The European Union is likely to agree to an embargo on Russian oil imports “for days”, according to its largest member state, Germany, as Moscow says it sees its economic ties with China after being isolated from the West over its invasion. in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told world business leaders in Davos on Monday that the world must increase sanctions against Russia to deter other countries from using “brute force” to achieve their goals.
Many of the EU’s 27 member states rely heavily on Russian energy, prompting criticism from Kyiv that the bloc has not moved fast enough to cut off supplies.
Hungary is sticking to its demands for energy investment before agreeing to such an embargo, confronting EU countries demanding quick approval. The EU has offered up to 2 billion euros ($ 2.14 billion) to central and eastern countries that do not have supplies of non-Russian origin.
“We will achieve a breakthrough in a few days,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told ZDF.
The European Commission and the United States are working in parallel on a proposal to limit world oil prices, he said.
“Obviously it’s an unusual measure, but these are unusual times,” he said.
Russia’s three-month invasion of Ukraine, the largest attack on a European country since 1945, has led to more than 6.5 million people fleeing abroad, turning entire cities into ruins and causing unprecedented Western sanctions against Russia.
As an additional symbol of Russia’s isolation, the American coffee chain Starbucks became the latest Western brand to say it was withdrawing from the country on Monday.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin would focus on developing ties with China as economic ties with the United States and Europe were severed.
“If they (the West) want to offer something in terms of resuming relations, then we will seriously consider whether we will need it or not,” he said in a speech, according to a transcript on the foreign ministry’s website.
“Now that the West has taken a ‘dictatorial position,’ our economic ties with China will grow even faster.
US President Joe Biden says he would be ready to use force to protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression [File: Nicolas Datiche/Pool via Reuters]
The comments came as US President Joe Biden toured Asia, where he said he would be ready to use force to protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression – a comment that seems to stretch the boundaries of US ambiguous policy towards the self-governing island.
Russia sent thousands of troops to Ukraine on February 24 for what it called a “special operation” to demilitarize its neighbor and eradicate dangerous nationalists – allegations rejected by Kyiv and Western countries as false pretexts to seize land.
After capturing the port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine last week after a long siege, Russian forces now control much of the east and south.
They are trying to encircle Ukrainian forces and completely take over the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, which make up the eastern region of Donbass, where Moscow supports separatist forces.
A total of 12,500 Russians were trying to take over Luhansk, regional governor Sergei Haidai told the Telegram. The city of Severodonetsk is being destroyed, but Ukraine has pushed Russian troops south of Toshkivka, Haidai added.
Donetsk Regional Governor Pavlo Kirilenko told local television that shelling was taking place along the front line, with the coal-mining town of Avdievka around the clock.
Russian forces fired on 38 communities in Donetsk and Luhansk on Monday, killing seven and injuring six, the military command of Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force said in an evening update.
Reuters was unable to verify the information immediately.
The worst military losses
Zelensky revealed Ukraine’s worst military losses since an attack during Monday’s war, saying 87 people were killed last week when Russian forces struck a barracks at a training base in the north.
“Every time we tell our partners that we need modern anti-ballistic weapons, modern military aircraft, we are not just making empty orders,” he said late Monday.
“These requests are the lives of many people who would not have been killed if we had received all the weapons we asked for.
Denmark’s promise to send Harpoon anti-ship missiles and a launcher to Ukraine, announced by the United States on Monday, is the first sign after the Russian invasion that Kyiv will receive US-made weapons that significantly expand its strike range.
Harpoons manufactured by Boeing can be used to push the Russian fleet out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, allowing the resumption of exports of grain and other agricultural products.
In the first of many war crimes trials stemming from the invasion, a Kyiv court sentenced a young Russian tank commander to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country needs more modern weapons to defend itself against Russian aggression [File: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters] (Reuters)
Ukraine is investigating more than 13,000 alleged Russian war crimes, according to the prosecutor general’s website.
Russia has denied targeting civilians or engaging in war crimes.
Ukraine is trying to secure an exchange of prisoners for the fighters who surrendered in Mariupol. Russia’s deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying Moscow could discuss the exchange.
At a cemetery near Mariupol, trampling through long rows of new graves and makeshift wooden crosses, Natalia Voloshina, who lost her 28-year-old son in the battle for the city, said many of those killed in Mariupol had no one to honor their memory.
“Who will bury them?” Who will put up the slab? ”She asked.
“They have no family.”
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