Cape Times E-dition

Resistance futile – separatists

EU LEADERS met yesterday to discuss Ukraine’s long-sought bid to join the bloc, even as tensions between Brussels and Moscow deepened over gas supplies and Russia closed in on key cities in the embattled Donbas region.

“This is a decisive moment for the European Union. A choice must be made today that will determine the future of the union, our stability, our security and our prosperity,” EU council president Charles Michel said.

“We are waiting for the green light, Ukraine has earned candidate status,” the head of the Ukrainian presidency Andriy Yermak said.

But joining the EU is still years away, and the potential consequences for Ukraine’s allies loomed large over the talks, and ahead of the G7 and Nato meetings in the following days.

Western officials denounced Moscow’s “weaponising” of its key gas and grain exports in the conflict, with a US official warning of further retaliatory measures at the G7 summit in Germany starting on Sunday.

Germany ratcheted up an emergency gas plan to its second alert level, just one short of the maximum that could require rationing in Europe’s largest economy after Russia slashed its supplies. France is now aiming to have its gas storage reserves at full capacity by early autumn, and will build a new floating methane terminal to get more energy supplies by sea, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said.

A Kremlin spokesperson reiterated its claim that the supply cuts were due to maintenance and that necessary equipment from abroad had not arrived.

On the ground in the Donbas, Russian forces tightened their grip on the strategically important cities of Severodonetsk and its twin Lysychansk across the Donets river. Taking the cities would give Moscow control of the whole of Lugansk, allowing Russia to press further into the Donbas and potentially further west. Ukraine acknowledged that it had lost control of two areas from where it was defending the cities, with Russian forces now closer to encircling the industrial hubs.

Britain’s defence ministry said some Ukrainian units had probably been forced to withdraw “to avoid being encircled” as troops advanced slowly but steadily toward Lysychansk.

“Russia’s improved performance in this sector is likely a result of recent unit reinforcement and heavy concentration of fire,” it said in its latest intelligence update.

A representative of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine said the resistance of Ukrainian forces trying to defend Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was “pointless and futile”.

“At the rate our soldiers are going, very soon the whole territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic will be liberated,” said Andrei Marochko, a spokesperson for the army of Lugansk.

The Russian army also said that its bombings in the southern city of Mykolaiv had destroyed 49 fuel storage tanks and three tank repair depots, after strikes killed several Ukrainian troops. But Kyiv, which is urging allies to send heavier weaponry, welcomed the delivery of high-precision Himars rocket artillery from the US.

The north-eastern city of Kharkiv near the Russian border was near empty after shelling by Moscow’s forces killed five people there.

“Last night the building next to mine collapsed from the bombardment while I was sleeping,” said Leyla Shoydhry, a young woman in a park near the opera house.

Roman Pohuliay, a 19 year old in a pink sweatshirt, said most residents had fled the city. “Only the grannies are left,” he said.

In the central city of Zaporizhzhia, women were training to use Kalashnikov assault rifles in urban combat as Russian forces edged nearer.

Away from the battlefield, Moscow summoned Brussels’ ambassador in a dispute with EU member Lithuania over the country’s restrictions on rail traffic to the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad.

The coastal territory, annexed from Germany after World War II, is about 1 600km from Moscow, and borders Lithuania and Poland but has no land border with Russia. By blocking goods arriving from Russia, Lithuania says it is simply adhering to EU-wide sanctions on Moscow.

The US made clear its commitment to Lithuania as a Nato ally, while Germany urged Russia not to “violate international law” by retaliating.

WORLD

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2022-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://capetimes.pressreader.com/article/281758452968194

African News Agency