Russia hits rail, fuel facilities in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine, April 25, (AP): Russia unleashed a string of attacks against Ukrainian rail and fuel installations Monday, striking crucial infrastructure far from the front line of its eastern offensive.

Meanwhile, two fires were reported at oil facilities in western Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border. It was not clear what caused the blazes.

As both sides in the 2-month-old war brace for what could be a grinding battle of attrition in the country’s eastern industrial heartland, top U.S. officials pledged more help to ensure Ukraine prevails.

In a bold visit to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, the American secretaries of state and defense said Washington had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition - nonU.S. ammo, mainly if not entirely to fit Ukraine’s Soviet-era weapons - along with more than $300 million in financing to buy more supplies.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday after the meeting that the West’s united support for Ukraine and pressure on Moscow are having “real results.”

“When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding,” he added.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the American support but said that “as long as Russian soldiers put a foot on Ukrainian soil, nothing is enough.”

Kuleba warned that if Western powers want Ukraine to win the war and “stop Putin in Ukraine and not to allow him to go further, deeper into Europe,” then countries must speed up the delivery of the weapons requested by Ukraine.

Putin accuses US

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to “split Russian society and to destroy Russia from within.”

When Russia invaded on Feb. 24, its apparent goal was the lightning capture of Kyiv and perhaps the toppling of its government. But the Ukrainians, with the help of Western weapons, bogged Putin’s troops down and thwarted their push to Kyiv.

Moscow now says its goal is to capture the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas region in the east. While both sides said the campaign in the east is underway, Russia has yet to mount an all-out ground offensive and has not achieved any major breakthroughs.

Ukrainian troops holed up in a steel plant in the strategic city of Mariupol are tying down Russian forces and apparently keeping them from being added to the offensive elsewhere in the Donbas.

Britain said it believes 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow began its invasion. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said 25% of the Russian combat units sent to Ukraine “have been rendered not combat effective,” and Russia had lost more than 2,000 armored vehicles and over 60 helicopters and fighter planes.

Ukrainian officials have said about 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed as of mid-April.

Over the weekend, Russian forces launched new airstrikes on the steel plant in a bid to dislodge the estimated 2,000 fighters. Some 1,000 civilians were also sheltering in the steelworks, and the Russian military pledged to open a humanitarian corridor Monday for them to leave.

The Russian offer was met with skepticism by Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine does not consider the route safe and added that Russia had breached agreements on similar evacuation routes before. She called on the United Nations to oversee an evacuation.

Mariupol endures

Mariupol has endured fierce fighting since the start of the war because of its strategic location on the Sea of Azov. In addition to freeing up Russian troops, its capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

On Monday, Russia focused its firepower elsewhere, with missiles and war planes striking far behind the front lines, in an apparent bid to slow the movement of Ukrainian supplies toward the east and disrupt the flow of fuel needed by the country’s forces.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said five railway facilities in central and western Ukraine were hit early Monday. That included a missile attack near the western city of Lviv.

Ukrainian authorities said that at least five people were killed by Russian strikes in the central Vynnytsia region.

Russia also destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, along with fuel depots there, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. In all, Russian warplanes destroyed 56 Ukrainian targets overnight, he said.

In Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, several explosions believed to be caused by rocket-propelled grenades hit the Ministry of State Security. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and no injuries were immediately reported.

Meanwhile, a major fire erupted early Monday at an oil depot in a Russian city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said. No cause was given for the blaze. Photos showed a huge, churning plume of thick smoke.

The oil depot in Bryansk is owned by a subsidiary of the Russian state company Transneft, which operates the Druzhba pipeline that carries crude west to other European countries. The ministry said the blaze damaged a depot containing diesel fuel. It said the region has enough diesel for 15 days.

KUWAIT CITY: His Highness Kuwait Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of congratulations to France’s President Emmanuel Macron on occasion of re-election, wishing him success and good health, and the relations tying the two nations further progress.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad AlSabah sent similar congratulatory cables. (KUNA)

KUWAIT CITY: Speaker of National Assembly Marzouq Al-Ghanim extolled the valuable directives and contents of the speech of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on the occasion of the last tenths days of the holy month of Ramadan.

The speech was delivered by His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, on behalf of His Highness the Amir.

Of the most important points in the Amir’s speech are renewing the emphasis of maintaining the national unity described by His Highness the Amir as a “fence and fortress”, and the cohesion of Kuwaitis, Al-Ghanim said.

His Highness the Amir reiterated of preserving security and stability of Kuwait in light of the constitution and the democratic path, and this shows keenness of the political leadership on assuming its historical responsibility, he added. (KUNA)

KUWAIT CITY:

Eid Al-Fitr that marks end of the fasting month of Ramadan will fall on May 2 (Monday), Al-Ojairi Scientific Center said in a statement on Monday.

Eid prayers will be held at 5:21 a.m. (local time).

The center expressed congratulations on the forthcoming Eid to Their Highnesses, the Amir and the Crown Prince, as well as the people of Kuwait. (KUNA)

BAMAKO: Islamic extremist rebels in Mali linked to al-Qaida said they have captured mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group in fighting earlier this month.

It’s the first time that Mali’s extremist rebels known as JNIM have claimed to capture Russian fighters. The Wagner Group fighters were seized in the first week of April in the mountainous Segou region of central Mali, said the JNIM statement, which called the fighters “criminals.”

Since the beginning of the year, several European countries have denounced the presence of Wagner’s Russian mercenaries, estimated to be about 1,000, who fight alongside Malian soldiers. (AP)