Russia moves, & Zel begs for Europe’s help

A feared Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine appeared to be in motion Thursday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded in Brussels for enhanced European weaponry to ward off the advance of Moscow’s military.

Speaking to a gathering of European Union leaders, Zelenskyy defined the Russian Army as an “anti-European force” that seeks to “steal Europe,” continuing his effort to frame his country’s grinding, defensive war against Russia as a battle to preserve European values.

“This total war that has been unleashed by Russia is not just about territory in one part of Europe or another,” declared Zelenskyy, fresh off a visit to Britain. “The Kremlin has been consistently destroying, step by step, year after year, what we see as the basis of our Europe.”

That effort, Zelenskyy (photo) charged, has included plans to dismantle the democracy of Moldova, a country of less than 3 million people located across Ukraine’s southwest border. Ukraine’s security service issued a statement confirming that it was aware of “subversive activities” aimed at undermining its government, but did not provide specific details.

In Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Russian forces were reported to be intensifying their attacks.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, said Thursday that Russian attacks near the city of Kreminna had escalated “significantly.”

The Ukrainian government had warned in recent days that Russian troops were massing for another potential offensive.

Throughout Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II, Russian missiles have pounded civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, and have sometimes created deadly scenes far from the front lines.

But President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to turn up the ferocity of his push in eastern Ukraine, where the two countries have been locked in bloody battles, as Russia approaches the second year of its war on its previously peaceful neighbor.

At a meeting with air industry representatives on Thursday, Putin claimed that Russia did launch the conflict in Ukraine but is “trying to end” it, according to the Tass news agency, a Kremlin mouthpiece.