One of President Vladimir Putin’s main allies has warned Lithuania that Russia would respond to the stoppage of EU-sanctioned freight traffic in the Kaliningrad enclave.
Key points:
- Russia’s Security Council secretary says Lithuania’s “hostile” actions show that Russia could not trust the West
- Kaliningrad, the capital of East Prussia, was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II.
- It is located between NATO members Poland and Lithuania
Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB spy who is now the secretary of the Russian Security Council, added that he would respond in such a way that NATO citizens and members of the European Union would feel the pain.
With East-West relations at least half a century after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Lithuania banned the transit of EU-sanctioned goods through its territory to and from the enclave. citing EU sanctions rules.
Patrushev said Lithuania’s “hostile” actions showed that Russia could not trust the West.
“Russia will certainly respond to these hostile actions,” Patrushev was quoted as saying by the state-run RIA news agency.
“The appropriate measures are being developed in an interdepartmental format and will be taken in the near future.
“Its consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.”
Kaliningrad, formerly the port of Koenigsberg, the capital of East Prussia, was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II.
It is located between NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
Lithuania said banning the transit of goods sanctioned by its territory was only the application of EU sanctions, part of a series of measures aimed at punishing Mr Putin for invading Ukraine.
“It is ironic to hear rhetoric about alleged violations of international treaties by a country that has possibly violated all international treaties,” said Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte.
“There is no blockade of Kaliningrad,” Ms Simonyte said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned EU Ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer over the situation, which the Kremlin said on Monday was more than serious.
“Lithuania is not taking unilateral action, it is implementing EU sanctions,” Ederer was quoted as saying by RIA.
EU urges Russia to refrain from “escalating steps”
The EU envoy to Moscow on Tuesday urged Russia to refrain from “intensive steps and rhetoric” over what Moscow calls “anti-Russian restrictions” on goods transiting between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russia. say an EU spokesman.
“He conveyed our position on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and explained that Lithuania is implementing EU sanctions and there is no blockade, and urged them to refrain from escalating steps and rhetoric,” he said. spokesman Peter Stano.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, which convened the bloc’s ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday, called for “immediate” resumption of traffic in the region and vowed retaliation if the situation did not improve.
Lithuania, an EU member, has closed a rail corridor from Russia to its enclave to certain basic goods, including building materials, metals and coal, in response to new EU sanctions that came into force on Saturday.
“Everything that can burn is on fire”
Toshkivka, in the Luhansk region, has been hit by artillery attacks as Russian forces try to take full control of the area. (Reuters)
Russian attacks have set fire to areas of eastern Ukraine where resistance fighters are denying Moscow full military control of the region.
“Everything that can burn is on fire today,” said Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.
Currently, the Russian army controls about 95% of the Luhansk region.
But Moscow has been fighting for weeks to completely invade it, despite deploying additional troops and gaining a massive advantage in military assets.
In the city of Sievierodonetsk, the hotbed of fighting, Ukrainian defenders clung to the Azot chemical plant on the outskirts of the industry.
Families have been hiding inside the plant’s anti-aerodic shelters. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
About 500 civilians are sheltered at the plant, and Haidai said Russian forces are turning the area “into ruins.”
“It’s a big disaster,” Haidai said of the plant.
“They are firing at our positions from shells, multiple rocket launchers, large-caliber artillery and missile attacks.”
Neighboring Lysychansk, the only city in the Luhansk region that is still fully under Ukrainian control, was the target of multiple airstrikes.
The office of the President of Ukraine said that at least six civilians had been killed in the previous 24 hours and 16 more were injured.
According to its daily update, Russian forces during the day bombed the northern region of Chernivtsi and intensified the bombing of Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine.
There were also explosions on Tuesday morning (local time) in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
Read more about the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
The Kremlin says it is unaware of the whereabouts of captured US “mercenaries.”
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was unaware of the whereabouts of two Americans captured while fighting in eastern Ukraine, but who were mercenaries and could be sentenced to death in Russian-backed separatist territories.
Americans Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, went missing this month while fighting near Kharkiv.
Russian state media later showed video interviews with the couple, saying they had been captured by forces with Russian support.
Citing an unidentified source, the Interfax news agency reported that the men were in the self-proclaimed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine.
British Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin and Moroccan citizen Brahim Saadoun were sentenced to death this month by an RDP court after being caught fighting with the Ukrainian army.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow could not rule out that the two captured men, both from Alabama, should also be sentenced to death if tried in separatist territory.
Although Russia does not impose the death penalty, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, whose independence is recognized only by Moscow, have it in their statutes.
Asked if Americans could be tried in the DPR and sentenced to death, Peskov said: “We can’t rule out anything because they are court decisions. We never comment on them and we have no right to interfere in court decisions.”
Reuters was unable to immediately verify Interfax’s report on the location of the Americans. A DPR spokesman declined to comment immediately.
The Kremlin said that as “mercenaries”, men are not protected by the Geneva Conventions, which define how prisoners of war should be treated.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to search, up and down arrows for volume. Clock time: 2 minutes 14 seconds 2 m 14 s Parts of eastern Ukraine pulverized by Russian bombing.
ABC / Cables
Posted 1 hour, 1 hour ago Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 12:02 PM, updated 10 m ago, 10 minutes ago, Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 1:49 PM