Russia threatens to attack western weapons shipments to Ukraine

Russia has warned that it’s going to hearth on western armaments shipments to Kyiv, elevating the danger of a direct army confrontation between Moscow and Nato throughout the battle in Ukraine.

Deputy overseas minister Sergei Ryabkov mentioned on Saturday that “pumping up [Ukraine] with weapons from a complete vary of nations” was “not only a harmful transfer — it’s one thing that turns these convoys into professional army targets”, in line with the Interfax information company.

US president Joe Biden has rejected calls from Kyiv to determine a no-fly zone over Ukraine and mentioned Nato won’t be drawn into an all-out battle with Russia or ship troops to defend the nation.

Nonetheless, Ukraine’s western backers have pledged important army support to the nation. The US has promised $6.5bn in defence spending, the UK has despatched 3,615 NLAW anti-tank missiles and Javelin anti-tank weapons whereas Nordic states have despatched greater than 10,000 anti-tank weapons.

Russian forces continued their assault on Ukraine on Saturday with fierce combating on the outskirts of Kyiv and experiences of a strike on an airfield at Vasylkiv, south of the capital. Ukraine police mentioned that an ammunition depot was broken, shells detonated and a hearth broke out.

“The airport is totally destroyed. An arsenal of weapons exploded,” mentioned Natalia Balasynovych, Vasylkiv’s mayor.

Russia pressed on with its aerial bombardment of the besieged metropolis of Mariupol and struck a mosque there, in line with Ukrainian authorities. There was no quick affirmation of casualties.

There have been road protests in Melitopol the place Vladimir Putin’s forces have detained Ivan Fedorov, the town’s mayor.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky known as upon world leaders to strain Moscow to launch him. “We attraction to all world leaders who communicate to Moscow. France, Germany, Israel and others,” mentioned Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president mentioned Russian losses had been “merely astounding”, claiming the destruction of greater than 360 tanks, 1,205 armoured automobiles, “nearly 60 planes [and] greater than 80 helicopters”. His claims couldn’t be independently verified.

With the battle in its third week, the west has stepped up sanctions on Russia. On Friday G7 nations mentioned they might finish regular commerce relations with Moscow.

The joint step contains revoking Russia’s “most-favoured nation” standing which permits the nation to commerce items on preferential phrases with many western international locations beneath guidelines set by the World Commerce Group. The transfer will result in increased tariffs on many Russian exports.

The G7 additionally agreed on different measures, together with stopping Russia from acquiring any financing from worldwide establishments such because the IMF and the World Financial institution.

Within the newest step towards Russia’s oligarchs, Italian authorities seized a superyacht valued at $530mn owned by billionaire Andrey Melnichenko within the port of Trieste.

Ryabkov accused the US of additional inflaming tensions by main the western sanctions effort. “It’s the US that has ramped up tensions to the utmost in worldwide affairs. And that’s earlier than we get to what they’re doing in observe by supporting the prison Kyiv regime,” Ryabkov mentioned.

He added that Russia and the US had been in “fixed contact” and Moscow was nonetheless open to a strategic dialogue with Washington on arms management.

Putin is demanding that Ukraine recognises its 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the independence of two separatist statelets within the Donbas area, commits to demilitarisation and declares neutrality in its structure.

Ukraine has mentioned it’s open to creating some concessions however has described Moscow’s stance as a requirement for “capitulation”. Talks in Belarus and Turkey this week failed to succeed in a breakthrough and even set up a ceasefire, with overseas minister Sergei Lavrov denying that Russia had attacked Ukraine.

In the meantime, Biden mentioned on Friday that Russia would pay a “extreme value” if it used chemical weapons throughout its battle on Ukraine, though he declined to specify the character of any US response.

US officers have mentioned in latest days that Russia may resort to the usage of chemical weapons after first organising a pretext by deploying them in a “false flag” operation and blaming it on Ukraine.