The Telegraph
Ukraine morning briefing: Five developments as Russia warns NATO not to ‘push us into the corner’
Our Foreign Staff – March 28, 2022
Good morning. Another round of talks aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine is scheduled for today as the fighting continues on the ground, with the two sides trading control of a town in the east and a suburb of the capital.
Ukrainian forces retook Irpin, north-west of Kyiv, from Russian troops, who were regrouping to take the area back, President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Monday as he sought to rally the country.
1. Don’t push us into a corner, Kremlin tells NATO
The Kremlin on Monday night warned NATO not to “push us into a corner” and said Russia felt it was “amongst war” with the West due to severe sanctions.
Referencing Russia’s tension with NATO, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, told the US broadcaster PBS: “For a couple of decades, we were telling the collective West that we are afraid of your NATO’s moving eastwards. We too are afraid of NATO getting closer to our borders with its military infrastructure.
“Please take care of that. Don’t push us into the corner. No.”
2. Abramovich poison claims ‘very concerning’
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has described the claims that Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich suffered suspected poisoning during attempts to aid peace talks in Ukraine as “very concerning”.
The office said the UK would “continue to assist” by imposing tough sanctions on Russia, as well as providing defensive and humanitarian support so Ukraine can be “in the strongest possible negotiating position”.
British defence intelligence analysts have warned more than 1,000 Russian mercenaries are expected to deploy to eastern Ukraine to undertake combat operations.
3. Zelensky demands urgent sanctions
Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Western nations to toughen sanctions quickly against Russia, including an oil embargo, to stop Moscow having a free hand to escalate its measures against his country.
In his nightly video address to Ukrainians, a clearly irritated Mr Zelensky said the West had miscalculated last year in delaying sanctions and the invasion had followed.
“A full-scale war has begun. Now there are many hints and warnings that supposedly tougher sanctions, such as an embargo on Russian oil supplies to Europe, will be put in place if Russia uses chemical weapons,” Ukraine’s president said, occasionally banging his hands on a table.
“There are simply no words… We, people who are alive, have to wait. Doesn’t everything the Russia military has done to date warrant an oil embargo? Don’t phosphorous bombs warrant it? A shelled chemical production facility or a shelled nuclear power plant doesn’t warrant it?”
4. Amnesty accuses Russia of war crimes
Amnesty International has accused Russia of committing war crimes in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
The human rights organisation will soon release an in-depth report on the devastation caused by Russia’s assault on the city on the Sea of Azov, Amnesty’s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a press conference in Johannesburg.
“The siege of Mariupol, the denial of humanitarian evacuation and humanitarian escape for the population, and the targeting of civilians, according to Amnesty International’s investigation, amounts to war crimes,” said Ms Callamard.
“That is the reality of Ukraine right now.”
Ms Callamard said “the crisis in Ukraine right now, the invasion… is not just any kind of violation of international law. It is an aggression. It is a violation of the UN charter of the kind that we saw when the US invaded Iraq.”
5. Biden defends calling for Putin’s removal
Joe Biden said he made “no apologies” for calling for Vladimir Putin’s removal, but claimed he was expressing his “personal feelings” not a new US policy as he defended his off-the-cuff remark.
White House officials scrambled into damage control mode after Mr Biden sparked an international backlash by stating that Mr Putin “cannot remain in power” during a major speech in Europe on Saturday.
The US president defended the remarks during a terse press conference at the White House on Monday.
“I’m not walking anything back. I was expressing the moral outrage I felt to the way Putin is dealing, and the actions of this man, just the brutality of it,” he said.