Live Updates | Britain’s leaders: Russian forces make progress
LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russian forces are making “significant progress” in eastern Ukraine, and Kiev’s forces need long-range rocket launchers and other military support.
Britain’s defense minister said on Friday that Moscow’s troops had recently captured several villages while trying to encircle Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region, but that they did not yet have full control of the region.
Johnson told Bloomberg News that Russian President Vladimir Putin “at great expense to himself and the Russian military continues to chew through the ground in the Donbas, he continues to make gradual, slow but I’re afraid of significant progress.”
He said that “therefore, it is imperative that we continue to support the Ukrainians militarily.”
Johnson said that long-range missile systems, or MLRSs, “would enable them to defend themselves against this very brutal Russian artillery.”
Britain possesses some of the systems, but Johnson did not say whether Britain would send any to Ukraine.
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IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– “Relentless”: Russia is squeezing Ukrainian strongholds in the east
– The West is considering having Russian oligarchs to get out of the sanctions
– US wins latest legal battle to seize Russian yacht in Fiji
– US General: No need to add ground forces in Sweden, Finland
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENT:
PRAGUE – Britain’s top diplomat says countries supporting Ukraine must be “prepared for the long run” and that there should be no talk of “appeasing” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Foreign Minister Liz Truss said after meeting her Czech counterpart in Prague on Friday that “we must ensure that Ukraine wins and that Russia withdraws and that we never see this kind of Russian aggression again.”
She said “there should be no talk of a ceasefire or to appease Putin.”
Truss says Ukraine needs to receive more heavy weapons and is gradually upgraded to get “NATO standard equipment.” She said that “at the moment they are using a lot of ex-Soviet equipment. We have to make sure that they can defend themselves into the future.”
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BUDAPEST, Hungary – A US lawmaker is urging the Biden administration to consider imposing sanctions on certain Hungarian companies in an attempt to pressure Budapest to agree to an EU embargo on Russian oil.
In a letter to Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Thursday, Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi called on him to “consider all tools, including sanctions”, to ensure that Hungary – a member of the EU and NATO – agrees to the proposal.
For several weeks, the EU has been trying to reach agreement on a new sanctions package that would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has suspended negotiations and threatened to veto the plan, arguing that it would destroy it. Hungary’s economy and lead to energy security.
In his letter to Blinken, Krishnamoorthi wrote that the EU’s proposed embargo would “significantly increase economic pressure on Russia’s economy and Putin’s war machine.”
If Orban continues to halt EU negotiations, he wrote, “the Biden administration should consider implementing sanctions against companies in Hungary that continue to do business with Russian oil exporters.”
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ISTANBUL – Turkey’s foreign minister says Sweden and Finland must now take “concrete steps” to alleviate their country’s security problems in order to overcome Ankara’s objections to their offer of NATO membership.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that delegations from the two Nordic countries have returned home with Turkey’s demands after a visit this week and Ankara is waiting for their response.
The countries’ applications for membership require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey opposes them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants that Turkey is considering terrorists and restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
Cavusoglu said that “an approach of” we will convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies “would not be correct.” He insisted that “these countries must take concrete steps.”
He added that “we understand the security problems of Finland and Sweden but … everyone must also understand Turkey’s legitimate security problems.”
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ROME – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has discussed the emerging food crisis in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Draghi’s office said Thursday’s talks “focused on the situation in Ukraine and … efforts to find a common solution to the ongoing food crisis and its serious repercussions on the world’s poorest countries.”
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted much of this flow, jeopardizing the world’s food supply. Many of these ports are now also heavily mined.
Russia is also a significant exporter of grain. Moscow on Thursday pressured the Western world to lift sanctions against Russia, in order to shift the blame for the food crisis.
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BERLIN – Germany’s development minister has traveled to Ukraine to pledge further civilian support and discuss the country’s reconstruction.
Svenja Schulze is the second German minister to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion began. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited on 10 May and reopened the country’s embassy in Kyiv.
Schulze’s ministry said it planned to meet with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and other senior officials in Kyiv on Friday.
