LAST UPDATE | 20 Jul 2022

RUSSIA SAID THAT its military aims in Ukraine have expanded beyond the industrial Donbas region as its forces launched deadly barrages over the east and the south of the country.

The warning came as the European Commission called on EU countries to slash demand for natural gas to relieve dependence on Russian energy and the bloc agreed an embargo on Russian gold imports.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview that Moscow’s military was no longer “only” focused on wresting control of the east Ukraine regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, which have been partially controlled by pro-Moscow rebels for years.

“The geography is different now. It is not only about the DNR and LNR, but also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories” he explained to state media.

Russian forces, since invading on 24 February, have steadily advanced into each of those regions, wreaking destruction as they captured key cities and met fierce Ukrainian resistance.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, responded to Lavrov’s remarks by calling on allies of his country to ramp up sanctions on Moscow and speed arms deliveries to Kyiv.

“By confessing dreams to grab more Ukrainian land, Russian Foreign Minister (Sergei Lavrov) proves that Russia rejects diplomacy and focuses on war and terror,” he said.

It comes just hours after the United States accused Russia of moving ahead with plans to annex additional Ukrainian territory 

“Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters yesterday.

“Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an annexation playbook, very similar to the one we saw in 2014,” when it invaded and eventually annexed Crimea, Kirby said.

“Already, Russia is installing illegitimate proxy officials in the areas of Ukraine that are under its control.”

He said Russia had plans to organise “sham referenda” in the areas it has seized, possibly as early as September.

“Annexation by force will be a gross violation of the UN Charter and we will not allow it to go unchallenged or unpunished,” Kirby said.

The NSC spokesman said he was “exposing” the Russian plans “so the world knows that any purported annexation is premeditated, illegal and illegitimate.”

“We’re going to respond swiftly and severely and in lockstep with our allies and partners,” he said. “We are sanctioning the Russian-installed puppets and proxies.”

Kirby said the areas targeted for annexation include Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, all of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian strikes

Russian shelling has pounded eastern and southern Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only ease the path for Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain if the West lifts sanctions on Russia’s shipments.

Russian strikes hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk yesterday, killing one person, local authorities said.

AFP journalists said a four-story residential building had been hit in the city in the Donbas region. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands and displaced millions, but also hampered shipments from one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat and other grain, sparking fears of global food shortages.

Putin, in Tehran for talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday said “progress” had been made in discussions towards exporting grain from Ukraine.

After talks with both Erdogan and Iran’s president, Putin told reporters that any deal hinged on the West’s willingness to yield some ground.

“We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but we are proceeding from the fact that all restrictions related to air deliveries for the export of Russian grain will be lifted,” he said.

NATO member Turkey has been using its good relations with both the Kremlin and Kyiv to try and broker an agreement on a safe way to deliver the grain.

‘Victory before winter’

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned this week that the grain impasse was “an issue of life and death for many human beings”.

And a document consulted by AFP yesterday showed that the European Commission is proposing to unblock assets at Russian banks linked to trade in food and fertiliser.

Along the Black Sea coast, Kyiv said that a barrage of seven cruise missiles had wounded at least six people, including a child, in the southern coastal region of Odessa.

The Russian defence ministry claimed that strikes on Odessa had destroyed a stockpile of Western-supplied weapons.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered troops earlier this week to prioritise the destruction of long-range artillery supplied by the United States and Ukraine’s other Western allies.

Observers credit the weapons with altering battlefield dynamics, giving Ukraine the capacity to hit Russian arms depots and command posts deep inside territory controlled by Moscow.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, during a visit to the United States, urged the West to drastically step up its supply of precision rocket systems, calling them a “game-changer”.

© AFP 2022