WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Biden, Scholz vow to punish Russia for war in Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed on Friday to keep imposing costs on Russia for its war in Ukraine, now in its second year, as an EU official said any arms provided by China to Russia would trigger sanctions.

Biden and Scholz met in private in the Oval Office for over an hour, a senior administration official said. Their discussion focused on the importance of continued "global solidarity" with the people of Ukraine, and ongoing efforts to provide security, humanitarian, economic, and political assistance to Ukraine.

Sitting next to Scholz in the Oval Office, Biden thanked the German leader for his "strong and steady leadership" and support for Ukraine. Scholz said it was important to demonstrate that the allies would back Kyiv "as long as it takes and as long as is necessary."

Speaking before the meeting, U.S. officials said discussion points included the state of the war and how to respond if China provided military aid to Russia.

Scholz's brief one-day trip - there were no other meetings on his agenda - was his second to the White House since taking office in December 2021. Biden's national security adviser also met one-on-one with his German counterpart.

Washington has begun consulting with allies about imposing possible sanctionson China should Beijing provide military support to Russia for its war in Ukraine, Reuters reported this week, citing U.S. officials and other sources.

Washington has said in recent weeks that China was considering providing weapons to Russia, although U.S. officials have not provided evidence or said that such supplies have started. Beijing has denied any intention to arm Russia.

"We haven't yet seen China do anything yet, as it relates to lethal weapons," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters before the meeting. "Every step China takes toward Russia makes it harder for China with Europe and other countries around the world."

A senior European Union official told a separate briefing that it would be an "absolute red line" if China provided weapons to Russia, and the EU would respond with sanctions.

Germany has typically taken a much less hawkish stance than the U.S. on China, its top trading partner, but Scholz also sent a strong warning to China on Thursday not to provide weapons to Moscow and appealed to Beijing to pressure Russia to pull back its forces, a speech noted and welcomed by U.S. officials.

Biden hailed Scholz's decision to sharply increase Germany's military spending and diversify energy sources away from Russia, and said the two leaders had worked in lockstep with other allies to support Ukraine. U.S. officials said Ukraine was bracing for a new Russian offensive in coming weeks.

"As NATO allies, we're making the alliance stronger," Biden said, as the United States announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $400 million that includes ammunition and tactical bridges to move tanks and armored vehicles.

The EU official said one major trade irritant - a dispute over U.S. subsidies for green technologies under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that German and EU officials worry would disadvantage their companies - could soon be addressed.

The official said U.S. and European officials were working on a high-level agreement that would make European minerals eligible for U.S. tax credits, with an announcement possible as early as next Friday when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visits the White House.

Critics say the IRA was a slap in the face to Europe from its biggest ally at a time when Europe was already struggling with sharply higher energy prices due to the Ukraine war.

** Russia close to encircling Ukraine's Bakhmut after months of fighting

Russian troops and mercenaries rained artillery on the last access routes to the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Friday, bringing Moscow closer to its first major victory in half a year after the bloodiest fighting of the war.

Head of Russia's Wagner private army said the city, which has been blasted to ruins in Russia's more than seven month onslaught, was almost completely surrounded with only one road still open for Ukraine's troops.

Reuters observed intense Russian shelling of routes leading west out of Bakhmut, an apparent attempt to block Ukrainian forces' access in and out of the city. A bridge in the adjacent town of Khromove was damaged by Russian tank shelling.

Ukrainian soldiers were working to repair damaged roads and more troops were heading toward the frontline in a sign that Ukraine was not yet ready to give up the city. To the west, Ukrainians were digging new trenches for defensive positions.

Russia's RIA state news agency released a video showing what it said were Wagner fighters walking by a damaged industrial facility. One fighter is heard saying Ukraine's army is destroying infrastructure in settlements near Bakhmut to prevent the Russian encirclement.

The commander of Ukraine's ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, visited Bakhmut on Friday for briefings with local commanders on how to boost the defence capacity of frontline forces.

A Russian victory in Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of about 70,000, would give it the first major prize of a costly winter offensive, after it called up hundreds of thousands of reservists last year. Russia says it would be a stepping stone to capturing the surrounding Donbas industrial region, an important war aim.

Before the war Bakhmut was known for salt and gypsum mines. Ukraine says the city has little strategic value but that huge losses of troops there could shape the course of the conflict.

'PINCERS ARE CLOSING'

"Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut," Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video that Reuters determined was filmed on a rooftop in a village some 7 km (4 miles) north of the city centre.

"Only one route (out) is left," he said. "The pincers are closing."

He called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to order a retreat from Bakhmut to save his soldiers' lives. The camera panned to show three captured Ukrainians - a grey-bearded older man and two boys - asking to be allowed to go home.

