Russia says it destroyed Western weapons sent to Ukraine

MOSCOW — Moscow's forces destroyed a large shipment of Western-supplied weapons in northwestern Ukraine with long-range missiles, the Russian defence ministry said Saturday.

"High-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed a large batch of weapons and military equipment near the Malin railway station in Zhytomyr region delivered from the United States and European countries," it said.

The ministry said the weapons were intended for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region, a Russian-speaking area that has been partially controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014 and is now scene of some of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday that only a diplomatic breakthrough rather than an outright military victory could end Russia's war on his country, as Moscow cut gas supplies to Finland.

"There are things that can only be reached at the negotiating table," Zelensky said, just as Russia claimed its long-range missiles had destroyed a shipment of Western arms destined for Ukraine's troops.

Zelensky also appealed for more military aid, even as US President Joe Biden formally signed off on a $40-billion package of aid for the Ukrainian war effort.

And the Ukrainian leader insisted his war-ravaged country should be a full candidate to join the European Union, rejecting a suggestion from France’s President Emmanuel Macron and some other EU leaders that a sort of associated political community be created as a waiting zone for a membership bid.

“We don’t need such compromises,” Zelensky said during a joint press conference with visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

“Because, believe me, it will not be compromise with Ukraine in Europe, it will be another compromise between Europe and Russia. I am absolutely sure of that,” he warned.

After just over 12 weeks of fierce fighting, Ukrainian forces have halted Russian attempts to seize Kyiv and the northern city of Kharkiv, but are under renewed and intense pressure in the eastern Donbas region.

Moscow’s army have flattened and seized the south-eastern port city of Mariupol and subjected Ukrainian troops and towns in the east to a remorseless ground and artillery attacks.

Zelensky’s Western allies have shipped modern weaponry to his forces and imposed sweeping sanctions on the Russian economy and President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

But the Kremlin has responded by disrupting European energy supplies and on Saturday cut off gas shipments to Finland, which angered Moscow by applying to join the NATO alliance.

Against this backdrop, Zelensky told Ukrainian television the war would end “through diplomacy”.

The conflict, he warned, “will be bloody, there will be fighting but will only definitively end through diplomacy” — promising only that the result would be “fair” for Ukraine.

“Discussions between Ukraine and Russia will decidedly take place. Under what format I don’t know — with intermediaries, without them, in a broader group, at presidential level,” he said.

In order to side-step financial sanctions and force European energy clients to prop up his central bank, Putin has demanded that importers from “unfriendly countries” pay for gas in rubles.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had halted supplies to neighbouring Finland as it had not received ruble payments from Finland’s state-owned energy company Gasum by the end of Friday.

Gazprom supplied 1.49 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Finland in 2021, about two thirds of the country’s gas consumption but only 8 per cent of its total energy use.

Gasum said it would make up for the shortfall from other sources, through the Balticconnector pipeline, which links Finland to Estonia, a fellow European Union member.

Moscow cut off gas to Poland and Bulgaria last month in a move the European Union described as “blackmail”, but importers in some other EU countries more dependent on Russian gas plan to open ruble accounts with Gazprom’s bank.

Finland and neighbouring Sweden this week broke their historical military non-alignment and applied to join NATO, after public support for the alliance soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 ‘Grave mistake’ 

Moscow has warned Finland that joining NATO would be “a grave mistake with far-reaching consequences” and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said it would respond by building military bases in western Russia.

But both Finland and Sweden are now apparently on the fast track to join the military alliance, with US President Joe Biden this week offering “full, total, complete backing” to their bids.

All 30 existing NATO members must agree on any new entrants, and Turkey has condemned Sweden’s alleged tolerance for the presence of exiled Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, but diplomats are confident of avoiding a veto.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Swedish and Finnish leaders to abandon financial and political support for what he called “terrorist” groups.

Erdogan told Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson that “Sweden’s political, financial and weapon support to terrorist organisations must end”, his office said.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Saturday imposed travel bans on 26 Canadians “in response to the latest anti-Russian sanctions announced by Canadian authorities”.

Among the new additions is Sophie Trudeau, the wife of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Moscow has now imposed travel bans on 963 people, according to a foreign ministry list released Saturday, including Biden and Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman.

On the ground in Ukraine, the fighting is fiercest in the eastern region of Donbas, a Russian-speaking area that has been partially controlled by pro-Kremlin separatists since 2014.

In Severodonetsk, a frontline city now at risk of encirclement, 12 people were killed and another 40 wounded by Russian shelling, the regional governor said.

And in the neighbouring Donetsk region, according to Ukraine’s interior ministry, Russian fire hit a church sheltering scores of civilians, including children and clergy. At least 60 people were rescued, and the final casualty toll was not immediately clear.