Kyiv, Ukraine, July 18, 2022 (AFP) – The European Union is discussing new sanctions against Russia this Monday (18). from treason.
The war that started on February 24 does not stop. Kyiv this weekend accused Moscow of carrying out new attacks on residential areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
European Union (EU) foreign ministers will consider several proposals in Brussels on Monday, including the European Commission (the bloc’s executive arm) proposing a ban on gold purchases from Russia.
“Moscow must continue to pay a heavy price for its aggression,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. Said.
A decision by foreign ministers is not expected on Monday, a senior European official told AFP.
Head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who came to Brussels for the meeting, reiterated his call for Russia to unblock Ukrainian ports and allow millions of tons of grain exports.
Citing ongoing negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN, he said the European Union had “hopes” that an agreement would be reached this week.
It is a matter of life and death (…). “The lives of tens of thousands of people depend on this agreement,” he added.
– 650 possible acts of treason -In Ukraine, President Zelensky announced on Sunday the resignation of Prosecutor General Iryna Venicetova and head of the national security agency Ivan Bakanov. In a message to the nation, Zelensky said about 650 cases of possible treason, aid and complicity with Russia were being investigated among Ukrainian security officials.
Venicetova was responsible for investigations of atrocities committed against civilians during the Russian occupation of the town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kiev.
In his speech, Zelensky also spoke about the devastating military power used by Russia against Ukraine, and said that Russian forces fired more than 3,000 cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine.
The most intense conflicts continue to intensify in the Donbass industrial and mining basin in eastern Ukraine.
On Sunday, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko accused Moscow of bombing “civil infrastructure, especially educational institutions”. Regional governor Vitaliy Kim said several “big bombings” were recorded in Mykolaiv (south) near the Black Sea.
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, British navy chief Admiral Tony Radakin estimated that 50,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded and around 1,700 Russian tanks and 4,000 armored fighting vehicles destroyed since the invasion began.
Radakin estimated that Russian ground forces may pose less of a threat now, but more than 20 weeks after the invasion, Moscow said on Saturday it would step up its military operations.
The ministry said that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had given the necessary instructions to continue increasing the military pressure.
On Saturday, a Ukrainian nuclear power operator accused Russian forces of placing missile launchers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and of using the facility to bombard the Dnipro region.
In its daily report on Sunday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it destroyed “a warehouse of Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO” in the port city of Odessa.
Ukraine denied the allegation, accusing Russia of destroying the “storage facilities” of a company with no military affiliation.
Meanwhile, Russian police briefly detained journalist Marina Ovsyannikova on Sunday, who cut a live television broadcast in March to condemn the military action in Ukraine.
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source: Noticias
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