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Leaders in West ‘must realise their responsibility to humanity’, claims Duma speaker Viacheslav Volodin
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A close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed that Washington and Brussels are “leading the world to a terrible war” with plans to send more weapons to Ukraine.
Adding to this week’s nuclear threats from ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, Duma speaker Viacheslav Volodin warned that Western plans to arm Kyiv with more powerful weapons “will lead to a global catastrophe” – describing arguments against using nuclear weapons “in local conflicts” as “untenable”.
“If Washington and Nato countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten, this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons,” claimed the ex-deputy PM.
Leaders in Washington, France, Berlin and other European parliaments “must realise their responsibility to humanity”, Mr Volodin claimed.
Following recent announcements on Patriot missile defence systems, Kyiv has urged its allies to “think faster”, as pressure piles on Germany to decide on whether to allow Nato partners to arm Kyiv with its main battle tank, the Leopard 2.
A close ally of Vladimir Putin has threatened that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine “will lead to a global catastrophe”, claiming that arguments against using weapons of mass destruction “in local conflicts” are untenable.
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, formerly a deputy prime minister and head of Mr Putin’s presidential administration, warned that US and Nato support of Ukraine was leading the world to a “terrible war”.
“If Washington and Nato countries supply weapons that will be used to strike civilian cities and attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten, this will lead to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons,” Mr Volodin said on Telegram.
“Arguments that the nuclear powers have not previously used weapons of mass destruction in local conflicts are untenable. Because these states did not face a situation where there was a threat to the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of the country.”
“Deliveries of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime will lead to a global catastrophe,” he added, claiming that politicians in the US, France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe “must realise their responsibility to humanity”.
Western allies pledged billions of pounds’ worth of weapons for Ukraine last week, although they failed to persuade Germany to lift a veto on providing Leopard 2 battle tanks, which are held by an array of Nato nations but whose transfer to Ukraine requires Berlin’s approval.
The Kremlin has denied dropping a rule permitting fathers of three to defer mobilisation in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Citing the deputy chair of Russia’s Human Rights Council, state Duma deputy Nina Ostanina claimed that the loophole in Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation drive last autumn had been closed, in comments echoed by the military commissar of Russia’s Zabaikalsky region, Yuri Shuvalov.
But a senior politician in Mr Putin’s ruling United Russia party, Andrei Turchak, denied that the rule had been scrapped, while Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was “not aware” of the rule’s cancellation.
Kyiv has repeatedly warned that Moscow plans to mobilise half a million more troops.
The United States is designating Russian paramilitary organisation, the Wagner Group, as an international crime organisation.
It means the US will be able to apply wider sanctions to the Wagner Group.
Ukrainian president Zelensky spoke in a video address on the Day of Unity.
He said: “If the struggle is not stopped, sooner or later a unified and independent state will be restored.
“If true unity is not attained, independence will be lost. We have always known about the first piece of wisdom. And on February 24, we proved that we had mastered the second.
“Every region is protecting each other. All of us no longer have strange cities, villages, or streets. Every city is a native city. Every village is a native village. Every street is a native street. Even if we have never been there in our life.”
Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine as he comes under pressure over claims that he involved the BBC chair Richard Sharp in talks that led to his securing an £800,000 line of credit while at No 10.
The former prime minister was seen walking in the surburbs of Kyiv on Sunday, despite warnings from senior military figures that he should stay away and stop “looking for publicity”.
Read the full story.
Senior Democrats, dismayed by a steady stream of startling disclosures, expressed criticism on Sunday of how President Joe Biden handled classified material after leaving office as vice president and disappointment that the White House has not been more forthcoming with the public.
Lawmakers who might have anticipated questions focusing on the debt limit or Ukraine aid when they were booked last week for the Sunday news shows found themselves quizzed about the latest development over the weekend in the document drama that has put Biden’s presidency on the defensive.
During a search Friday of Mr Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, the FBI found additional documents with classified markings and took possession of some of his handwritten notes, the president’s lawyer said Saturday.
Read more from reporters Ellen Knickmeyer and Seung Min Kim.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that future decisions on weapons deliveries will be made alongside allies, including the US.
He spoke on Sunday, under pressure to allow the shipment to Ukraine of tanks made in Germany.
Speaking at a conference, Scholz said weapons deliveries to Ukraine have so far been in coordination with western partners.
“We will do that in the future,” he said.
The Ukrainian government has shared a statement after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited.
They tweeted: “Friends like these are worth more than a squadron of tanks.
“We are glad to welcome Boris Johnson to Ukraine. A person who has been with the Ukrainian people since day one.”
French president, Emmanual Macron, said on Sunday that he won’t rule out sending Leclerc tanks over to Ukraine.
He said it’s a possibility as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
The French president was speaking at a summit with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
French president Emmanuel Macron (right) and German chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) spoke at a summit on Sunday
Conquering Kyiv “remains the main dream” in Vladimir Putin’s “fantasies,” the secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council has said.
Oleksii Danilov warned that Russia may try to intensify its attacks in the south and in the east and to cut supply channels of Western weapons. He described the Kremlin’s goal in the conflict as a “total and absolute genocide, a total war of destruction.”
“Moscow wants to completely destroy Ukraine as a historical phenomenon — its language, history, culture, carriers of Ukrainian identity,” Danilov wrote in a column published by Ukrainska Pravda.
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Ukrainian servicemen fire a shell from a 2A65 Msta-B howitzer towards Russian troops on the frontline in Zaporizhzhia
REUTERS
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