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Russia is now at “war against NATO and the West” and has taken the invasion of Ukraine to a “different stage”, a senior EU official admitted, raising the terrifying specter of a global conflict.
The “game-changing” deal between Western leaders to send sophisticated tanks into Kyiv to break through invading Kremlin forces has sparked fury in Moscow, which has threatened to escalate the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European Union’s European External Action Service, said Vladimir Putin will increase indiscriminate attacks against civilians and non-military targets and retaliate against the West.
Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo as part of an Asia-Pacific tour, he said Putin had “moved from a concept of a special operation to a concept now of a war against NATO and the West.”
A Ukrainian tank fires towards a Russian position near the town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, yesterday.
The official defended the US and German tank supplies, saying they were not intended as an attack but to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.
He said: “I think this latest development in terms of arms supply is just an evolution of the situation and the way Russia started to take the war to a different stage.”
He added that Russia is carrying out “indiscriminate attacks” against civilians and cities and no longer against military targets.
The EU is not taking the war to a different stage, but “simply providing a chance to save lives and allow Ukrainians to defend (themselves) from these barbaric attacks,” Sannino said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said today that the United States holds the key to ending the war in Ukraine, but refuses to use it.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Joe Biden of “throwing weapons into Ukraine” when he might instead be instigating a ceasefire.
Germany and the US announced Wednesday they will send advanced main battle tanks to Ukraine, offering what one expert called an “armored strike force” to help Kyiv break combat stalemates as the Russian invasion enters its 12th month. .
Local residents remove rubble from their neighbor’s house damaged by a Russian military attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
A woman takes photos with her mobile phone next to residential houses damaged after Russian missile attacks.
A German-made Leopard tank is shown on exercises in Canada and will soon be deployed on the battlefield.
The announcement marked the first stage of a coordinated effort by the West to provide dozens of heavy weapons, which Ukrainian military commanders said would enable counteroffensives, reduce casualties and help restore dwindling ammunition supplies.
Joe Biden said his country will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks, reversing months of persistent arguments from Washington that they were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain.
The US decision followed Germany’s agreement to send 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its own stock.
In response, Russia has intensified attempts to breach Ukraine’s defenses with heavy fighting in the east of the country.
The Ukrainian military said fierce battles were taking place, a day after Russian missiles and drones killed at least 11 people in retaliation for the tank deal.
Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the allies for their support but renewed calls for tougher sanctions against Moscow and made clear his country needed more weapons to repel invaders in the 12th month of the war.
‘This evil, this Russian aggression can and must be stopped only with the right weapons. The terrorist state will not understand anything else,” Zelensky said in his late-night television address on Thursday.
Putin (pictured yesterday) has intensified attempts to breach Ukraine’s defenses with heavy fighting in the east of the country.
‘Weapons on the battlefield. Weapons that protect our skies. New sanctions against Russia, that is, political and economic weapons.’
Ukraine’s military said it shot down 47 of 59 Russian missiles on Thursday. Russia also launched 37 airstrikes, 17 of them with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. All the drones were shot down, he said.
Eleven people were killed in the drone and missile strikes, which spanned several regions and also damaged dozens of buildings, a spokesman for the State Emergency Service said.
Local officials reported heavy shelling on Friday in northern, northeastern and eastern Ukraine, the scene of some of the most intense fighting since Russia launched its invasion.
Fierce fighting continues along the front lines. Our defenders are firmly holding their positions and inflicting losses on the enemy,” said Oleh Synehubov, governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Oleskandr Musiyenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Military and Strategic Research, said Russia was sending more reinforcements to block Ukraine’s advances.
“They mostly send infantry and artillery forces into battle, made up mostly of conscripts. But they don’t have the level of artillery and tank support that they had on February 24,” Musiyenko told Ukrainian television.
Ukrainian soldiers are seen riding a Soviet-era T-72 tank, widely used in the ongoing conflict, in the Donetsk region on January 20.
‘They have fewer resources. They trust in the numerical superiority of their troops.
The front lines have remained largely frozen over the past two months, with Russia trying to gain more ground in the east after occupying much of what is known as the Donbas region and protecting a corridor of land it has occupied. in the south of Ukraine.
Britain said in a regular intelligence update on Friday that Russian forces had likely carried out probing attacks near Orikhiv in the southeast and at Vuhledar in the east, but were unlikely to have made “substantial progress.”
Both sides are widely expected to launch a spring offensive.
‘Where will the main (Russian) attack take place? For now, we have no idea. Diversionary attacks are possible in all sectors, and in one or two, massive attacks aimed at opening a corridor through Ukraine,” said Mykola Sunhurovskiy, director of military programs at the Ukraine Razumkov Center think tank. to the website nv.ua.
In the past, Russia has reacted to Ukraine’s successes with heavy airstrikes that have left millions without electricity, heat or water.
Ukrainian soldiers are seen yesterday in their mortar position on the Donbass front line.
APC units dumped the retaken town of Lyman in the Donetsk region yesterday at a key moment in the war.
On Thursday, it seemed to follow that pattern. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia’s attacks were targeting power plants.
The Kremlin said it saw the promised delivery of Western tanks as evidence of the growing “direct involvement” of the United States and Europe in the war, something both deny.
The Western allies have committed some 150 tanks, while Ukraine has said it needs hundreds to break through Russian defensive lines and retake occupied territory in the south and east. Both Moscow and Kyiv, which have relied on Soviet-era T-72 tanks, are expected to mount new ground offensives in the spring.
After being promised modern tanks, Ukraine is now seeking Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the US F-16, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense ministry has said.
The United States on Thursday formally designated the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company, as a transnational criminal organization, freezing its American assets for helping the Russian military in Ukraine.
The head of a Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region said Wednesday that Wagner units were advancing on the town of Bakhmut. A senior Ukrainian official said fighting in Bakhmut and Vuhledar was intensifying.
Since invading Ukraine 11 months ago, Russia has shifted focus from its rhetoric of ‘denazifying’ and ‘demilitarizing’ its neighbor to confronting what it says is an aggressive and expansionist US-led NATO alliance.