The Russian military says it used sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy four S-300 air defense missile launchers near the city of Dnipro, just days after Slovakia sent Ukraine an S-300 air defense system in a deal worked out by the US
About two dozen Ukrainian troops were also hit by the strike, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Monday. The statement said Ukraine had received the technology from an unnamed European country. Konashenkov’s claim could not be independently verified.
Slovakia’s prime minister office issued a statement calling the news that system was destroyed “disinformation.”
Slovakia was able to provide the system because the US was willing to give Slovakia a Patriot battery to replace it, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
It was unclear whether both sides are referring to the same airstrike. The Russians have targeted missile defense systems in three locations in recent days.
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VISUAL EXPLAINER: Mapping and tracking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Latest developments:
►President Joe Biden is set to speak with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday as he presses world leaders to take a hard line against Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
►Moscow has appointed a new war chief after a largely unsuccessful six weeks of battle in Ukraine, a senior US official said Sunday. The official, who is not authorized to be identified and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, 60, has a history of brutality against Syrians and other civilians.
Major Russian assault on east Ukraine likely within days, EU official says
Russian is sending a large contingent of troops toward eastern Ukraine and appears poised to launch a major offensive in the Donbas region within days, said Josep Borrell, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. The region includes Donetsk and Luhansk, where Moscow-backed separatists established de facto republics that even Russia only recognized days before the war broke out in February.
“I’m afraid the Russian troops are massing on the east to launch an attack on the Donbas,” Borrell said Monday. “I am afraid … the war will increase on the Donbas.”
Russian forces bisected strategically crucial Mariupol from the city center to the coast on Sunday, isolating the remaining Ukrainian defenders in two locations, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
Zelenskyy: This week crucial for Ukraine’s fate
In a nightly address Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his nation that the coming week would be crucial as any in the war and accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for war crimes.
“When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologize, adapt to reality and learn, they turn into monsters,” Zelenskyy said. “And when the world ignores it, the monsters decide that it is the world that has to adapt to them . Ukraine will stop all this.”
Zelenskyy called on Western countries, including Germany, to provide more assistance to Ukraine. During talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelenskyy said he discussed how to strengthen sanctions against Russia and how to force Moscow to seek peace.
“I am glad to note that the German position has recently changed in favor of Ukraine. I consider it absolutely logical,” Zelenskyy said.
More Ukraine coverage from USA TODAY
Putin to meet with Austrian Chancellor
Austria’s foreign minister says Chancellor Karl Nehammer is taking “very clear messages of a humanitarian and political kind” to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Monday that Nehammer decided to make the trip after meeting in Kyiv on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and following contacts with the leaders of Turkey, Germany and the European Union.
Schallenberg said ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg that “we don’t want to leave any unused opportunity and must seize every chance to end the humanitarian hell in Ukraine.”
He added that “every voice that makes clear to President (Vladimir) Putin what reality looks like outside the walls of Kremlin is not a wasted voice.”
Schallenberg said that Nehammer and Putin will meet one-on-one without media opportunities. He insisted that Austria has done everything to ensure that the visit is not abused, “and I think he (Putin) himself should have an interest in someone telling him the truth and really finding out what’s going on outside.”
– Associated Press
European Union to consider Ukraine membership in weeks
Ukraine could become part of the European Union in a matter of weeks, the president of the European Commission said Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Ukraine’s application to join the EU in February, and Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, said she expects Ukraine to fully join the EU by June.
The process can take years, but European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Ukraine’s membership could take only weeks to consider.
“Yesterday, somebody told me: “You know, when our soldiers are dying, I want them to know that their children will be free be and be part of the European Union,” von der Leyen said. “They are in an extraordinary situation, where we have to take unusual steps.”
– Celina Tebor
Russia warns of ‘direct military confrontation’ with US
Ukrainian forces are pushing back Russian troops so successfully that the invaders have been forced to regroup, refit and refocus, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
“Russia has changed its behavior in this war,” Sullivan said on CBS News’ Face The Nation. “They have retreated. They have pulled back from substantial territory in northern and northeastern Ukraine. Chiefly the reason they made those adjustments is because they were beaten by the Ukrainians.”
Sullivan credited the Ukraine military – and the flow of equipment the US and its allies have been sending the besieged country. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov earlier told Newsweek the West is provoking Russia.
“We warn that such actions are dangerous,” the envoy said. “They can lead the US and the Russian Federation onto the path of direct military confrontation.”
Contributing: The Associated Press