DNIPRO, Ukraine — Tensions rose Tuesday over Russia’s threats against Lithuania, a NATO member that has moved to enforce Western sanctions against Moscow. At the same time, Ukraine’s president said the Kremlin was “very nervous” over gathering momentum for his country’s bid to eventually join the European Union.
The increasing diplomatic friction comes as U.S Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Ukraine to discuss helping the country prosecute Russians involved in atrocities and war crimes. The visit came against a backdrop of intense fighting for a pair of strategic cities in eastern Ukraine, a bloody war of attrition in which Russian forces are trying to wear down outgunned Ukrainian troops with unrelenting artillery barrages.
Western countries including the United States are sending Ukraine more heavy weaponry to try to counter Moscow’s military superiority in the battle for the country’s industrial heartland, but Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for additional armaments.
In his latest overnight address to compatriots, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Russian forces’ “brutal offensive” in the region, known as the Donbas. He acknowledged difficult fighting as Moscow presses its advance on the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river.
Ukrainian defenders of Severodonetsk are concentrated in a besieged industrial complex, where civilians are sheltering as well under sustained Russian shellfire.
Around Lysychansk, there were signs that the Ukrainian defenses were crumbling. A Ukrainian commander, who asked his name not be used so he could speak freely, described a Russian advance in Toshkivka, a village on the city’s southern edge. He said his battalion was forced to withdraw after losing too many fighters.
“Lysychansk is almost surrounded,” the commander said. “There aren’t enough forces or weapons. For every shot of ours, the Russians respond with 20.”
Reverberations from Russia’s nearly 4-month-old invasion of Ukraine, meanwhile, continued to be felt worldwide, including looming food shortages caused by Ukraine’s inability to ship grain from ports blockaded by Russia on the Black Sea, and a fuel crunch in Europe triggered by Moscow’s reduction of natural gas supplies. The Kremlin blames both crises on the West.
Although Russian warships make it impossible for commercial shipping traffic to reach Ukrainian ports, Ukraine has staged attacks challenging Moscow’s maritime superiority in the Black Sea. British military intelligence said Tuesday that Ukraine’s claim last week to have successfully attacked a Russian naval tug with Harpoon anti-ship missiles was “almost certainly” accurate.
NATO has refrained from direct confrontation with Russia while supporting Ukraine. But a potential flashpoint has emerged in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders alliance member Lithuania, a Baltic state that is accustomed to threats from Moscow.
Russia‘s security chief on Tuesday threatened “significant negative consequences” over Lithuania’s refusal to allow land transit of some goods to the tiny patch of Russian territory. The remarks by Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, came on a visit to Kaliningrad and were reported by the RIA-Novosti news agency.
Also Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the European Union’s envoy to Russia to press the issue, according to news reports. The ministry had already summoned Lithuania’s top diplomat to demand the reversal of what it called the “openly hostile” moves.
The government in Vilnius says the partial blockages are in line with European Union sanctions. Kaliningrad remains accessible by sea.
This is not the first time in the course of the war that Moscow has menaced NATO members on the alliance’s eastern flank, raising fears of a wider confrontation. It has previously aimed harsh rhetoric at Poland, which has been instrumental in shipping weaponry to Ukraine, and has taken in the largest number of Ukrainian refugees.
As fighting in the east grows fiercer, Zelenskyy said Russia’s offensive against Severodonetsk and other eastern areas was intensifying in part because of Moscow’s fears that Ukraine is advancing in its aspirations to join the EU. Although the process will likely take years, EU meetings later this week are expected to yield formal support for creating a path for Ukrainian membership in the bloc.
“Russia is very nervous about our activity,” Zelenskyy said.
In his overnight address, the president also extended thanks to Hollywood actor-director Ben Stiller, with whom he met on Monday.
Stiller, who has most recently garnered critical acclaim for the streaming TV series “Severance,” is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency. As part of a visit to the region, he met with refugees and officials, including U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink, and visited a Kyiv suburb devastated during a Russian occupation early in the war.
“I am grateful to Ben for his constant attention to the needs of Ukrainians,” said Zelenskyy, who shares with Stiller a background as a comic actor. Stiller in turn described the Ukrainian leader as his “hero.”
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(Bulos reported from Dnipro and King from Washington.)
