The countries which will interfere in the war in Ukraine to come to its aid will suffer the wrath of Russia, threatened yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“If anyone intends to […] create unacceptable threats to Russia, they must know that our response […] will be fast and blistering,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
The day after a meeting in Germany of some forty countries devoted to strengthening military support for Ukraine, the Russian army yesterday claimed to have destroyed in a strike a “large quantity” of weapons delivered to Kyiv by the United States and European countries.
“The objective of Western aid is to allow Ukrainian troops to last under Russian bombardment, so for the Russians this is bad news and they are trying to reduce the scope,” said Pascal Ausseur, director general. of the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies.
On Tuesday, a missile strike by Russian forces damaged a road and rail bridge on a strategic axis linking the Odessa region to Romania, according to the Ukrainian railway company. The Russians hit that bridge again yesterday.
The Russians “wanted to cut off the flow of aid, fuel in particular, to Ukraine sent by Western countries and transiting through Romania”, explained George Scutaru, director general of the New Strategy Center, a Romanian think tank. .
“It doesn’t require a lot of bombs, it’s much faster than reducing Kharkiv to ashes, for example, and it’s effective: you isolate the theater of operations, you demoralize the troops who are isolated and you prevent them from have the means to resist as long as possible”, estimated Pascal Ausseur.
In addition, Russia continued its artillery and mortar fire yesterday in Kharkiv killing three and wounding 15.
Photo REUTERS
Rescuers recover the body of a civilian killed yesterday in a bombardment in Kharkiv.
Poland and Bulgaria suffer
In retaliation, the Russian gas company Gazprom on Tuesday suspended deliveries to Bulgaria and Poland.
The two countries are now supplied “by their neighbors in the European Union”, said yesterday the President of the European Commission.
“The Kremlin uses fossil fuels as an instrument of blackmail,” said Ursula von der Leyen.
“If you send armored vehicles into the Ukrainian theatre, perhaps expect the Russians to suspend the export of your energy resources on which you depend enormously”, nuanced the expert in international relations Charles-Philippe David in an interview. at TVA Nouvelles.
Transnistria
These developments come as many states are concerned about the risk of the conflict spreading outside Ukraine, after a series of explosions, attributed by Kyiv to Moscow, in the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria, in Moldova.
“We have always considered Transnistria as a springboard from which there can be risks for us, for [les] Odessa and Vinnytsia regions,” said an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymir Zelensky.
Yesterday, the authorities of the region for their part claimed that a border village hosting a large ammunition depot of the Russian army had been the target of fire from Ukraine.
“We don’t know the future, but we know that something is going to happen. […] What ? We do not know. It can take the form of a coup d’etat, destabilization, a direct attack by the Russians … ”, admitted Thierry Ernst, who lives 5 km from Transnistria, in an interview with LCN.
– With Camille Payant and QMI Agency