Austin urges ceasefire in call with Shoigu
Agencies
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: US defence secretary Lloyd Austin urged Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday to move immediately to implement a ceasefire in Ukraine, in their first conversation since before the war began, the Pentagon said.
“Secretary Austin urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasised the importance of maintaining lines of communication,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Pentagon gave no other details on the content of the conversation, their first since February 18, six days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
The call came as the two sides battle along a long front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, with the Pentagon maintaining that Russia is weeks behind goals set in its war plan.
But Moscow has shown no indication of pulling back and is believed by Western intelligence of wanting to take control of a wide swath of southern Ukraine stretching along the
Black Sea to Moldova.
War crimes trial
Russia suffered heavy losses when Ukrainian forces destroyed the pontoon bridge enemy troops were using to try to cross a river in the east, Ukrainian and British officials said in another sign of Moscow’s struggle to salvage a war gone awry.
Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, opened the first war crimes trial of the conflict. The defendant, a captured Russian soldier, stands accused of shooting to death a 62-year-old civilian in the early days of the war.
The trial got underway as Russia’s offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, seemed to turn increasingly into a grinding war of attrition.
Ukraine’s airborne command released photos and video of what it said was a damaged Russian pontoon bridge over the Siversky Donets River and several destroyed or damaged Russian military vehicles nearby.
‘Russia fighting Nazism’
President Vladimir Putin on Friday insisted that Russia was fighting “Nazi ideology” in Ukraine in a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Russian president sent troops to the pro-western country on February 24, saying Ukraine needed to be “demilitarised” and “de-nazified”.
Putin reiterated that Moscow’s military operation was aimed at protecting the Russianspeaking population of eastern Ukraine. Putin also accused Kyiv of “blocking” peace talks.
This was followed by Ukraine’s foreign minister saying his country remains willing to engage in diplomatic talks with Russia to unblock grain supplies and achieve a political solution to the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated an offer to hold direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and said Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine should be the starting point for any discussions.
Britain adds sanctions
Britain has added Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife and his alleged girlfriend to its sanctions list over the invasion of Ukraine.
The British government says its latest asset freezes and travel bans target the “shady network” of friends and allies who “owe Putin their wealth and power, and in turn support Putin and his war machine”.
The sanctioned individuals include Putin’s ex-wife Lyudmila Ocheretnaya; former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who is “alleged to have a close personal relationship with Putin”, according to the government; and several businessmen who are cousins of the Russian president.