Zelenskiy warns that Russia is looking at other countries after Ukraine

KYIV/MARIUPOL, Ukraine, April 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that Russia’s invasion of his country was just the beginning and that Moscow has plans to capture other countries, after a Russian general said who wants total control over southern Ukraine.

“All nations that, like us, believe in the victory of life over death, must fight with us. They must help us, because we are the first in line. And who will come next? Zelenskiy said in a video address on Friday night.

Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s Central Military District, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying that full control over southern Ukraine would give him access to Transnistria, a breakaway part of Russian-occupied Moldova in the west. read more

That would cut off the entire coastline of Ukraine and mean Russian forces would push hundreds of miles west beyond current lines, past the major Ukrainian coastal cities of Mykolaiv and Odessa.

The statement was one of the most detailed on Moscow’s ambitions in Ukraine and suggests that Russia does not plan to reduce its offensive there anytime soon.

On Twitter, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that Minnekayev’s comments showed that Russia was no longer hiding its intentions.

Moscow, he said, had “now recognized that the goal of the ‘second phase’ of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.”

Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine and rid its population of dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies call Russia’s February 24 invasion a war of unwarranted aggression.

Moldova’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Friday to express “deep concern” over the general’s comments. Moldova was neutral, he said. Moldova last month applied to join the European Union, charting a pro-Western course accelerated by Russia’s invasion.

US State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said Washington strongly supports Moldova’s sovereignty.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment when asked whether Russia had expanded the goals of its operation and how Moscow viewed the political future of southern Ukraine.

When US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington, Zelenskiy said the allies were finally delivering the weapons kyiv had asked for.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he had authorized another $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, including heavy artillery, ammunition and drones. Canada said on Friday that it had provided more heavy artillery to Ukraine. read more

A senior EU official said the next two weeks were likely to be decisive.

“We are likely to see a very significant increase in the intensity of Russian military strikes in the east (and on) the coast,” he told reporters.

Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had increased attacks along the front line in the east and were attempting an offensive in the Kharkiv region, north of their main target, the Donbas.

Ukrainian military commands in the south and east said they had repelled 11 Russian attacks, killing up to 130 soldiers and destroying 12 tanks and 27 other armored vehicles, details Reuters could not independently confirm.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had captured a large weapons depot in the Kharkiv region. It also reported hitting dozens of targets in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions on Friday.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region who has often described himself as Putin’s “foot soldier,” wrote on his official Telegram account late Friday that Chechnya was deploying hundreds of volunteers. extra to fight for Russia in the Ukraine.

In Geneva, the United Nations human rights office said there was mounting evidence of Russian war crimes, including indiscriminate bombing and summary executions. He said that Ukraine also appeared to have used weapons with indiscriminate effect.

Russia denies targeting civilians and says, without evidence, that signs of atrocities committed by its soldiers were faked. Ukraine has previously said it will punish any soldier found to have committed war crimes.

Russia said it had “securely blocked” thousands of Ukrainian troops holed up in a huge steel plant in Mariupol, Donbas’s main port, a day after President Vladimir Putin said the army would not bother to root them out.

Putin declared victory in the city after a nearly two-month siege. In a Russian-held section of Mariupol, dazed-looking residents ventured this week into a backdrop of charred apartment blocks and wrecked cars.

Volunteers in white hazmat suits and masks scoured the ruins, collecting bodies from apartments and loading them into a truck marked “Z,” symbolizing Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine estimates that tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Russia’s siege of the city and says 100,000 civilians are still there and in need of a full evacuation.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Friday that “there is a possibility” that a humanitarian corridor could open from Mariupol on Saturday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Moscow on Tuesday to meet Putin and urgently discuss peace in Ukraine, a spokesman said, adding that Guterres will then head to kyiv for talks with Zelenskiy.

Information from Maria Starkova in Lviv and other Reuters journalists; Written by David Brunnstrom and Kim Coghill; Edited by Rosalba O’Brien and William Mallard

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.