NATO leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss expanding military aid to Ukraine, which has been bracing for a strong Russian offensive in the south and east after Moscow’s military pulled back from the northern part of the country.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said his agenda for the NATO meeting included three things: “weapons, weapons, and weapons.”
Kyiv has pleaded with Western nations for more military aid and said it is necessary to prevent the further slaughter of civilians. It is seeking more planes, land-based missiles, armored vehicles, and air defense systems.
NATO has been walking a tightrope when it comes to the conflict. Member countries have sent billions of dollars in aid and provided weapons including portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons but have avoided getting involved in direct combat, careful not to trigger World War III. They have also been reluctant to send equipment that Ukrainian troops would have to be trained to use.
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The European Union is expected to approve its harshest sanctions yet on Moscow on Thursday, including a ban on Russian coal. Russia is Europe’s leading provider of fossil fuel energy, and a ban could dent the fragile economies of several nations.
British oil giant Shell announced it will likely take a $4 billion to $5 billion loss this year after it pulls out of projects in Russia. Despite the hit, analysts forecast the company will walk away with more than $30 billion in 2022, aided by higher energy prices that are likely to boost the company’s bottom line.
During a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will respond to U.S. sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters accordingly, though he did not provide details.
“Russia will definitely respond and will do it as it sees fit,” Peskov said Thursday.
Peskov said the sanctions “add to a completely frantic line of various restrictions” and that the fact that they are being placed on family members “speaks for itself.”
“This is something that is difficult to understand and explain,” he said. “But, unfortunately, we have to deal with such opponents.”
Finnish authorities seized three shipments of artwork being transported back to Russia from exhibitions in Italy and Japan. Customs officials said the shipments, containing paintings and sculptures, were stopped at a border crossing between Finland and Russia. The items were seized because they fell under sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Thursday that Ukraine had presented a new peace proposal that was completely different from what both sides discussed during a face-to-face meeting in Istanbul late last month. He said it contained items never agreed to and said that Moscow would pursue its own version of a deal.
There had been renewed optimism of a ceasefire following the meeting in Turkey, but so far, both sides seem to be at an impasse.
In Ukraine, the fighting continues to rage on.
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The country’s leaders told residents living in its industrial heartland to leave while they still could.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his overnight address that Russian forces had started to regroup and add to their soldier count in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where Russia has so far failed to make progress.
Moscow announced more than a week ago that it planned to concentrate its forces in the east. Growing numbers of Russian troops, along with mercenaries, have moved into Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years and have control over two areas, the Associated Press reported.
Prior to the Feb. 24 Putin-ordered invasion, Russia recognized the Luhansk and Donetsk areas as independent states.
Like Zelensky, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged civilians to relocate to safer areas before the fighting blocked ways out.
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“Later, people will come under fire, and we won’t be able to do anything to help them,” she said.
The mayor of Mariupol said 5,000 people have been killed in the besieged port city since the start of the war. Russian forces have taken 90% of the city’s infrastructure, including a children’s hospital in which “almost 50 were burned alive,” Vadym Boichenko said.
