Russia claims control of Pisky
Moscow said it was in control of the village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as a think tank said the country is mobilising industry for prolonged war
MOSCOW: Russian forces have taken full control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Interfax cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Saturday.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the report.
Russian and pro-Russian forces had reported that they had taken full control of Pisky more than a week ago.
The ministry also said that Russian forces had destroyed a US-supplied HIMARS rocket system near Ukraine’s Kramatorsk and a depot with ammunition for the system, Interfax reported. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is nearing the six-month mark, and its troops continue to concentrate on their bid to establish full control over Luhansk and Donetsk. Russian armed forces continued shelling in the vicinity of the strategic eastern cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk as well as other targets, the Ukrainian military said Saturday.
Five civilians were killed and 35 injured in Donetsk region in the past 24 hours. That includes two who died and 13 wounded in a Russian strike in Kramatorsk, the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Facebook.
The UK said two primary road bridges that provide access to Russian occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region are probably unusable now.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is reportedly attempting to mobilise industry to support prolonged war efforts in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War claimed, citing Ukrainian intelligence. Russia’s government in early August banned some employees and the entire leadership at the state industrial conglomerate company Rostec from taking vacations, the US military think-tank said in a report.
Russia’s Military-Industrial Commission, which President Vladimir Putin chairs, is preparing to change the state defence order programme by early September to increase spending by about $10 billion, ISW said.
Report: Moscow warns US against assets seizure
Any possible seizure of Russian assets by the United States will completely destroy Moscow’s bilateral relations with Washington, TASS quoted the head of the North American department at the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Saturday.
Russia’s relations with the West have deteriorated sharply since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “special military operation”.
The West responded with unprecedented economic, financial and diplomatic sanctions, including freezing around half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves that stood at $640 billion before February 24.
“We warn the Americans of the detrimental consequences of such actions that will permanently damage bilateral relations, which is neither in their nor in our interests,” Alexander Darchiev told TASS in an interview. It was not immediately clear which assets he was referring to.
Separately, Russia for the first time expressed guarded optimism about talks with the US on a prisoner exchange involving WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jailed American.
“‘Quiet diplomacy’ is continuing, and it should bear fruit, if of course, Washington strictly follows it without slipping into propaganda,” Darchiyev said.
Last month, the Biden administration proposed a swap involving Griner, a two-time Olympic Gold medallist, and former US Marine Paul Whelan, who was jailed in Russia in 2020 on spying charges he denies.
In return it’s ready to free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer known as the “merchant of death” who was sentenced to 25 years in 2012, and a second Russian also held in a US jail, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
While the Kremlin has long pressed for Bout’s return to Russia, officials in Moscow initially indicated Russia was leaning toward rejecting the US offer because it regarded its terms as unequal.