Russian minister says access to Ukrainian Black Sea ports linked to sanctions; Ukrainian PM compares Donbas to hell.
Unknown Russian perpetrators have conducted a series of Molotov cocktail attacks on military commissariats throughout the country this month, likely in protest of covert mobilisation, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest assessment of the conflict.
Russian media and local Telegram channels reported deliberate acts of arson against military commissariats in three Moscow Oblast settlements – Omsk, Volgograd, Ryazan Oblast, and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District between May 4 and May 18. Ukrainian General Staff main operations deputy chief Oleksiy Gromov said that there were at least 12 cases of deliberate arson against military commissariats in total and five last week. Russian officials caught two 16-year-olds in the act in one Moscow Oblast settlement, which suggests that Russian citizens are likely responsible for the attacks on military commissariats.
There have been many reports of poor morale within Russian forces since the start of the war with some reportedly abandoning their equipment and fleeing the battlefield and others refusing to fight at all or even launching legal action against their deployment to Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and now senior security official, says the west should not expect Russia to continue food supplies if it slaps Moscow with devastating sanctions over Ukraine.
“Our country is ready to fulfil its obligations in full. But it also expects assistance from trading partners, including on international platforms,” Medvedev said on messaging app Telegram on Thursday according to AFP.
“Otherwise, there’s no logic: on the one hand, insane sanctions are being imposed against us, on the other hand, they are demanding food supplies. Things don’t work like that, we’re not idiots,” said Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s security council.
“Countries importing our wheat and other food products will have a very difficult time without supplies from Russia. And on European and other fields, without our fertilisers, only juicy weeds will grow,” added Medvedev, who served as president between 2008 and 2012.
“We have every opportunity to ensure that other countries have food, and food crises do not happen. Just don’t interfere with our work.”
Russia and Ukraine alone produce 30% of the global wheat supply.
Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and a barrage of unprecedented international sanctions on Russia have disrupted supplies of fertiliser, wheat and other commodities from both countries, pushing up prices for food and fuel, especially in developing nations.
The UN has called on Russia to allow exports of Ukrainian grain that is held up in Black Sea ports.