The United States will announce new aid to Ukraine on Friday, mainly consisting of ammunition, the White House said Thursday, without giving details. In addition, Joe Biden receives German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, the opportunity to send Moscow and Beijing a message of unity after a delicate pass between two of the main supporters in Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denounced a “terrorist” attack after Moscow reported an incursion by Ukrainian “saboteurs” in a region of southwestern Russia bordering Ukraine, which Kiev denied.
While Bakhmout is more weakened every day under the onslaught of the Russians, Ukraine on Thursday ordered vulnerable people to evacuate the city of Kupiansk, on the northeastern front, which is also at risk of being taken by Russian forces, announced the military administration.
Bakhmout “virtually surrounded” according to Wagner
The town of Bakhmout, epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, is “virtually surrounded” by Russian forces, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner said on Friday.
“Wagner’s units have practically surrounded Bakhmout, there is only one road left” to get out, Yevgeny Prigojine said in a video posted on Telegram by his press service.
War in Ukraine: the situation on March 2
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The United States pledged another aid announcement to Ukraine today
“Tomorrow, the United States will unilaterally announce new aid to Ukraine,” said John Kirby, US executive spokesman for national security issues. “It will mainly include ammunition for the systems that the Ukrainians already have,” he added during a press briefing, citing in particular the Himars rocket launcher systems. John Kirby, however, did not want to give more details. This announcement will coincide with the visit to the White House of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Westerners have promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speed up the supply of arms and ammunition to enable Ukrainian forces to repel the new offensive by Russian troops. The European Union has recently announced an effort to provide emergency 155 mm shells.
Biden receives Scholz for a message of unity addressed to Beijing and Moscow
This visit by the German Chancellor to Washington is intended to “reaffirm the deep ties of friendship” between the two countries according to the White House. It is the second for the German leader after February 2022. It nevertheless comes after a period of tension between Washington and Berlin over the difficult discussions on the delivery of tanks to Ukraine. This will include consulting on developments in the conflict in Ukraine: “How will the next few months be in Ukraine? What does this mean for the support that the allies can provide” to the country, explained the door- word of the Chancellor, Steffen Hebestreit.
China is another challenge for the meeting. Washington would welcome Germany, a major exporting power linked to China, adopting a firmer position. The reasons for tension have multiplied between Washington and Beijing, from the episode of the Chinese balloon shot down over American territory to the restrictions of use targeting the social network TikTok. The United States also accuses China of considering the delivery of weapons to Russia to help it in its offensive against Ukraine, which Beijing denies. A fear also expressed by Olaf Scholz: “Do not supply weapons to the Russian aggressor!”, He launched Thursday from the Bundestag platform.
Putin calls Ukrainian ‘infiltration’ into Russia a ‘terrorist’
Russian authorities say two civilians were killed and an 11-year-old child injured after ‘saboteurs’ opened fire on a car in the village of Lyubetchane in the Bryansk region, just on the border with Ukraine . Russian news agencies, citing unnamed witnesses and officials, further reported that the alleged attackers may have taken hostages. Agence France Presse was unable to verify these claims immediately.
The Ukrainian presidency has denied these allegations, seeing in them a “deliberate provocation” which, according to it, aims to justify the military offensive that Moscow has been leading in Ukraine for more than a year. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, several Russian regions have been targeted by bombardments. But the incursions of “saboteurs” are rare. In a speech broadcast on television, Vladimir Putin denounced an attack by “neo-Nazis” and “terrorists” who “opened fire on civilians”. “We will crush them,” he said. According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin has canceled a trip planned for Thursday in the Russian Caucasus to follow the evolution of the situation in the Briansk region.
In addition, Moscow this week reported an upsurge in Ukrainian drone incursions into Russian territory and into annexed Crimea. An aircraft even crashed, for the first time, in the Moscow region.
Ukraine orders vulnerable people to evacuate the city of Kupyansk on the northeast front
“Mandatory evacuation of families with children and residents with reduced mobility began in the Kupiansk community due to the constant shelling of the territory by Russian forces,” the military administration of the Kharkiv region said. The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegoubov, said that several localities, including Kupyansk, had been bombarded with multiple rocket launchers by Russian forces.
Kupyansk, about a hundred kilometers from the city of Kharkiv, had nearly 30,000 inhabitants before the war. It was taken by the Russians in the early days of the invasion a year ago. The Ukrainians retook the city in September after a lightning counter-offensive. But the forces of Moscow, bolstered by the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists in Russia, have returned to the attack in this sector, arousing the fear of many inhabitants.