Ukrainian defenders have repelled new waves of Russian attacks on Bakhmut, the military said Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Kiev could not afford to lose the battle for the Donetsk region city that has become the focus of Russia's protracted offensive in the country's east.
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Russian occupation authorities reported strikes on Wednesday that knocked out power in Melitopol, one of the main cities in southern Ukraine held by Russia and about 65 kilometers from the front line, Radio Free Europe reports.
In recent days, Russia has accused Ukraine of multiple attacks in Melitopol, amidst speculations about a future counter-offensive in that area, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Occupation officials said the Ukrainian strikes on the locomotive depot caused no casualties but caused a power outage.
Regional official Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram that the Ukrainians used American high-precision HIMARS missiles.
The city's exiled Ukrainian mayor, Ivan Fedorov, also reported the explosions and said he hoped Ukrainian forces would bring "good news".
Russia has already accused Ukrainian forces of shelling Melitopol on March 27.
On March 23, the occupying authorities announced that an improvised explosive device had wounded a police officer.
A car bomb attack that killed an official appointed by Moscow took place on March 15.
A successful push into the area would allow Ukraine to cut the land corridor connecting Russia with Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has said it could not lead another counteroffensive without the long-range weapons needed to reach Russian warehouses and supply routes.
For now, Kiev could use missiles with a range of up to 80 kilometers.
The United States has promised to provide weapons up to 150 kilometers, which Russia claims has already been delivered.
Kiev has not confirmed the deliveries and says it needs more advanced Western weapons.
Last fall, Ukraine led successful counteroffensives in the northeast and south.
The southern counter-offensive, during which the Ukrainians retook the city of Kherson, followed a HIMARS strike and an attack on occupation officials in Kherson.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that international sanctions against Moscow due to its offensive in Ukraine "may" have "negative" consequences on the Russian economy in the medium term, although in recent months he boasted about how the Russian economy has adapted to the sanctions.
"Sanctions imposed on the Russian economy in the short term can really have a negative effect on it," the Russian president warned during a televised meeting with the government.
This is the first time that Putin has publicly acknowledged that a series of international sanctions affecting many sectors of the Russian economy, including the strategic oil sector, are affecting its economy, according to France Press.
Putin said that now, a little more than a year after the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, unemployment is at a new low of 3,6 percent and that at the end of March inflation will fall below four percent, after a 20 percent jump in prices in the spring of last year.
"But that does not mean that all the problems have already been solved," he told the members of the Government.
"The fact that we are returning to the path of growth does not mean that we should relax," he said and called to "guarantee the economic sovereignty" of Russia.
He called on the Government and heads of economic sectors to ensure the rapid launch of new projects in the manufacturing industry, especially high-tech products, which is a sector affected by the departure of experts abroad.
"Our financial system should play an important role to respond to the needs of our exporters. And we should replace the Western companies that worked in that sector," he said.
Putin said this Sunday after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow, when both leaders said they wanted to "deepen" Russian-Chinese relations.
However, according to France Presse, observers see in this Russia's increasing dependence on Beijing, whose economy has largely taken over Russian gas and oil exports, affected by Western sanctions.
Although these new markets have allowed Russia to partially compensate for the markets lost in Europe, Russia's dependence on large Asian countries allows China and India to be in a strong position to negotiate lower prices.
In a speech to the Assembly at the end of February, Putin called on Russian oligarchs to return their money to Russia to support its economy.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow stopped notifying the United States of its nuclear activities, including test launches, after withdrawing from New START, the nuclear arms control treaty, last month, Reuters reports.
"All notifications, all forms of notification, all exchange of data, all inspection activities, in general all types of work under the contract have been suspended, they will not be carried out," Ryabkov said, reports Interfax.
Russia's military today began exercises of its strategic missile forces and deployed mobile missile launchers in Siberia to demonstrate major nuclear capabilities.
As part of the exercises, mobile missile launchers "Yars" will maneuver in three regions of Siberia using measures to hide their positions from foreign intelligence services, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced.
"Yars" is an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of about 11.000 kilometers, which can carry a nuclear warhead, and it forms the backbone of Russia's strategic missile forces.
The Russian Ministry of Defense released a video of large trucks - towing trains carrying missiles leaving the base. About 300 vehicles and 3.000 soldiers are involved in the maneuvers in Eastern Siberia, according to the Ministry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Russia's neighbor and ally, Belarus.
Tactical nuclear weapons are intended for use on the battlefield and have a relatively short range, much less compared to long-range strategic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads capable of destroying entire cities.
Putin's decision to deploy tactical weapons in Belarus followed his repeated warnings that Moscow was ready to use "all available means" to repel an attack on Russian territory, referring to its nuclear arsenal.
Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Russian officials have repeatedly warned that continued Western support for Ukraine has increased the risk of nuclear conflict.
The head of the Russian mercenary paramilitary group Wagner said that the fighting for Bakhmut "practically destroyed" the Ukrainian army, but also "severely damaged" its forces, reports Reuters.
"The battle for Bakhmut has practically destroyed the Ukrainian army today, and unfortunately, it has also severely damaged the private military company 'Wagner'," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message.
The Kremlin announced that Russia's confrontation with enemy states and, as he said, the "hybrid war" waged against it by the West, will last a long time.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this when asked how long what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine will last, reports Reuters.
"If you think of a war in a broader context, a conflict with enemy states, a hybrid war against our country, then it will last for a long time," Peskov told reporters.
"And here we need to be determined and self-confident and gather around the president," added Peskov.
Rafael Grossi, head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, has arrived at the Russian-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Russian state news agency RIA said.
Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was traveling to Europe's largest nuclear power plant to review the situation there as part of efforts to reduce the risk of a major accident, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that if Ukraine loses Bahmut, Moscow could work on international support for an agreement that would require unacceptable compromises from Kiev.
"If Bahmut fell into the hands of Russian forces, their president Vladimir Putin would 'sell' this victory to the West, to his people, to China, to Iran," Zelensky said in an interview with the Associated Press.
The Ukrainian president spoke to AP on the train he used to travel to cities near the front.
He expressed concern that there would be a decline in support in the US. "The US really understands that if they stop helping us, we're not going to win," he said.
He admitted that the loss of Bahmut, which has been fought for seven months and is the longest of the war so far, would be a costly political defeat rather than a tactical one.
(BETA)
A Russian court sentenced a single father whose daughter made a drawing at school against Russia's invasion of Ukraine to two years in prison on Tuesday, but he was formally convicted of alleged anti-Russian social media posts he has denied.
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War in Ukraine – 398th day.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit that country, AP reported.
"We are ready to see him here," Zelenski said in an interview with AP.
Reuters reminds that Xi and Zelensky have not spoken since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, but that last month China announced a plan for a "political solution to the crisis in Ukraine" in 12 points.
On March 20, the Chinese president paid a three-day visit to Russia.
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