I’ve only begun: Putin’s warning
KYIV: Russian forces have left a trail of destruction as they seek to push deeper into the eastern Donbas region as President Vladimir Putin said his military campaign was still ramping up.
Mr Putin’s comments came after a Russian air strike in the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of Kramatorsk left at least one dead and several others wounded as Russian troops fought for full control of the surrounding Donbas.
The explosion left a gaping crater next to a hotel and residential buildings and several cars were on fire.
Mr Putin’s comments came in a speech to his tame politicians in which he said “everyone should know that we have not started in earnest yet”. He also sounded a note of menace towards the West, telling the alliance that has coalesced against his invasion of Ukraine that if they wanted to defeat Russia on the battlefield “let them try”.
The head of Ukraine’s battled-scarred Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, announced before the strike on Kramatorsk that Russian bombardments had killed at least seven people over the past 24 hours.
The fatalities came after Ukrainian officials again called for civilians in the region to flee, as Russian forces turn their sights on the city of Sloviansk.
Russian troops captured cities in the Lugansk region after long battles, consolidating their hold in the east after failing at the start of the February invasion to take the capital Kyiv and Ukraine’s secondlargest city Kharkiv.
Despite the raging conflict, Kyiv took time to hail outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of Ukraine’s keenest allies.
On the diplomatic front meanwhile, tensions mounted between Ankara and Kyiv as Ukraine accused Turkey of ignoring calls to seize Ukrainian grain on a 7000-tonne Russian vessel that set off from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk after picking up the wheat.
The marinetraffic.com website showed the vessel moving away from Turkey’s Black Sea port of Karasu before apparently switching off its transponder and disappearing from view.
Ukraine said it was “deeply disappointed” that Turkey had not seized the ship.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening address again called for more arms from international allies.
“The bigger defence support to Ukraine will be now, the quicker the war will end with our victory and the lesser will be losses of all countries in the world,” he said.
Ukraine this week also said it had regained control of Snake Island in the Black Sea, raising its flag there following the withdrawal of Russian forces.
Russia said it pulled back from the symbolic island in a gesture of “good will”, but has since continued targeting positions there.
The Russian defence ministry said it had carried out “precision” missile strikes on the island, killing Ukrainians.