It said the talks will address immediate support for resolving the problems Ukraine is facing now and “strategic issues” related to the reconstruction of the country.
Schulze said in a statement that “we must already now lay the foundations for internationally coordinated support for the reconstruction of a free and democratic Ukraine” and Germany will contribute.
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MOSCOW – Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine claim control of Lyman, a city in the Donetsk region. No confirmation has yet been received from Ukrainian officials.
The military in the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic told the Telegram that as of Friday, rebel forces, backed by Russian troops, “have liberated and taken full control of 220 settlements, including Lyman.”
Lyman, which had a population of over 20,000 before the war, is a major railway hub in the Donetsk region, north of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, cities still under Ukrainian control.
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MOSCOW – Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced that it is expelling five Croatian diplomats in response to “unfriendly steps” taken by Zagreb to reduce the size of Russia’s diplomatic mission there.
The ministry said in a statement that it called on Croatian Ambassador Tomislav Car on Friday. It said it “expressed a strong protest in the context of the Croatian authorities’ baseless attempt to blame Russia for war crimes in Ukraine and the provision of military assistance from the Croatian side to the neo-Nazi Kiev regime.”
Last month, Croatia expelled 18 Russian diplomats.
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KYIV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s foreign minister is appealing to Western nations to supply Kyiv with heavy weapons in order to repel Russian forces.
On Thursday night, Dmytro Kuleba tweeted a video in which he himself answered questions posted on Twitter, saying: “We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us is the amount of heavy weapons they have. Without artillery, without more missile systems will we are not able to push them back. ”
Kuleba said the situation in the eastern part of the country, where Russian forces are on the offensive, “is as horrible as people say.”
He added: “I would even say that it is even worse than what people say. We need weapons. If you really care about Ukraine, weapons, weapons and weapons again,” the minister stressed.
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KYIV, Ukraine – A Ukrainian regional governor says four people have been killed in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk in the past 24 hours by Russian shelling. Another person was killed by a Russian grenade in the village of Komushuvakha.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote in a Telegram post on Friday that “the people of Sievierodonetsk have forgotten when it was last quiet in the city for at least half an hour.” He said that “the Russians are pounding relentlessly against residential areas.”
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said on Thursday that 60% of the city’s residential buildings have been destroyed, and about 85-90% have been damaged and require major repairs.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand – The United States has won the latest round of a legal battle to seize a $ 325 million Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji, where the case is now on its way to the Supreme Court of the Pacific Nation.
The case has highlighted the difficult legal basis on which the United States finds itself as it seeks to seize assets from Russian oligarchs around the world. These intentions are welcomed by many governments and citizens who oppose the war in Ukraine, but some measures raise questions about the extent of US jurisdiction.
Fiji’s Court of Appeal on Friday rejected an appeal by Feizal Haniff, who represents the company that legally owns the superyacht Amadea. Haniff had claimed that the United States had no jurisdiction under Fiji’s laws on mutual assistance to seize the ship, at least until a court investigated who actually owned Amadea.
Haniff said he now plans to take the case to Fiji’s Supreme Court and will apply for a court order to stop US agents sailing Amadea from Fiji before the appeal is heard.
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WASHINGTON – The US general who has been nominated to take over the European command has told the senators that Sweden and Finland’s efforts to join NATO will not require the addition of more US ground forces in any of the countries. But Army General Christopher Cavoli said on Thursday that military exercises and occasional U.S. troop rotations are likely to increase.
Cavoli, who currently serves as commander of the U.S. Army’s Europe and Africa, said the increased military focus is likely to remain in Eastern Europe – where nations are more concerned about potential Russian aggression and the possible spread of the war against Ukraine.
Cavoli told the Senate Armed Forces Committee during his nomination hearing that “NATO forces have shifted eastward.” He said that “depending on the outcome of the conflict, we may need to continue with it for a while.”
Cavoli was asked about the US troop presence in Europe, which has grown from less than 80,000 to about 102,000 since the build-up to Russia’s invasion. He said that the increase has no connection to the recent moves of Finland and Sweden to apply for membership in NATO.