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KYIV (AP) — On Thursday, the European Union imposed a complete ban on Russian coal imports. This was at a moment when British intelligence stated that Western sanctions are having an increasing impact on Russia’s exports of defense products.
Britain stated that Moscow is already struggling to make armored fighting vehicle for its troops in Ukraine. It also said it was unlikely Moscow would be able to fulfill some export orders in this sector, which it had long been proud of.
The British defence intelligence update, which highlights “the increasing impact of Western sanctions,” is consistent with Western beliefs that the string of Western sanctions imposed against the Kremlin after the February 24 invasion in Ukraine have a growing effect on Russia’s economy.
The update stated that “its military industrial capability is now under considerable strain due to the war and sanctions and the credibility of many its weapon systems have been undermined by the association with Russian forces’ poor performance .”
Russia’s military credibility was put under greater pressure Wednesday, when Ukraine claimed that nine Russian warplanes had been destroyed in an explosion at an airbase located in Russian-controlled Crimea. This appeared to have been the result of a Ukrainian invasion.
Russia denies any aircraft was damaged by the blasts. Satellite photos showed that at least seven of the fighter aircraft at the base were destroyed and many others damaged.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace rejected Russian explanations for the blasts. He also dismissed a wayward cigarettes butt as “excuses .”
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” “If you look at both simultaneous explosions that were not far apart, along with some damage reported by Russian authorities, it is clear that this is not an event that can be caused by somebody smoking a pipe,” Wallace stated.
To put pressure on Russia further, Wallace announced Thursday that Britain would send additional multiple-launch rocket systems to Ukraine and guided missiles for the purpose of helping it to resist Russian invasion.
The new weapons are added to several rocket-launch system that Britain gave Ukraine earlier in the year. The new missiles are capable of hitting targets as far away as 80 km (50 mile with pinpoint accuracy, according to Britain.
Wallace said the bolstered military support shows the West “will stand shoulder-to-shoulder, providing defensive military aid to Ukraine to help them defend against Putin’s invasion,” Wallace said at a meeting of mostly northern European allies of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleskyy asked for additional assistance via videoconference.
” We need armament and munition to defend ourselves,” he stated. We can be sure .”
if Russia is stopped immediately.
Thursday marked the end of a lengthy phase in which an EU ban on Russian coal imports was being implemented. The 27-nation EU said it will affect about 25% of Russian coal exports and create a loss of about $8 billion a year. Although the EU has been trying to reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports, it is not able to ban them all.
Russia faces other problems as the war nears its half-year mark.
Russia is still suffering losses from its invasion in Ukraine. The Kremlin refused to declare a mobilization because it could prove to be unpopular with President Vladimir Putin. Instead, the Kremlin has used prisoners as a covert recruiting strategy to fill in the shortage of manpower.
This is also happening amid reports of hundreds Russian soldiers refusing to fight, and even trying to leave the military.
On the ground, in Ukraine, war was raging with repeated blasts from incoming shells.
Three persons were killed in Nikopol during the night, said Valentyn Reznichenko (the governor of Dnipropetrovsk), along with nine other victims in the shelling that damaged approximately 40 apartments buildings.
Nikopol lies about 50 km HTML3_ miles (downriver) from Zaporizhzhia. According to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor, 11 were murdered in the Donetsk area. Six of these victims were from Bakhmut. Russian forces see Bakhmut as a target in their eastward push.
The governor of Russia’s Kursk Region, Roman Starovoit said that the Ukrainian government had fired on two villages close to the Ukrainian border, Tetkino-Lezhachi and Popovo–Lezhachi. The extent and casualties of the attack were not immediately disclosed by Starovoit.