Robert Brovdi, the commander of a Ukrainian drone unit active in Bakhmut who goes by the name "Madyar", said in a video posted on social media that his unit had been ordered to withdraw immediately. He said he had been fighting there for 110 days.

Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio the situation was "critical", with fighting "round the clock".

"They take no account of their losses in trying to take the city by assault. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible. Every metre of Ukrainian land costs hundreds of lives to the enemy," he said.

"There are many more Russians here than we have ammunition to destroy them."

MORE U.S. ARMS

The past few days have seen alarm in Russia at its own potential vulnerabilities after Moscow reported a number of drone attacks on targets deep within Russia, followed by what it said was an armed cross-border raid on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council on Friday to step up "anti-terrorism measures".

Meanwhile, Zelenskiy visited wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Lviv. One, shaking the president's hand from bed, apologised that he could not stand up. "That's OK," Zelenskiy said. "The time will come and you will rise."

Zelenskiy gave no details of the fighting in Bakhmut during an evening video address in which he thanked troops for "firmly and bravely" defending the city.

Denys Yaroslavskyi, commander of a Ukrainian army unit at Bakhmut, told Espresso TV that parts of some units had been ordered to rotate to more secured positions, describing the situation since the morning as "a slaughterhouse on both sides."

Ukrainian forces risked being encircled, Ukraine military expert Oleh Zhdanov said in a YouTube commentary.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another round of military aid for Ukraine, a package of ammunition and other support valued at $400 million.

The United States has provided nearly $32 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

At the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden thanked visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for "profound" support on Ukraine. Scholz said it was important to send the message that backing Ukraine will continue "as long as it takes and as long as is necessary."

After their meeting, the White House said the pair reiterated their commitment to impose costs on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Germany makes Leopard tanks promised in January and expected to be the core of a new Ukrainian armoured force.

Scholz has been criticised by some Western allies for taking a cautious public stance toward arming Ukraine, although he has overseen a big shift in policy from a country that was Russia's biggest energy customer before the war.

Kyiv's ambassador in Berlin, Oleksii Makeiev, said Germany was now taking more of a leadership role in arming Ukraine.

Moscow, which says it has annexed nearly a fifth of Ukraine, accuses pro-Western Kyiv of posing a security threat. Ukraine and its allies say the invasion was an unprovoked war of conquest.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pointing to U.S. military interventions around the globe, accused the United States of hypocrisy on Friday after Blinken said Moscow cannot be allowed to wage war in Ukraine with impunity. The two men met briefly on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers meeting in India.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Americans arrested for allegedly helping Russia

Two US citizens have been arrested on charges of smuggling sophisticated aviation equipment to Russia, violating licensing requirements for sensitive technologies even as Washington was tightening export restrictions amid the Ukraine conflict.

Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 59, and Douglas Robertson, 55, are accused of conspiring to violate export laws by concealing and misstating the value, destinations, and end users of the avionics gear that they sold through a firm called KanRus Trading Co., the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday. The two men, who are both residents of Kansas, also allegedly provided unlicensed repair services for Russian aircraft electronics, including a computer processor bearing a sticker from Moscow’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

The allegations stretch back to at least 2020 and typically involved relaying packages through third-party countries. For instance, prosecutors said, Buyanovsky and Robertson concealed the recipient of the FSB-badged processor by providing a fraudulent invoice falsely indicating that its end destination was Germany.

A few days after Moscow began its military operation against Ukraine last February, a KanRus shipment to Russia was detained. The US Department of Commerce informed the exporter that a license was required for such technology. Last April, Robertson told one of his Russian customers that “things are complicated in the USA,” and that “this is not the right time [for more paperwork and visibility],” the DOJ claimed. During the following three months, the two men allegedly transshipped avionics to Russia through Armenia and Cyprus.

The two men are charged with conspiracy, exporting controlled goods without a license, falsifying export information, and smuggling goods contrary to US law. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of violating controlled goods licensing requirements, as well as ten years for each count of smuggling and five years for conspiracy and falsifying export information.

The KanRus investigation was coordinated through the DOJ’s KleptoCapture task force, which was formed to enforce the sanctions, export controls, and economic countermeasures that the US imposed to punish Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

** Aircraft downed above Yenakiyevo in DPR, mayor says

An aircraft has been downed over Yenakiyevo in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Mayor Roman Khramenkov reported on Friday.

"An aircraft has been downed over the city. Everybody, clear the streets. We are looking into the incident," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Khramenkov also posted a photo showing black smoke billowing near the crash site.

Both pilots have successfully ejected, but there is no understanding yet as to the origin of the aircraft, the official added.

According to him, there are no casualties on the ground, as the plane fell on farm fields.

Yenakiyevo is located in the east of the DPR. It has been under the DPR’s control since 2014 and the fighting in Donbass never affected it.

Reuters/RT/TASS