President Vladimir Putin on Thursday vowed a decisive response to any nation threatening Russia and lashed out towards Germany for promising tanks for Kyiv.
His threats got here after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Kremlin was consolidating its forces for a contemporary offensive.
Zelensky was talking in Kyiv beside EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who stated the bloc was seeking to finalize contemporary sanctions towards Russia by February 24, precisely one yr after Putin ordered troops into Ukraine.
In the southern Russian metropolis of Volgograd, Putin stated: “It’s unbelievable but true. We are again being threatened by German Leopard tanks.”
He was talking at a ceremony commemorating the Red Army’s victory towards Nazi troops 80 years in the past in Stalingrad, as town was then recognized.
“We have something to respond with,” he added. “A modern war with Russia will be completely different.”
Ukraine this month secured guarantees from the West for deliveries of contemporary battle tanks to combat Russian forces, and Kyiv is now asking for long-range missiles and fighter jets.
Sanctions to ‘erode’ Russia
Russia is “preparing to try to take revenge, not only against Ukraine, but against a free Europe and the free world,” Zelensky instructed a joint press convention with von der Leyen.
Putin has insisted that Russia is weathering the barrage of sanctions imposed by Ukraine’s Western allies and can proceed its navy marketing campaign in Ukraine.
But von der Leyen stated sanctions have been already “eroding” Russia’s financial system, “throwing it back by a generation”. She estimated that an current oil value cap alone was costing Moscow round 160 million euros day by day.
“We will introduce with our G7 partners an additional price cap on Russian petroleum products and by the 24th of February — exactly one year since the invasion started — we aim to have the 10th package of sanctions in place,” she stated.
Von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Thursday with the EU’s most senior diplomat Josep Borrell forward of a Ukraine-EU summit on Friday within the war-torn nation, which is in search of EU membership.
Zelensky stated his nation deserved to start out accession talks this yr to “give energy and motivation to our people to fight.”
But EU leaders say the method might take a few years.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed the EU and particularly von der Leyen had known as for Russia to be defeated so its financial system could be devastated.
“Is this not racism, not Nazism,” Lavrov stated.
Lavrov’s feedback echoed Putin, who has ceaselessly drawn parallels between what he calls Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and the Soviet warfare towards Nazi Germany.
Putin launched his intervention final yr, saying that Russia wanted to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.
Von der Leyen’s journey comes at some point after Kyiv raided the properties of an oligarch and public officers as a part of efforts to ease Western considerations about graft.
“I’m comforted to see that your anti-corruption bodies are on alert and effective,” von der Leyen stated.
‘How can I go away?’
On the entrance line, Russian forces are urgent Ukrainian troops within the japanese Donetsk area, now the epicenter of preventing.
Moscow has been making an attempt to grab management of Bakhmut within the industrial area for months in what has turn into the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.
Residents who stay within the war-scarred city instructed AFP they won’t budge if the Russians arrive.
“How could I leave?” stated 75-year-old Natalia Shevchenko.
She stated she spends a lot time sheltering from bombardments in her basement that she feels “like a mole” as she steps out into the sunshine and her eyes alter.
“Don’t worry,” she instructed AFP as shells whistled within the background. “They’re far away. I’ve now learnt where they’re going.”
Russian forces have additionally been shelling the southern area of Kherson, after withdrawing its forces from the area’s major metropolis final yr.
Separately the United States stated Thursday it backs strikes to permit athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate within the 2024 Olympics solely as impartial athletes prevented from displaying nationwide flags or emblems.
The US place provides to a rising dispute over the standing of athletes from Russia and Belarus on the Paris Games.
Ukraine is asking for Russian athletes to be totally banned over the invasion of Ukraine. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
