After Lithuania barred EU-sanctioned products from accessing the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the Kremlin issued a threat.
After deliveries of coal, metals, building materials, and advanced technology were prevented from entering Russian territory, fueling worries of an escalation of the Ukraine war, Moscow warned of “extremely strong actions” against the country.
Russia reserves the right to act to protect its national interests unless freight transportation is resumed in the near future, according to the Lithuanian chargé d’affaires in Moscow.
‘We consider provocative actions by the Lithuanian side that violate Lithuania’s international legal obligations, primarily the 2002 Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the European Union on transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the Russian Federation, to be openly hostile,’ the Russian foreign ministry said.
Andrey Klimov, a Loyalist senator, warned that it was “direct aggression on Russia,” causing Russia to “quickly turn to proper self-defense.”
He promised that Russia will break the blockade “in ANY manner we chose,” as the leader of the parliamentary sovereignty protection commission.
Any direct Russian attack on NATO member Lithuania would be considered a war crime and might start a global conflict.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis stated that his country was just enforcing EU sanctions.
He stated that the actions were taken after “conversation with the European Commission and in accordance with its rules.”
‘Sanctioned items will no longer be permitted to transit Lithuanian territory,’ added Landsbergis.
Russia, on the other hand, disagrees, with Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, saying: ‘This decision is truly unprecedented.’ It’s a blatant violation of every rule.’
‘We consider this illegal,’ he cautioned. The situation is quite serious… we need to conduct a thorough investigation in order to devise a strategy.’
Lithuania was breaking international law, according to Senate Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachyov, by prohibiting products from Russia from passing through Belarus.
The 430,000-strong Kaliningrad exclave is bordered to the south by Lithuania and Poland, another EU member, and is cut off from the rest of Russia. Trains carrying cargo to Kaliningrad pass through Belarus and Lithuania.
Poland is not a transit country. Russia can continue to feed the exclave by sea while avoiding EU sanctions.
‘The attempt to isolate the region is – from the point of view of international law – in fact a casus belli, a term meaning a formal reason to declare war.’
The blockade of the Kaliningrad region is a violation of Russia’s sovereignty over this region and may be the basis for very tough and absolutely legal actions on Russia’s part, according to Russian state TV reporter Grigory Yemelyanov of Channel 1.
In The Financial Times, Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky warned that the Kremlin leader’s ‘next step’ would be a ‘air blockade’ of Lithuania.
‘Russian aviation will be able to fly directly between Russia and Kaliningrad.’ ‘Then Nato will have to decide what to do.’
‘After Lithuania blocked the transit of sanctioned commodities to the Kaliningrad region across its territory, Russian officials and the media have started talking…the grounds for declaring war,’ said former Russian presidential candidate and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak.
‘Russia has no right to threaten Lithuania,’ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. The repercussions of Moscow’s provocative and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine are solely his responsibility.’
After Putin was ‘humiliated’ by Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev when they shared a platform together on Friday at Russia’s important economic summit in St Petersburg, Kremlin minions were also warning of the prospect of war in Kazakhstan.
Tokayev disrespected Putin by refusing to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics as independent entities.
According to one source, Putin was ‘actually enraged’ and humiliated. He was all set for’vengeance.’
Russia could take “Ukraine-like actions” in Kazakhstan, according to pro-Putin MP Konstantin Zatulin.
‘You have to stand with Russia and express your position, not be afraid of US and EU sanctions,’ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov urged Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan and other ex-Soviet governments were “all mute, fearful of American or European sanctions.”
According to reports, Russia has disrupted an oil exporting terminal in Kazakhstan.
According to another report, Putin has not ruled out a major mobilization of half a million men in five western Russian areas near Ukraine.
This could happen if Ukraine continues to attack civilian and military targets.
Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh, and Rostov were among the regions named.
According to Ukrainian media, Putin is attempting to persuade Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko to create a second front by invading the districts of Volyn, Rivne, and Kyiv.
New footage released today shows Ukrainian troops employing British M777 howitzers to destroy a Russian tank and two infantry fighting vehicles.
Aerial footage appears to show the 81st Airmobile Brigade targeting the trucks with long-range weapons.
‘Gunners of the 81st Brigade of the DShV [Ukrainian Air Assault Forces] destroyed one tank and two infantry combat vehicles of the Russian invaders,’ according to the Command of the Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
‘The movie depicts the successful operation of artillery personnel from the 81st Airmobile Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who destroyed racists’ equipment and manpower using British M777 155-mm field howitzers.
