Longer-range rockets to escalate Ukraine conflict
The Kremlin said yesterday that longer-range rockets reportedly included in an upcoming package of military aid from the United States to Ukraine would "escalate" the conflict but not change its course.
"This is a direct course to whipping up tension and to escalating the level (of fighting). But again, it won't change the course of events," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, responding to a question about potential US supplies of missiles with long-range capabilities.
Peskov also told reporters that there were no plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold talks with US President Joe Biden.
The US package of military aid, worth $2.2 billion, is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time, two US officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.
In Washington, the United States said Russia was violating the New START nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries. Biden's administration has been eager to preserve the treaty but ties with Moscow are the worst in decades due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Russia's refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control," a State Department spokesperson said.
In Ukraine, security services searched the home of one of the country's most prominent billionaires yesterday, moving against a figure once seen as President Volodymyr Zelensky's sponsor in what the authorities called a war-time anti-corruption purge.
The action, days before a summit with the European Union, appears to reflect determination by Kyiv to demonstrate that it can be a steward of billions of dollars in Western aid and shed a reputation as one of the world's most corrupt states.
Photographs circulating on social media appeared to show Ihor Kolomoiskiy dressed in a sweatsuit and looking on in the presence of an SBU security service officer at his home.
The SBU said it had uncovered the embezzlement of more than $1 billion at Ukraine's biggest oil company, Ukrnafta, and its biggest refiner, Ukrtatnafta. Kolomoiskiy, who has long denied wrongdoing, once held stakes in both firms, which Zelensky ordered seized by the state in November under martial law.
Separate raids were carried out at the tax office, and the home of Arsen Avakov, who led Ukraine's police force as interior minister from 2014-2021. The SBU said it was cracking down on "people whose actions harm the security of the state in various spheres" and promised more details in coming days.
In the battleground, Russian forces are making incremental gains in their push to take territory in Ukraine's eastern province of Donetsk, focusing on the town of Bakhmut north of the regional capital.
Bakhmut has suffered a relentless bombardment for months, as Russian forces resorted to the same destructive tactics they used to capture two cities further north - Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk - in June and July.
Russian forces on Tuesday made no headway in attempts to advance on Avdiivka, the second focal point of Russian attacks in Donetsk region, Kyiv's military general staff said.
Russian forces also tried to advance near Lyman, a town further north in Donetsk region that was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in October, the military said.
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