Blinken slams Russian attacks on Ukraine infra

BUCHAREST/MADRID: US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Wednesday condemned Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure as “barbaric”.

“Over the past several weeks, Russia has bombed out more than a third of Ukraine’s energy system, plunging millions in the cold,” Blinken said after a meeting with Nato counterparts in Bucharest. “These are President (Vladimir) Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard. This brutalisation of Ukraine’s people is barbaric.”

Nato allies pledged to help Ukraine rebuild its shattered power grid as they met with the country’s foreign minster on Tuesday. Blinken said Western allies were setting up a coordination group to synchronise their support to restore Ukraine’s infrastructure.

Washington’s top diplomat said that the United States supported “the need for a just and durable peace” in Ukraine, but Moscow’s strikes showed it had no interest in achieving that.

“Russia’s savage attacks on Ukrainian civilians are the latest demonstration that President Putin currently has no interest in meaningful diplomacy,” Blinken said. “Short of erasing Ukraine’s independence, he will try to force Ukraine into a frozen conflict, lock in his gains, rest and refit his forces and then at some point re-attack again.”

Putin’s spy chief says he discussed with CIA head

Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin confirmed in an interview published on Wednesday that he discussed nuclear issues and Ukraine in a meeting in Turkey on November 14 with United States Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns.

Naryshkin confirmed that the two countries had a channel to manage risks and that if there was a need for another such conversation, it could happen.

Madrid: Ukraine embassy guard in injured by bomb

A security guard at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was lightly injured on Wednesday while opening a letter bomb addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador, prompting Kyiv to boost security at its embassies.