The Ukrainians fear that Belarus, too, will join the war alongside Russia. The fighting continued, and for the first time the Russians attacked the fourth largest city – the Dnipro. The huge convoy of the Russian army advances to Kiev. Calcalist updates on developments
07:35 – In Ukraine last night (Friday) expressed growing concern about the possibility of Belarus joining Russia in the war against it, after the government in Kiev the Russian Air Force carried out bombings in Belarus. This is to allegedly stage a Ukrainian attack that will force the Minsk regime to declare war on Ukraine.
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Fortifications in Kiev
(Getty)
Ukrainian National Security Adviser Alexei Danilov said his country was showing great “restraint” towards Belarus – despite the fact that it helped Russia in the war against it and allowed it to invade its territory – and warned that Kyiv would react sharply if also attacked by dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s forces. “If one plane crosses the border, we will fight back,” Danilov promised.
According to the Ukrainian government, the Russian Air Force fired from Ukrainian airspace at several Belarusian settlements near the border, in what was described as a “false flag operation,” meaning one that could later be blamed for carrying it out. “This is a provocation! The goal is to involve the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus in the war with Ukraine!”, The Ukrainian Air Force said.
Authorities in Ukraine claim that the alleged staged attack took place at a time when Lukashenko was meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They argued that following the attack, a Belarusian invasion could occur in the coming hours. Senior Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of doing everything in its power to drag Belarus into the war, but have made it clear that Belarus is doing everything in its power not to intervene.
Lukashenko declared last week that his forces would not take part in what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. His remarks came amid fears that Belarus would join the war to help Putin’s army – which had hoped for a quick victory in Ukraine, but was surprised by the strength of Ukrainian resistance, and also encountered a host of logistical difficulties such as food and fuel shortages.
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Belarus’ invasion of Ukraine will be a dramatic escalation in the war, and the White House warned yesterday that escalation is the direction Putin insists on marching. “We have given Putin every possible exit route from the first moment, and we will continue to do so,” White House Deputy Spokesman Andrew Bates said. ‘
According to Bates, “Putin’s only strategy was escalation at every crossroads, but it is now becoming increasingly clear that this is an escalation with no end in sight. His unexpected cruelty, which came at the expense of the Russian people, and at the expense of his oppressive forces, is bringing disaster to his country.” Bates, who spoke to reporters on the Air Force 1 plane, was asked by them what “exit routes” the US might present to Putin in the future, but declined to elaborate.
Bates further promised that the US and the West would continue to exact a heavy price from Russia: he spoke shortly after President Joe Biden announced new harsh sanctions against Russia, which he said were aimed at “crushing” its economy. – Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom – will include the low trade relations with Russia, in a way that will allow high tariffs to be imposed on imports of goods and services from it.
Biden said in a statement issued last night that he would also impose new sanctions that would ban imports from Russia of diamonds, seafood like caviar and alcohol products like vodka. The White House estimates that these sanctions will deny Russia about $ 1 billion a year in revenue. Biden has announced that it will also ban American companies from exporting luxury goods to Russia, such as luxury cars and jewelry, items with a trade value of about half a billion dollars each year. The White House noted that the order Biden would sign would prohibit any future U.S. investment in any sector of the Russian economy. The U.S. president also announced an intention to add more Russian oligarchs to the list of sanctions.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin is the aggressor. And Putin must pay the price,” Biden said in a speech after speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zlansky. “These are the last steps we are taking, but they will not be the last,” he stressed. Biden also warned Putin of using chemical weapons against Ukraine, following warnings in the United States and the West in recent days, saying that in that case Russia would pay an even heavier price. Directly in the military confrontation: he warned that in such a case a third world war would break out.
On the ground, meanwhile, fighting continues – and seems to be intensifying: after long targeting Russia’s attacks in southern and eastern Ukraine, along with an attempt to encircle the capital Kyiv with battles in the city’s suburbs, Putin’s forces also bombed sites and settlements in western Ukraine. Masses of refugees are now on their way to Poland and its neighbors. A Russian bomb blast near the northern city of Lutsk has killed at least four Iraqi people. A military airport in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk was also bombed.
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An exercise by the Russian army in Belarus before the war
(AFP)
At the same time, and for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia attacked the city of Dnipro – the fourth largest in the country. According to city authorities in the center of the country, one person was killed in assaults that occurred near a kindergarten and a residential building. Russia has claimed control of the south-central town of Volnobaha. In Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city, too, fighting continues: the northeastern mayor reportedly subjected to “incessant shelling,” saying 48 schools in the city were severely destroyed.
Heavy shelling was also reported in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, which the Russians began attacking last week, after capturing the nearby city of Kherson. The besieged city of Mariupol, in the southeast, was also shelled, and according to the Ukrainian authorities, this is the reason why even today it was not possible to open a humanitarian corridor and rescue residents who are facing a real humanitarian catastrophe. The city has run out of food and water and there is no electricity and heating. Authorities in the city have updated that 1,580 people have been killed so far. Some of them were buried in mass graves.
Ukraine claimed last night that the Russians had “kidnapped” the mayor of Litopol, also in the southeast of the country, which was occupied by Putin’s army early last week. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that the Russians had abducted Mayor Ivan Fedorov after they had been falsely accused of terrorist acts, claiming that it was a war crime under the Geneva Convention. Russia did not say what happened to Fedorov.
An alarming development was recorded in the Kyiv region: new satellite images indicated that the huge Russian military convoy near the capital, which stretched for 65 km, began to disperse – long days after it got stuck a few dozen kilometers from the capital. The convoy, which includes tanks, APCs, trucks, fuel trucks and artillery, began deploying northwest of Kiev, near Antonov Airport. Capture firing positions.