At least four people, including two children, were killed and six others wounded in Russian nighttime bombings in eastern Ukraine, the governor of the Lugansk region announced on Thursday, as Western countries will warn Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will pay the “devastating” costs of invading Ukraine. During three summit meetings today.
Western leaders have begun gathering in Brussels to discuss further measures to pressure Putin to end his month-old campaign.
In response to Western sanctions that have severely damaged the Russian economy and froze his country’s assets, Putin said that Moscow plans to transfer payments for gas supplies to “unfriendly” countries to the ruble, in a move that alarmed international markets.
In a sign of cracks in Moscow’s ranks, two sources said that one of Putin’s veteran aides, Anatoly Shubis, had resigned over the Ukraine war and left Russia with no intention of returning, the first senior official to disagree with the Kremlin since Putin launched the war on Feb. 24.
Although the invading forces faltered in some areas and the Ukrainian resistance thwarted its hopes of achieving a quick victory, Russian artillery and warplanes continued to bombard many cities, while civilians took refuge in underground shelters.
“I have never seen such brutality before,” says Katerina Mtkevich, 38, who arrived at the Polish border with her child after fleeing heavy shelling of the city of Chernihiv in eastern Ukraine, noting that the city was “totally destroyed.”
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels to attend today’s summit meetings of NATO, the Group of Seven and the European Union on Ukraine.
The leaders are expected to impose additional sanctions on Russia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference that they would also agree to a reinforcement of forces on the alliance’s eastern flank.
However, Stoltenberg stressed that the alliance would not send troops to Ukraine.
“It is very important to provide support to Ukraine and we are strengthening this trend. But at the same time it is also very important to prevent this conflict from turning into an all-out war between NATO and Russia,” he said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a phone call, that he would use the meeting to push for an increase in lethal weapons provided to Ukraine.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington would announce a package of sanctions against political figures and members of Russia’s ruling elite.
He added that the leaders of the Group of Seven will also agree to coordinate the implementation of sanctions.
“unfriendly” countries
Putin’s announcement that Russia would convert some of its gas payments into the ruble sent European futures higher, amid fears the switch could exacerbate an energy crisis and derail deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars a day.
Russia supplies about 40 percent of Europe’s gas needs.
Moscow has drawn up a list of “unfriendly” countries which includes countries that have imposed sanctions, including the United States, European Union members, Britain, Japan and other countries.
Putin said, in a meeting with government ministers, which was broadcast on television, that Russia will continue to supply natural gas in line with previously concluded contracts.
“The changes will only affect the payment currency, which will change to the Russian ruble,” he said.
On February 24, Putin sent his forces to Ukraine, in what he called a “special military operation” to disarm the country. The West says it is a war of aggression aimed at reasserting Russia’s influence over the former Soviet republic.
But despite the month-long bloodshed, Russian forces failed to seize any major Ukrainian city while Western sanctions alienated Moscow from the global economy.
Although the Kremlin says the operation is going as planned, the Russian forces have suffered heavy losses and have been frozen in positions for at least a week on most fronts, while facing supply problems and fierce resistance.
And the Russian forces turned to the methods of siege and bombardment of cities, which caused widespread destruction and the death of many civilians.
The war has driven nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes.
On Thursday, local authorities in the Ukrainian Lugansk region reported that four people had been killed and at least six wounded, in a Russian bombing.
“Unfortunately, the number of casualties may be much higher,” said regional governor Sergei Gaidai, accusing Russian forces of using phosphorous bombs.
Other officials in the region accused Russia of using these bombs as well recently, but Al-Hurra could not immediately verify this.
Russia denies targeting civilians.
fire and smoke
The port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, surrounded on all sides by Russian forces, witnessed the worst repercussions of the war, where hundreds of thousands of people have been hiding since the first days of the invasion under continuous bombardment without supplies of food, water or heating.
New satellite images from the commercial company Maxar showed widespread destruction in the city, which was inhabited by 400,000 people before the war, with plumes of smoke rising from burning apartment buildings.
Despite the losses it has suffered so far, Russia may still hope to make more battlefield gains, especially in the east, in areas including Mariupol, which Moscow demands Ukraine cede to Russian-backed separatists.
British military intelligence said the entire battlefield across northern Ukraine, which saw huge lines of armored vehicles heading towards Kyiv, was now stagnant and that the invaders appeared to be trying to regroup.
But in the east, the Russians are trying to connect forces in Mariupol with those nearby in Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, hoping to encircle Ukrainian forces while, in the southwest, bypassing the city of Mykolaiv in an effort to advance towards Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port.
Ukrainian officials reported occasional shelling of other cities during the night, killing two civilians in the Mykolaiv region and destroying a bridge in the Chernihiv region.
The Al-Hurra website was not yet able to verify these reports.