Austria’s chancellor holds ‘tough’ talks with Putin as Russia ramps up assaults in Ukraine’s east
The latest:
- Austrian chancellor meets Putin in Moscow.
- Zelensky says Russia concentrating tens of thousands of soldiers for next offensive.
- Ukrainian forces beat back Russian assaults in the east, British intelligence says.
- What questions do you have about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.
Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer says he held “direct” and “tough” talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, becoming the first European Union leader to meet Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24.
In a statement after the meeting, Nehammer said the discussion with Putin was “very direct, open and tough.” He said that his most important message to Putin was that the war in Ukraine must end because “in a war there are only losers on both sides.”
The Austrian leader stressed that the trip was “not a friendly visit,” but rather his “duty” to exhaust every possibility for ending the violence in Ukraine.
Austria, which is not a member of NATO, is a member of the European Union and has backed the 27-nation bloc’s sanctions against Russia. Confirming his visit to Moscow on Sunday, Nehammer referred to the invasion of Ukraine as “the Russian war of aggression” and called for an end to the conflict as well as a ceasefire and humanitarian corridors.
A spokesperson for Nehammer said on Monday afternoon that the meeting went ahead at Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow.
Austrian media including newspaper Kronen Zeitung said it had ended after about 90 minutes.
Russia says no pause in military action
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin would not halt its operation for any new round of peace talks.
“A decision was made that during the next rounds of talks, there would be no pause (in military action) so long as a final agreement is not reached,” Lavrov said.
Having been visibly moved by telephone conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Nehammer visited Ukraine on Saturday to show “political support” for Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Zelensky kept up his tireless campaign to generate international support and rally his countrymen, warning the coming week would be important and tense.
“Russia will be even more afraid. It will be afraid to lose. It will fear that the truth will have to be acknowledged,” Zelensky said in a late night video address.
“Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state. They may use even more missiles against us, even more air bombs. But we are preparing for their actions. We will answer.”
In an address to South Korea’s parliament by video link, Zelensky said Russia was concentrating tens of thousands of soldiers for the next offensive and asked Seoul for any military aid it could provide.
Russian assaults in east repulsed, U.K. says
Russian forces have abandoned their attempt to capture the capital Kyiv, for now at least, but are redoubling their efforts in Ukraine’s east. Britain’s Defence Ministry said Russian shelling continued in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
But Ukrainian forces had beaten back several assaults and destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery equipment, it said in its regular intelligence bulletin.
Air raid sirens blared out across Ukraine early on Monday.
“It is likely that the enemy, in order to disrupt the supply of goods to the places of hostilities, will continue to strike at transport infrastructure facilities in Ukraine in order to destroy or disable them,” the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said.
Russian forces were continuing their offensive to establish full control over the southern city of Mariupol, seeking to storm an iron and steel plant and the seaport, it said.
Russia might also carry out provocative actions in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova in order to accuse Ukraine of aggression against a neighbouring state, the general staff said, without providing evidence.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region in Ukraine’s east, said infrastructure including food stores had been targeted by Russian “informants,” also without providing evidence. Reuters could not confirm the claims.
Russia’s invasion has forced about a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, turned cities into rubble and killed or injured thousands.
It has failed to take any major cities, but Ukraine says Moscow has been gathering its forces in the east for a major offensive and has urged people to flee.
WARNING: This video contains graphic content. Like many in newly liberated areas near Kyiv, people in the village of Andriivka are just starting to process their traumatic experiences while living under Russian occupation. 3:03
Russia claims strike on air defence systems
A series of powerful explosions was heard in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and in Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea in the southern part of the country, Ukrainian media reported on Sunday.
Earlier, missiles destroyed the airport in the city of Dnipro, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Separately, Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the military used cruise missiles to destroy four S-300 air defence missile launchers on the southern outskirts of the central city of Dnipro. He said about 25 Ukrainian troops were also hit by Sunday’s strike.
Konashenkov said Ukraine had received the air defence systems from a European country that he didn’t name. Last week, Slovakia said it handed over Soviet-designed S-300s to Ukraine — but Slovakia said it had no evidence that its system was hit.
Reuters could not confirm Russia’s reports.
Since Russia invaded, Zelensky has appealed to Western powers to provide more defence help, and to punish Moscow with tougher sanctions including embargoes on its energy exports.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News: “We’re going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to beat back the Russians to stop them from taking more cities and towns.”
Zelensky said he had confidence in his own armed forces but “unfortunately I don’t have the confidence that we will be receiving everything we need” from the United States.
“They have to supply weapons to Ukraine as if they were defending themselves and their own people,” Zelensky said in an interview aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes. “They need to understand this. If they don’t speed up, it will be very hard for us to hold on against this pressure.”
Zelensky said earlier on Twitter he had spoken on the phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about additional sanctions, as well as more defence and financial support for his country. Zelensky also discussed with Ukrainian officials Kyiv’s proposals for a new package of EU sanctions, his office said.
The EU on Friday banned Russian coal imports among other products, but has yet to touch oil and gas imports from Russia.
Civilian deaths prompt more sanctions
Mounting civilian casualties have triggered widespread international condemnation and new sanctions.
Ludmila Zabaluk, head of the Dmytriv Village Department, north of the capital Kyiv, said dozens of civilian bodies were found in the area.
“There were more than 50 dead people. They shot them from close distance. There’s a car where a 17-year-old child was burned, only bones left. A woman had half her head blown off. A bit farther, a man lying near his car was burned alive.”
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
People in recently liberated parts of Ukraine near Kyiv are reconnecting their lives and links to the rest of the country, even as the front lines of Russia’s invasion moves east to the Donbas region. 2:36
Moscow has rejected accusations of war crimes by Ukraine and Western countries. It has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its southern neighbour. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war.
The World Bank on Sunday forecast the war would cause Ukraine’s economic output to collapse by 45 per cent this year, with half of its businesses shuttered, grain exports mostly cut off by Russia’s naval blockade and destruction rendering economic activity impossible in many areas.
The bank forecast Russia’s GDP would contract by 11.2 per cent this year due to punishing Western sanctions.