Russia threatens broad Ukraine offensive as US presses China over war stance

Kyiv, July 10

Ukrainian defenders battled on Saturday to contain Russian forces along several fronts, officials said, as the United States urged China to align itself with the West in opposing the invasion following an ill-tempered G-20 meeting.

A missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians, its governor said, though Russia’s main attacks appeared focused southeast of there in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Those two provinces, parts of which were held by pro-Russian separatists before the conflict began in February, comprise the eastern industrial region of the Donbas.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes in both on Saturday, while Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Moscow was assembling reserve forces from across Russia near Ukraine.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Telegram that Russian forces were “firing along the entire front line”, though a subsequent Ukrainian counter-attack had forced Moscow to halt its offensive.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian army had targeted civilians on purpose.

“It fired precisely at the residential sector – absolutely deliberately, purposefully, at ordinary houses and civilian objects,” he said in a statement.

Russia, which claimed control over all of Luhansk province last weekend, denies targeting civilians.

Zelenskyy dismissed several of Kyiv’s senior envoys abroad, saying it was part of “normal diplomatic practice”. He said he would appoint new ambassadors to Germany, India, the Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary.

Zelenskiy has urged his diplomats to drum up international support and high-end weapons to slow Russia’s advance.

US President Joe Biden signed a weapons package for Ukraine on Friday worth up to $400 million, including four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems.

Ukraine suffered a diplomatic setback on Saturday, when Canada said it would return a repaired turbine that Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom used to supply natural gas to Germany. Ukraine had argued that a return would violate sanctions on Russia.

China-US frictions

On Saturday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the international community to join forces to condemn Russian aggression, told journalists he had raised concerns with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow.

The pair held over five hours of talks on the sidelines of the G-20 gathering of foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali. On Friday, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov had walked out of a meeting there, denouncing the West for “frenzied criticism”.

Sanctions plea

Following Friday’s G-20 exchanges, President Vladimir Putin also signalled that the Kremlin was in no mood for compromise, saying sanctions against Russia risked causing “catastrophic” energy price rises.