#Russia #military #targets #Ukraine #expanded #Kharkiv #suggests
Russia said Monday its military targets in Ukraine have expanded beyond the industrial Donbass region as its forces launched deadly barrages over the east and south of the country.
The warning came as the European Commission urged EU countries to cut demand for natural gas to reduce dependence on Russian energy and circumvent Moscow’s energy “blackmail”.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview that Moscow’s military is no longer “only” concentrating on gaining control of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, which have been partially controlled by pro-Moscow rebels for years.
“The geography is different now. It is not only about DNR and LNR, but also about Kherson region, Zaporizhia region and a number of other areas,” he told state media.
Russian forces have steadily advanced into each of these regions since the February 24 invasion, wreaking havoc as they captured key cities and met stiff Ukrainian resistance.
The steady advance to the east came after Moscow troops initially failed to capture the capital, Kyiv, and were pushed back from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
But Russian artillery outside the eastern urban center has nonetheless carried out an almost constant shelling campaign, and strikes in Kharkiv on Wednesday left three dead, local authorities said.
– Western weapons a “direct threat” to Russia –
“Among them was a 13-year-old boy,” regional governor Oleg Synegubov said in a statement on social media.
AFP journalists at the scene saw a man kneeling over the body in shock, covered in a blue sweatshirt and surrounded by broken glass.
In the southern city of Nikopol, two people were killed by Russian shelling of a residential area, authorities said.
While the brunt of fighting in Ukraine in recent months has focused on the Donbass, a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south has slowly recaptured some Russian-held areas.
Ukraine and military analysts are attributing the changing battlefield dynamics there to western-supplied long-range artillery, and Russian officials have taken note.
Lavrov said on Wednesday that western arms supplies to Ukraine had influenced Moscow’s decision to focus beyond the east and said his ambitions could grow even larger if supplies continued.
“We cannot allow that part of Ukraine that (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy will control, or whoever replaces him, to have weapons that pose a direct threat to our territory and the territory of the republics that have declared their independence ” Lavrov said of Donetsk and Lugansk.
– Energy Contingency Plans –
Mykolayiv, the largest city under Ukrainian control near Russian-held Kherson and the southern front, has been under sustained shelling since the invasion began.
The regional governor announced on Wednesday that the city would be closed “for a day or two” in several weeks to process information on people suspected of collaborating with Russian troops.
A day earlier, Governor Vitaliy Kim promised a $100 reward for anyone who could help identify individuals who have collaborated with Russia by providing Russia with the locations of Ukrainian troops or the coordinates of potential targets.
The announcement comes after Zelenskyy fired several senior law enforcement officials in Kyiv – including the head of the security services – who accused their departments of failing to crack down on spies and Kremlin sympathizers.
The West has responded to Russia’s invasion with several packages of damaging sanctions, which in turn has led Russia to cut natural gas supplies to the bloc, sparking a supply and cost crisis.
In announcing a contingency plan on Wednesday, the European Commission asked EU countries to cut demand by 15 percent to secure enough storage ahead of winter.
Commissioners also called on member states to give Brussels special powers to impose mandatory energy rationing if Russia cuts off Europe’s gas lifeline.
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