July 20 (Reuters) – Russia’s army “tasks” in Ukraine now transcend the jap Donbas area, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned on Wednesday, as its forces shelled jap and southern Ukraine.
Lavrov additionally instructed state information company RIA Novosti that Moscow’s goals will broaden nonetheless additional if the West retains supplying Kyiv with long-range weapons such because the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
“That means the geographical tasks will extend still further from the current line,” he mentioned. learn extra
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
Lavrov’s feedback have been the clearest acknowledgment but that Russia’s war targets have expanded over the 5 months of war.
The United States, which had mentioned on Tuesday that it noticed indicators Russia was getting ready to formally annex territory it has seized in Ukraine, promised that it might oppose annexation.
“Again, we’ve been clear that annexation by force would be a gross violation of the UN Charter, and we would not allow it to go unchallenged. We would not allow it to go unpunished,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price mentioned at an everyday day by day briefing on Wednesday.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and helps Russian-speaking breakaway entities – the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) – in these provinces, collectively often known as the Donbas.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned Russia rejected diplomacy and needed “blood, not talks”.
In Washington, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley mentioned the Donbas area had not but been misplaced to the Russians. Ukrainian forces withdrew from Luhansk earlier this month.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instructed a gathering of allies that the United States will ship 4 extra HIMARS to Ukraine. learn extra
SHELLING
The Ukrainian army reported heavy and typically deadly Russian shelling amid what they mentioned have been largely failed makes an attempt by Russian floor forces to advance.
The Russian-installed administration in the partially occupied Ukrainian area of Zaporizhzhia mentioned Ukraine had carried out a drone strike on a nuclear energy station there, however the reactor was undamaged. learn extra
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the report. Ukrainian officers had no instant remark.
A boy appears to be like out the window of a practice to Dnipro and Lviv throughout an evacuation effort from war-affected areas of jap Ukraine, amid Russia’s invasion of the nation, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk area, Ukraine July 20, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Lavrov is essentially the most senior determine to talk overtly of Russia’s war targets in territorial phrases, practically 5 months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Feb. 24 invasion with a denial that Russia supposed to occupy its neighbour.
Then, Putin mentioned his purpose was to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine – a press release dismissed by Kyiv and the West as a pretext for an imperial-style war of growth.
Lavrov instructed RIA Novosti geographical realities had modified since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held peace talks in Turkey in late March that failed to supply any breakthrough.
“Now the geography is different, it’s far from being just the DPR and LPR, it’s also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other territories,” he mentioned, referring to territories properly past the Donbas that Russian forces have wholly or partly seized.
ENERGY ‘BLACKMAIL’
Meanwhile, concern that Russian provides of gasoline despatched via the most important pipeline in Europe might be stopped by Moscow prompted the European Union to inform member states to chop gasoline utilization by 15% till March as an emergency step. learn extra
“Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned, describing a full cut-off of Russian gasoline flows as “a likely scenario” for which “Europe needs to be ready”.
Putin had earlier warned that gasoline provides despatched to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been closed for 10 days for upkeep, have been vulnerable to being diminished additional.
Russia, the world’s largest gasoline exporter, has denied Western accusations of utilizing its vitality provides as a software of coercion, saying it has been a dependable vitality provider.
As for its oil, Russia will not ship provides to the world market if a value cap is imposed beneath the price of manufacturing, Interfax information company quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Wednesday. learn extra
EU diplomats assembly in Brussels agreed a brand new spherical of sanctions in opposition to Moscow, together with a ban on importing gold from Russia and freezing the belongings of high lender Sberbank. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the sanctions as insufficient.
“Russia must feel a much higher price for the war to force it to seek peace,” Zelenskiy mentioned in a late-night video deal with.
Russia’s invasion has killed 1000’s, displaced tens of millions and flattened cities, significantly in Russian-speaking areas in the east and southeast of Ukraine. It has additionally raised international vitality and meals costs and elevated fears of famine in poorer international locations as Ukraine and Russia are each main grain producers.
(This story corrects to say Russia will not provide oil to world market ‘if a value cap is imposed beneath the price of manufacturing’ as a substitute of ‘if value cap is imposed’, in paragraph 22)
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Andrew Osborn, Catherine Evans and Grant McCool, Editing by William Maclean, Toby Chopra and Cynthia Osterman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
