Russia tells Ukraine to accept real situation

Moscow, May 26 (AP) The Kremlin says it expects Ukraine to recognise the existing situation and accept Moscow's demands.

Asked on Thursday if Russia expects Ukraine to make territorial concessions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow expects the acceptance of its demands and the understanding of the real situation that exists de-facto .

Russia has previously demanded that Ukraine recognise the Russian sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and acknowledge the independence of Russia-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

During the talks in March, Ukrainian officials said that the status of Crimea and the separatist regions could be discussed later, but in recent weeks they have toughened their stand and said that Russian troops should pull back to areas where they were before Moscow launched a military action in Ukraine on February 24.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Peskov said that Kyiv must acknowledge the de-facto situation and just have a sober assessment of it .

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

DAVOS: Slovakia Prime Minister Eduard Heger has warned that Russia that will go further and his country could be next if Ukraine fails to win the war.

Heger was speaking to Sky News at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Slovakia, a member of the European Union and NATO, borders Ukraine

We need to support Ukraine because if they fail, then it's going to threaten us, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Heger said.

He said Russia going beyond Ukrainian borders is the fear .

But at this moment I'm glad what kind of bravery the Ukrainian people show, how much they are able to defend their country.

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SARAJEVO: British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to hold the world to ransom by demanding that some sanctions be lifted before Russia allowed Ukrainian grain shipments to resume.

He's essentially weaponised hunger and lack of food among the poorest people around the world, Truss said during a visit on Thursday to the Bosnia. We simply cannot allow this to happen.

Truss vows that will do all, with our allies and partners, to get the grain out of Ukraine and supply the rest of the world".

But she says that the sanctions must stay in place to cut off funding for the war in Ukraine.

We need to ensure Putin loses in Ukraine, Truss says. "What we cannot have is any lifting of sanctions, any appeasement, which will simply make Putin stronger in the longer term.

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MOSCOW: The Kremlin says that the West needs to lift some of its sanctions against Russia for grain shipments from Ukraine to resume.

Western allies have accused Russia of blocking grain exports from Ukraine in a move that is exacerbating food shortages in Africa and other regions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said we categorically reject the accusations and accuse Western countries of taking a series of unlawful actions that has led to the blockade .

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, he added that the West, in particular, must cancel the unlawful decisions that hamper chartering ships and exporting grain .

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VIENNA: A US diplomat based in Vienna has condemned the sheer barbarity, sadistic cruelty, and lawlessness of Russia's war in Ukraine.

US Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter was speaking on Thursday, three months after Russia launched its invasion.

I think we all know what would happen if Russia were to achieve success' in Ukraine, Carpenter said in a speech to the Permanent Council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russian diplomats know it too, he said. There would be more horrific reports from filtration camps, more forcibly displaced people, more summary executions, more torture, more rape, and more looting.

Carpenter called on OSCE member countries to provide Ukraine with the support it needs right now to defend itself against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's revanchist delusions .

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MOSCOW: The Russian military says it has destroyed a large Ukrainian unit with equipment at a railway station in the east.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov on Thursday said the Russian warplanes hit the railway station in Pokrovsk when an assault brigade that arrived to reinforce the Ukrainian forces in the region was unloading there.

Konashenkov also said that the Russian military destroyed Ukraine's electronic intelligence centre in Dniprovske in the southern Mykolaiv region, killing 11 Ukrainian soldiers and 15 foreign experts. His claims couldn't be independently confirmed.

Konashenkov stated that the Russian air force has struck 48 troops and weapons concentrations and two ammunition depots over the past 24 hours.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian artillery hit over 500 Ukrainian targets, including troops concentrations and artillery positions, he said.

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The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said on Thursday that the Russian forces have continued attempts to press their offensive in several sections of the frontline in the east and also launched missile and air strikes at infrastructure facilities across the country.

Rodion Miroshnik, a representative of the separatist Luhansk region in Russia, said that about 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers are currently in captivity in the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions and their number is growing daily by the hundreds .

His claims couldn't be independently verified.

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LONDON: Britain's military says Russia has suffered substantial losses among its elite units because of complacency among commanders and failure to anticipate strong Ukrainian resistance.

The UK Ministry of Defence says the airbone VDV has been involved in several notable tactical failures since the February 24 invasion, including the attempt to capture and hold Hostomel Airfield near Kyiv early in the war and failed attempts to cross the Siverskyi Donets River in eastern Ukraine.

In its daily intelligence update, the defence ministry said the VDV had been sent on missions better suited to heavier armoured infantry and has sustained heavy casualties during the campaign. Its mixed performance likely reflects a strategic mismanagement of this capability and Russia's failure to secure air superiority .

It said the failure to anticipate Ukrainian resistance and the subsequent complacency of Russian commanders has led to significant losses across many of Russia's more elite units .

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MOSCOW: The Russian Central Bank has cut its key interest rate to 11 per cent from 14 per cent, citing a slowdown in inflation.

It is the third three-point cut since the Central Bank hiked the rate to 20 per cent in late February after Russian forces entered Ukraine.

It said inflation had been at 17.8 per cent in April, but slowed slightly to 17.5 per cent as of an estimate May 20.

External conditions for the Russian economy are still challenging, considerably constraining economic activity, the Central Bank said in a statement.

Financial stability risks decreased somewhat, enabling a relaxation of some capital control measures.

The Central Bank's next meeting to review the rate is June 10.

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The Russian Defence Ministry is promising to open a safe corridor to allow foreign ships to leave Black Sea ports. A separate corridor will be open to allow ships to leave Mariupol by sailing from the port on the Sea of Azov port to the Black Sea.

Mikhail Mizintsev, who heads the National Defence Control Centre under the General Staff, said 70 foreign vessels from 16 countries are now in six ports on the Black Sea including Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv.

Mizintsev, whose comments at a briefing in Moscow on Wednesday were reported by the Interfax news agency, said the corridors would be open every day.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Russia military said Mariupol's port was functioning again after three months of fighting. The Defence Ministry spokesman said the military first had to clear the port of mines.

The Russian military, which maintains a naval fleet in the Black Sea, has effectively blocked commercial shipping at Ukrainian ports.

The blockade has endangered the world food supply by preventing Ukraine from shipping its agricultural products. Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.

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UNITED NATIONS: The International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday said it has been able to give answers to 300 families in Russia and Ukraine about the fate of their loved ones.

ICRC Director-General Robert Mardini told reporters that the organisation's work trying to clarify the fate of missing persons is very much on track .

He did not disclose the fate of the 300 Russians and Ukrainians, saying only that their families had provided very concrete questions about their loved ones.

Mardini said some progress has also been made on the right of the ICRC to visit prisoners of war, which is part of the Geneva conventions.

There is agreement on both sides on this right, which is good news , Mardini said, but the major obstacle in the ICRC carrying out visits is the war itself and the logistical constraints.

Mardini said the ICRC registered all the Ukrainian fighters that held out until last week at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol before they were taken to Russian-controlled territory. Russia said there were 2,439 Ukrainian fighters.

Registering prisoners of war or detainees amounts to nothing short of a life insurance, Mardini said.