- Ukraine warns of a new Russian offensive in the south
- Strike Force Aimed at President’s Hometown, Ukraine Says
- US, Italy approve Finland and Sweden joining NATO
- Ukraine asks China to help end war, SCMP says
KYIV/WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Ukraine said Russia had begun building a military strike force targeting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih as NATO moved closer to its most significant expansion in decades when the alliance was responding to the invasion of Ukraine. .
The US Senate and the Italian parliament on Wednesday approved the accession of Finland and Sweden to the 30-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Under NATO membership, which must be ratified by all 30 member states, an attack on one member is an attack on all. Read more
“This historic vote sends an important signal of America’s sustained and bipartisan commitment to NATO and to ensuring that our Alliance is ready to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said US President Joe Biden. , in a statement.
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Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining NATO.
NATO’s 30 allies signed the Accession Protocol last month, allowing them to join the US-led nuclear-armed alliance once its members ratify the decision. Read more
Ratification could take up to a year.
Ukraine on Wednesday rejected suggestions by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that Russia wanted a “negotiated solution” to the war, saying any dialogue would depend on a Russian ceasefire and the withdrawal of its troops.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday that Ukraine was seeking an opportunity to speak “directly” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help end the war.
“It’s a very powerful state. It’s a powerful economy… So (it can) influence Russia politically and economically. And China is (also a) permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Zelenskiy told SCMP in an interview.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
NEW OFFENSIVE
On the battlefield, Russian forces engaged in considerable military activity, firing from tanks, cannon and rocket artillery in various parts of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Thursday.
Earlier, Ukraine said that Russia had begun building a strike group in the direction of Kryvyi Rih and may be preparing new offensive operations in southern Ukraine. Read more
The steel-producing city of Kryvyi Rih where Zelenskiy grew up is about 50 km (30 miles) from the southern front line.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, told the Telegram app that three civilians had been killed in Bakhmut, Maryinka and Shevchenko and five wounded in the past 24 hours.
The governors of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions reported that their regions had been shelled overnight and that civilian infrastructure and houses had been damaged.
“The idea is to put military pressure on us in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk in the coming weeks… What is happening in the east is not what will determine the outcome of the war,” Ukraine’s presidential adviser said Oleksiy Arestovych. interview that appears on YouTube.
The aim of the Russian offensive in the east is to force Ukraine to divert troops from the area that is really a danger – Zaporizhzhia, Arestovich added.
Mayor Yevhen Yevtushenko of Nikopol, west of Zaporizhzhia in central Ukraine, said his town had been shelled overnight.
Russia was accused in March of firing shells dangerously close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as its forces took it over in the first weeks of the invasion.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Moscow of using Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant as a “nuclear shield” in attacks on Ukrainian forces. Read more
Reuters could not verify reports from the battlefield.
Russia denies it is targeting civilians, but many towns and cities have been destroyed and thousands killed in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russian forces of war crimes.
FOOD CRISIS
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in what he calls a “special military operation” to liberate the country from fascists. Ukraine and the West said Putin launched an unprovoked “imperial” land grab.
The war has caused a global energy and food crisis. Russia and Ukraine produce about a third of the world’s wheat, and Russia is Europe’s main energy supplier.
An agreement between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, to allow safe passage of grain ships from Ukraine has been hailed as a rare diplomatic success in the war.
The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain since the war began passed through the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday. The ship, Razoni, was carrying 26,527 tonnes of maize to the Lebanese port of Tripoli. Read more
Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed to export at least 10 million tons of grain to urgently help reduce its budget deficit, which was running at $5 billion a month.
A senior Turkish official said three ships could leave Ukrainian ports daily after the departure of the Razoni, while Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said another 17 ships had been loaded with agricultural products and were waiting to set sail
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Reuters bureau reports; Written by Himani Sarkar; Editing by Michael Perry
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.