people,” Zelenskyy added. “You have to understand that. If they don’t accelerate, it will be very difficult for us to withstand this pressure.”
Sullivan told ABC News, “We’re going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to push back the Russians and stop them from taking more cities and towns.”
Zelenskyj previously said on Twitter that he had spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about additional sanctions, more defense and financial support for his country and welcomed Germany’s more positive attitude towards Ukraine.
Among other things, the EU banned coal imports from Russia on Friday, but has not yet touched on oil and gas imports from Russia.
Increasing civilian casualties have prompted widespread international condemnation and new sanctions.
A grave containing at least two civilian bodies was found in the village of Buzova, near Kyiv, said Taras Didych, head of the Dmytrivka community to which the village belongs, the latest such reported discovery since Russian forces withdrew from areas north of the capital .
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians as part of a so-called “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its southern neighbor. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed this as an unfounded pretext for war.
The Russian invasion has displaced about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, reduced cities to rubble and killed or injured thousands.
Some cities in eastern Ukraine are under heavy shelling, tens of thousands of people cannot be evacuated.
With Reuters