Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 63 of the invasion

 

Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 63 of the invasion

 

Russia halts gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria; Volodymyr Zelenskiy accuses Moscow of seeking to destabilise Moldova region

 

Samantha Lock

@Samantha__Lock

Wed 27 Apr 2022 04.02 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/27/russia-ukraine-war-what-we-know-on-day-63-of-the-invasion

 

Russia will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday. Warsaw has refused to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roubles and earlier announced that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company. Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of the arrangement. Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was “beginning the gas blackmail of Europe”.

Russia’s defence ministry warned of an immediate “proportional response” if Britain continues its “direct provocation” of the Kyiv regime, after the UK armed forces minister, James Heappey, described Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil that hit supplies and disrupt logistics as “completely legitimate”.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes Russia is trying to destabilise the situation in Moldova’s Transnistrian region after a series of explosions there, adding that Ukrainian armed forces were ready for a possible escalation by Russian troops in the temporarily occupied territory. “The goal is obvious – to destabilise the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address. Russia has refused to rule out Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria being drawn into the Ukraine war

Zelenskiy said the “free world has the right to self-defence” after predicting that Russia intends to not only seize the territory of Ukraine but to “dismember the entire centre and east of Europe” and “deal a global blow to democracy”.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is expected to call on allies of Ukraine to “ramp up” and “double down” on military production including of planes and tanks in a speech set to be delivered on Wednesday. Truss said the UK’s new approach “will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances”. A Russian victory would have “terrible consequences across the globe”, Truss is expected to say. “We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.

Germany will authorise the delivery of 50 anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine, the German defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, said. Lambrecht said the government has agreed to sign off the delivery of around 50 Gepard anti-aircraft weapons systems. Switzerland said it had blocked Germany from sending Swiss-made ammunition used in Gepard anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine.

The United States vowed to move “heaven and earth” to help Ukraine win its battle against Russia’s invasion as it hosted defence talks in Germany with allies from 40 nations on Tuesday. The gathering is being led by the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, following his meeting with Zelenskiy on Sunday. Austin said the west was gearing up to help Ukraine for “the long haul” and would take steps to boost its rearmament.

Australia will send six M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine as part of a A$26.7m package in its response to “Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion” a statement from prime minister Scott Morrison and defence minster Peter Dutton said on Wednesday. Canada aims to send eight armoured vehicles “as quickly as possible”, minister of defence Anita Anand announced.

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, travelled to Moscow and, in a joint press conference with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Guterres said the UN was “ready to fully mobilise its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol”. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereschuk, said there was “no point” in the UN if there was no real humanitarian corridor from Mariupol. Guterres also met Russian president Vladimir Putin who described the situation in the besieged city of Mariupol as “tragic” and “complicated”. Moscow and Kyiv were continuing talks online, Putin said.

Russia has dismissed Ukraine’s proposal to stage peace talks in Mariupol. Lavrov said it was too early to talk about who would mediate in any negotiations, but he said Moscow was committed to a diplomatic solution via talks on Ukraine.

The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, describing it as “very, very dangerous”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, is heading an expert mission thre to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”.

Zelenskiy said “no one in the world can feel safe” after Russia threatened Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and called for “global control” over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology after meeting with director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi. “No other country in the world since 1986 has posed such a major threat to nuclear security, to Europe and the world” he said.

British prime minister Boris Johnson said he does not expect Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Johnson said Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre” and could back down.