Photo: EPA/BGNES
Hours after it bombed Odessa and other Ukrainian cities once again, Russia has threatened to step up missile strikes in response to expected large-scale arms deliveries to Ukraine from Britain and the United States.
In anticipation of new Russian offensives from the northeast, the Ukrainian authorities, in turn, are taking decisive steps to replenish the army.
“We will increase the intensity of attacks on logistics centers and arsenals with Western weapons,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Ever since the lower house of the US Congress passed a bill for $60 billion in military and financial aid to Kiev, Russian officials have raced to say that the move will not change the course of the war.
Shoigu’s comment comes shortly before the Senate takes up the bill later tonight Bulgarian time. Last night – hours after European Union ministers dashed Ukraine’s hopes for new anti-aircraft systems – it emerged that Britain will increase its military aid to Kiev by half a billion pounds. The new shipment from London will include, in addition to ammunition for air defense and long-range Storm Shadow missiles, which have been proven effective against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, as well as hundreds of armored vehicles for infantry.
Shoigu repeated his claims of a series of successes achieved by Russian troops in Donbas this month. Among the captured villages are Bogdanovka – at the foot of Chasov Yar, and Novomihailovka – near the Ukrainian fortress Vugledar. According to bloggers, the Russians are about to capture Ocheretine as well, in their advance towards the important Pokrovsk road junction.
The commander of the Ukrainian National Guard Oleksandr Pivnenko does not rule out attacks this summer on the northeastern regional centers of Kharkiv and Sumy.
Amid these developments, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry suspended most consular services for men living abroad, except for those necessary for their return to their homeland. Reuters: in the context of the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to recruit more soldiers for the front.
According to Eurostat data, at the beginning of this year, more than 800,000 Ukrainians subject to mobilization reside in the EU.
Worked on the publication: Radmila Popova
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