‘Ukrainian raid’ on Russia threatens peace talks

Yesterday, Russia accused Ukraine of launching a strike inside its territory, in an unprecedented development since the start of the war on February 24.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said that two Ukrainian helicopters had carried out a strike on a fuel storage facility in the city, about forty kilometers from the border with Ukraine. He added that two people were injured due to the fire, stressing that the attack did not result in a crisis in fuel distribution in the province. While Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that this development “would not provide adequate conditions for continuing negotiations,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitriy Kuleba said he was “unable to confirm or deny Ukraine’s involvement because he does not have all the military information.”

In a related context, European leaders urged Beijing to “not interfere” to help Russia face the repercussions of Western sanctions. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union had warned Beijing that any support for Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions would “seriously discredit (China)” and damage its economic relations with Europe. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his hope that the European Union would get rid of US influence in its policy towards China.

In addition, the United States warned India against rapprochement with Moscow, coinciding with the arrival of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to New Delhi in an attempt to persuade it not to bow to Western pressure. Lavrov said in New Delhi, during his meeting with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar, yesterday: “Our Western colleagues these days would like to reduce any meaningful international issue to the crisis in Ukraine (…) We appreciate that India sees the situation with all the facts in mind, not just in a unilateral way.”
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