Antonio Guterres toured Borodyanka on Thursday, where Russian forces are accused of slaughtering civilians before leaving, on his first visit to Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24, before talks with President Volodymyr Zellen. “I imagine my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black,” said the UN secretary-general, who has been criticized for visiting Ukraine only after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in Moscow. . “I see my granddaughters running in panic,” Guterres said. “War is an absurdity in the 21st century. War is bad. “There is no way a war in the 21st century can be accepted.” Guterres was accompanied by local military and civilian governors who showed him apartment buildings that had been destroyed in Russian attacks. He was also scheduled to visit the cities of Bucha and Irpin, sites of further alleged Russian war crimes. Map of Ukraine Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov warned on Thursday that an increased supply of heavy weapons from the West to Kyiv – as British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urged on Wednesday – would jeopardize European security. “The tendency to raise arms, including heavy weapons, in Ukraine, these are actions that threaten the security of the continent, cause instability,” Peshkov said in response to Troy’s call on Kiev’s allies to “increase” military production. , including tanks. and planes to help Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also warned the West on Thursday to stop encouraging Ukraine to hit targets inside Russian territory, saying it was “testing our patience.” Multiple targets, including fuel depots and ammunition, have been hit in Russian provinces bordering Ukraine in recent days. “Such aggression against Russia cannot go unanswered,” Zakharova said. “We want Kyiv and the Western capitals to take seriously the statement that the further provocation that will push Ukraine to strike at Russian facilities will be met with a harsh response from Russia.” Zakharova added that Western envoys to Ukraine would not be invulnerable to Russian retaliatory attacks, saying “advisers from Western countries” in Ukraine “would not necessarily be a problem for Russia’s response”. A senior aide to Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podolyak has defended Ukraine’s right to strike inside Russia, saying: “Ukraine will defend itself in any way, including strikes on the warehouses and bases of assassins in Russia. “People recognize this right.” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also reiterated on Thursday that the United Kingdom’s claim that it was “legal under international law” for Ukrainian forces to target Russian military infrastructure, but said such attacks were unlikely to be used by Britain. He also denied that NATO was embroiled in a “proxy war” with Russia, but said the West would provide increased support to Ukraine if Russian attacks continued. “Sometimes this will involve planes and tanks,” he said, adding that he expected Putin, “having failed in almost all of his goals,” to dig “like a cancerous growth.” The German parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a report supporting the delivery of weapons, including heavy weapons, to Ukraine to help it repel Russian attacks. As Russia’s attack on Ukraine, now in its 10th week, continues to radically reshape security and economic ties across Europe, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that non-aligned Finland and Sweden would be welcome in the alliance. “It’s, of course, up to Finland and Sweden to decide whether or not they want to apply for NATO membership,” Stoltenberg said on Thursday. “But if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be accepted with open arms.” The Scandinavian media reported this week that the two countries, which are discussing NATO membership, agreed to submit simultaneous applications to the US-led alliance in mid-May. Moscow has said it will force it to strengthen its defenses in the Baltic, including nuclear weapons, to “restore balance”. As Russia intensifies its military offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, its economic battle with the West threatens to cut off gas supplies to Europe. In retaliation for Western sanctions, Moscow cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday for refusing to pay for supplies in rubles, a move that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called ” blackmail “. Zelensky reiterated the term in an overnight national speech, saying Moscow’s “European energy blackmail” showed that it considered “not just gas, but any trade as a weapon” and that “no one in Europe can hope to maintain any normal economic cooperation with Russia “. . The Financial Times, however, reported that some of Europe’s largest gas importers in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia were preparing to pay for their ruble supplies through accounts with Russia’s Gazprombank. The Commission has warned that this would undermine EU sanctions and jeopardize the unity of the bloc.
