Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Russia is bringing its reserve forces from across the country closer to Ukraine to prepare for future advances, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. Meanwhile, Moscow says it has no plans to withdraw its troops from the occupied regions of southern Ukraine and that its troops will disperse Ukrainian forces throughout the Donbass region. “Russia is moving reserve forces from across the country and massing them near Ukraine for future offensive operations,” the UK Ministry of Defense tweeted on Saturday. “A large percentage of new infantry units are likely to be deployed with MT-LB armored vehicles taken from long-term storage as their primary transport.” Russia has long considered its tanks “unsuitable for most front-line infantry transport roles”, the ministry said, suggesting the Russians are facing equipment problems. “Despite President Putin’s claim on July 7, 2022 that the Russian military has ‘not even begun’ its efforts in Ukraine, many of its reinforcements are ad hoc teams, deployed with outdated or unsuitable equipment,” it said. Read more: US to send another $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. Russia slams the West at the G-20 But Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, and on Friday Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, said its troops had no plans to leave the southern coastal areas they have seized in recent months. These include Kherson, Mykolayiv and Zaporizhia regions, the latter of which is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are able to slow some of Russia’s advances using advanced precision weapons from the West, but more are still needed and troops need more time to learn how to use them, Oleksiy told Reuters Danilov of the National Security and Defense Council. an interview. Read more: Ukraine says Western weapons are making a difference, but more is needed The Biden administration is set to announce a $400 million security aid package for Ukraine, according to a senior Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to share new details about the aid package. The official said the latest security assistance will be a combination of systems already deployed in the race and new capabilities.
Moscow official jailed for anti-war comment
In an example of Russia’s tight grip on dissent, a Moscow city councilor was jailed on Friday for seven years for what authorities described as spreading “false information” about the war in Ukraine. A lawyer said this is the first time someone has been jailed under Russia’s law, established shortly after the start of its invasion of Ukraine, which criminalizes “intentionally spreading false information about the Russian military”. “Fake information” by Kremlin standards is anything that contradicts government reporting. Moscow city MP Alexei Gorinov, accused of spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian military fighting in Ukraine, stands with a poster reading “Do you still need this war?”. inside a glass cell during the verdict hearing in his trial at a court in Moscow on July 8, 2022. Kirill Kudryavtsev AFP | Getty Images The councilman, Alexei Gorinov, was discussing a children’s drawing competition at a local meeting that was filmed and later posted on YouTube, according to Reuters. He remarked, “what kind of children’s drawing competition can we talk about on Children’s Day … when we have children dying every day?” “They took away my spring, they took away my summer, and now they took away another seven years of my life,” Gorinov’s supporters said during his sentencing, Reuters reported. Read more: Moscow councilor sentenced to seven years in prison for anti-war comment
G-20 tensions
At the G-20 meeting in Indonesia, several foreign ministers called for an end to Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports that is choking off vital food exports to much of the world. In return, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western officials of “rabid Russophobia” and of focusing on criticism of Moscow rather than ways to deal with global economic issues. “There is only rabid Russophobia, which they are turning to instead of finding the much-needed common ground on key issues of the world economy and finance, for which the G-20 was created,” Lavrov said on Friday. “It is a direct provocation (from Ukraine), aimed at involving the West in military action,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference during his stay in Saudi Arabia. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia | Reuters Meanwhile, on Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, about Russian aggression during hours of talks in their first face-to-face meeting since October. Read more: More Russian men are trying to avoid military service, some lawyers and rights groups say Blinken said he expressed concern about Beijing’s “alignment” with Moscow. “I shared again with the state counselor that we are concerned about the DPRK’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken said, adding that China had “reinforced Russian propaganda.” While China says it opposes bloodshed and wants to see an end to the conflict in Ukraine, its media has largely blamed NATO and the US for the war and refused to follow Western sanctions on Russia. Beijing had announced “borderless” cooperation with Moscow just weeks before its invasion of Ukraine. —CNBC’s Amanda Macias and Reuters contributed to this report.
