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The Russian military said it used sea-launched Kalibr missiles to destroy four S-300 air defense missile launchers near the city of Dnipro, just days after Slovakia sent Ukraine an S-300 air defense system in a US deal.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on Monday that about two dozen Ukrainian troops were wounded in the strike. The statement said Ukraine had received the technology from an unnamed European country. Konashenkov’s claim cannot be independently verified.
The office of the Prime Minister of Slovakia issued a statement describing the news that the system had been destroyed as “disinformation”.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that Slovakia was able to provide the system because the United States was willing to give Slovakia a Patriot battery to replace it.
It was not clear if the two sides were referring to the same airstrike. The Russians have targeted missile defense systems at three locations in recent days.
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Visual interpreter: Mapping and tracing the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The latest developments:
President Joe Biden is set to speak with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as he presses world leaders to take a hard line against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Sunday, a senior US official said: “Moscow has appointed a new war chief after six largely failed weeks of battle in Ukraine. The official, who was not authorized to be identified and spoke on condition of anonymity, said General Alexander Dvornikov, 60, He has a history of brutality against Syrians and other civilians.
An EU official said a major Russian attack on eastern Ukraine is likely to happen within days
Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that Russia is sending a large contingent of troops towards eastern Ukraine, and it appears that it is preparing to launch a major offensive in the Donbass region within days. The region includes Donetsk and Luhansk, where Moscow-backed separatists established de-facto republics not even recognized by Russia until days before the war broke out in February.
“I am afraid that Russian forces are massing in the east to launch an attack on Donbass,” Borrell said on Monday. “I’m afraid…the war will intensify in Donbass.”
Russian forces Strategically divided decisive Mariupol From downtown to the coast on Sunday, he isolated the remaining Ukrainian defenders at two locations, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
Zelensky: This week is decisive for the fate of Ukraine
In a speech on Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned his nation that the coming week would be as decisive as any week in the war and accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for war crimes.
“When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologize, adapt to reality, and learn, they turn into monsters. And when the world ignores them, the monsters decide that it is the world that must adapt to them,” Zelensky said. . Ukraine will stop all this.”
Zelensky called on Western countries, including Germany, to provide more assistance to Ukraine. During his talks with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, Zelensky said he discussed how to tighten sanctions against Russia and how to force Moscow to seek peace.
“I am happy to note that the German position has recently changed in favor of Ukraine. I consider it quite logical,” Zelensky said.
More Ukraine coverage from USA TODAY
Putin meets the Austrian chancellor
Austria’s foreign minister said Chancellor Karl Nehammer was conveying “very clear messages of a humanitarian and political kind” to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Monday that Nehamer decided to make the trip after meeting in Kyiv on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and after contacts with the leaders of Turkey, Germany and the European Union.
“We do not want to leave any opportunity untapped and we must seize every opportunity to end the human inferno in Ukraine,” Schallenberg said before a meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg.
“Every voice explaining to President (Vladimir) Putin what the truth looks like outside the walls of the Kremlin is not a lost voice,” he added.
Schallenberg said Neihammer and Putin would meet privately without media opportunities. He insisted that Austria did everything to ensure the visit was not misused, “and I think he (Putin) himself should be interested in someone telling him the truth and finding out what’s really going on abroad.”
– News agency
The European Union will consider Ukraine’s membership within weeks
The head of the European Commission said, on Sunday, that Ukraine could become part of the European Union within weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed Ukraine’s application to join the European Union in February, and Olga Stevanishina, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said she expects Ukraine to fully join the EU by June.
The process could take years, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program that Ukraine’s membership could take only weeks to be considered.
“Yesterday, someone said to me, ‘When our soldiers die, I want them to know that their children will be free and be part of the European Union,’” von der Leyen said. “They are in an exceptional situation, where we have to take extraordinary steps.”
– Selena Tibor
Russia warns of “direct military confrontation” with the United States
The White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Sunday, that Ukrainian forces repel Russian forces so successfully that the invaders were forced to regroup, reorganize and focus.
“Russia has changed its behavior in this war,” Sullivan said on CBS News’ Face The Nation. “They retreated. They withdrew from large areas in the north and north-east of Ukraine. The main reason why these adjustments were made is that they were beaten up by the Ukrainians.”
Sullivan credited the Ukrainian military – and the flow of equipment the United States and its allies were sending into the beleaguered country. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov earlier told Newsweek that the West is provoking Russia.
“We warn that such actions are dangerous,” the envoy said. “They can lead the United States and the Russian Federation on the path of direct military confrontation.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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