LVV, Ukraine / Berlin, May 24 (Reuters) – The crisis in Ukraine is a global issue that highlights the importance of maintaining international order, regional integrity and sovereignty, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
Biden’s remarks at the start of a “quad” meeting of Indo-Pacific leaders in Tokyo came a day after he broke off the conference and volunteered US military support for the sovereign island of Taiwan, which is claimed by China. read more
Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, Biden said: “This is more than a European issue. It is a global issue.” read more
Sign up now for unlimited free access to Reuters.com
Biden stressed that Washington would stand with its allies and push for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
“International law and human rights must always be protected wherever they are violated in the world,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky told global business leaders in Davos on Monday that the world should step up sanctions against Russia and prevent other countries from using “brutal force” to achieve their goals.
As Moscow has said its economic ties with China will grow as it is isolated by the West in the Ukraine conflict, the European Union (EU) will accept the embargo on Russian oil imports “within days,” said its largest member, Germany.
Many of the 27 member states of the European Union rely heavily on Russian energy, which has provoked criticism from Gavil for not moving fast enough to cut off supplies.
Hungary is demanding energy investment before agreeing to a embargo, colliding with EU countries pushing for a speedy approval. The European Union has provided up to 2 billion euros ($ 2.14 billion) to non-Russian suppliers in the Middle East.
“We will reach a turning point in a few days,” German Economy Minister Robert Hebeck told the ZDF broadcaster.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the Kremlin will focus on developing ties with China, as economic ties with the United States and Europe have been severed.
“If they (the West) want to offer something to resume relations, we will seriously consider whether we need it or not,” he said in a speech, a transcript on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
Now that the West has taken a ‘dictatorial position’, our economic relations with China will grow even faster.
Russia’s three – month invasion, the largest attack on a European state since 1945, has seen more than 6.5 million people flee abroad, turning entire cities into ruins and prompting unprecedented Western sanctions on Russia.
On Monday, Zhelensky called on Moscow, an ally of Ukraine, to press for the transfer of prisoners to Moscow. read more
“We do not need Russian soldiers, we only need ours,” Zhelensky said. “We’re ready for the exchange even tomorrow.”
Donbass fight
Russia sent thousands of troops to Ukraine on February 24 in what has been called a “special military operation” to militarize its neighbors and isolate dangerous nationalists.
Russian forces have captured the port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine after a month-long siege and now control large-scale unbroken territory in the east and south.
They are encircling Ukrainian forces and trying to completely capture the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, which form the eastern Donbass region, which supports separatist forces in Moscow.
A total of 12,500 Russians tried to capture Luhansk, local governor Sergei Kaitoy said in a telegram.
Four people were killed when a shell exploded at a residential building in the city of Sverdlovsk, Kaitoy added.
“The intensity of the Sievierodonetsk fire has multiplied, they are simply destroying the city,” he said on TV, there were about 15,000 people in the city and the Ukrainian army is controlling it.
Sivirodonetsk is located in the eastern part of the Ukrainian-controlled pocket of the Donbass and is one of the last regions of the Luhansk region outside Russia’s control.
Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Girilenko said in front of local television that shelling was taking place and that the coal-mining city of Avtivka was under 24-hour attack.
Seven people were killed and six others were injured when Russian forces opened fire on 38 communities in Donetsk and Luhansk on Monday, according to the Ukrainian Joint Task Force.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the information.
Selensky described Ukraine’s worst military casualties as a result of an attack on the war, which last week killed 87 people when Russian forces attacked a training base in the north.
The US-announced Harpoon anti-ship missiles and Denmark’s promise to send a missile to Ukraine are the first indications that Kiev will receive US-made weapons that will significantly expand its range of attack after the Russian invasion. read more
Harpons manufactured by Boeing (BA.N)Can be used to push Russian navy out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, allowing resumption of exports of grain and other agricultural products.
In the first of several war crimes trials arising from the invasion, a court in Kiev sentenced a young Russian tank commander to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian. read more
Ukraine is investigating more than 13,000 Russian war crimes, according to the website of its attorney general.
Russia has refused to target civilians or engage in war crimes.
At a cemetery outside Mariupol, Natalia Voloshina, who lost her 28-year-old son in the struggle for the city by trampling long queues of new tombs and makeshift wooden crosses, said many of Mariupol’s dead had no one to honor their memory. .
“Who will bury them? Who will bury them?” She asked.
“They have no family.”
($ 1 = 0.9363 euros)
Sign up now for unlimited free access to Reuters.com
Report by Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Lviv, Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets in Kyiv and Reuters journalists in Mariupol; Written by Costas Pitas and Himani Sarkar; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Michael Perry
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
“Friend of animals everywhere. Devoted analyst. Total alcohol scholar. Infuriatingly humble food trailblazer.”