‘In particular, the Russian occupants’ one tank and two infantry fighting vehicles – as well as their soldiers – were scrapped. The Russian occupiers must perish! Always First with DShV! Ukraine, we salute you!’
It’s the latest setback for Russian forces, who have lost a large number of personnel and military gear during their four-month-long incursion.
According to Ukraine, Russia has lost 33,800 personnel, 1,477 tanks, 3,588 armored combat vehicles, 749 artillery units, 235 multiple launch rocket systems, 98 air defense systems, 216 warplanes, 181 helicopters, 601 drones, 130 cruise missiles, 14 warships, 2,527 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 55 special equipment units.
On the battlefield, Russian forces are attempting to retake total control of the eastern Donbas region, which was already under the authority of Russian-backed rebels before to the February 24 assault.
It comes as Ukraine waits nervously for the EU to make a historic judgment on its application to join the bloc, with Volodymyr Zelesnky predicting an uptick in Russian ‘hostile activities’ this week.
The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk is a key target of Moscow’s eastern offensive.
On Sunday, Russia announced that it had taken control of Metyolkine, a village on the outskirts of the city, and that numerous Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Russia achieved ‘limited success’ in the area, according to Ukraine’s military.
A Russian offensive on Toshkivka, 20 miles south of Sievierodonetsk, ‘had a degree of success,’ according to Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai.
Gaidai said Russia held ‘the main part’ of Sievierodonetsk, a city of 100,000 people before the war, but not the full town, after severe battle. The combat accounts could not be independently verified by Reuters.
The severe bombardment around Sievierodonetsk has continued ‘with little change to the front line,’ according to the British Ministry of Defence.
Residential structures and private dwellings in Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk had been devastated by Russian bombardment, according to Gaidai. ‘People are dying in bomb shelters and on the streets,’ he added.
He later confirmed that 19 persons were evacuated on Sunday. ‘We’re doing our utmost to bring in humanitarian aid and evacuate people,’ Gaidai added.
‘Russian troops will certainly be able to conquer Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in one limited area,’ analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a note.
According to Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Ukraine battle might extend for years and encouraged Western governments to keep delivering state-of-the-art equipment to Ukrainian troops.
‘We need to plan for the possibility that it will take years.’ ‘We must not relent in our support for Ukraine,’ Stoltenberg said.
Russia has announced the commencement of a’special military operation’ to disarm its neighbor and defend Russian speakers from dangerous nationalists in the country. That is dismissed by Kyiv and its allies as a bogus justification for an aggressive conflict.
Morale among Ukrainian and Russian combat units in the Donbas was likely ‘varying,’ according to a British military assessment.
‘While Ukrainian forces are likely to have experienced desertions in recent weeks, Russian morale is likely to be particularly low. The British Ministry of Defence remarked on Twitter that “cases of whole Russian units defying commands and armed stand-offs between officials and their troops continue to occur.”
Russia’s defence ministry said its Iskander missiles had destroyed equipment recently supplied by Western countries near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, northwest of Luhansk.
According to a Ukrainian interior ministry official, Russian soldiers were attempting to approach Kharkiv, which had been heavily shelled earlier in the war, and transform it into a “frontline city.”
The mayor of Melitopol said in a video released on Telegram from outside the city that Western armament had helped Ukrainian forces move six kilometres towards Russian-occupied Melitopol.
An EU decision in favor of Kyiv’s eventual membership would put Ukraine on pace to achieve a goal that would have been unattainable for the former Soviet republic before Russia’s invasion.
‘Whole generations struggled for a chance to break free from the Soviet Union’s captivity and, like a free bird, fly to European civilisation,’ Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, said in a statement.
President Zelensky stated that there have been “few such critical decisions for Ukraine” as the one that the EU is expected to make this week.
In his evening address Sunday, he stated, “Only a favorable conclusion is in the interests of the entire Europe.”
‘We expect Russia to ramp up its aggressive activity this week,’ says the statement. We’re getting ready. ‘We’re all set,’ he continued.
Following a visit to Kyiv by the chiefs of the EU’s three largest countries – France, Germany, and Italy – on Friday, Brussels approved Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status.
When member state leaders meet in Brussels this week, Ukraine might be added to the list of countries bidding for membership.
However, even with candidacy status, authorities and leaders in the bloc warn that accession could take years.