KRAMATORSK/KYIV — Attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power like Russia for the war in Ukraine, according to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, run the risk of endangering humanity as the nearly five-month conflict has left thousands homeless and left cities in ruins.
Since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was headed for nuclear war, when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, relations between Russia and the West have been at their worst.
President of the United States Joe Biden claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal who presided over the West’s decision to arm Ukraine and impose severe sanctions on Russia.
“It is absurd to punish a nation with one of the highest nuclear potentials. And possibly poses a threat to the survival of humanity,” said Medvedev, who is currently the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, on Wednesday.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia and the United States jointly hold about 4,000 nuclear warheads, controlling about 90% of the world’s total.
Using the murder of Native Americans, nuclear attacks on Japan, and a variety of wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, Medvedev painted the United States as an empire that had shed blood all over the world.
It would be pointless and potentially catastrophic to try to use courts or tribunals to look into Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Medvedev said. Russian forces, according to Ukraine and its Western allies, have committed war crimes.
Putin invaded Ukraine, describing it as a “special military operation,” to demilitarize the nation, remove what he deemed to be dangerous nationalists, and safeguard Russian speakers there.
According to Ukraine and its allies, Russia launched a land grab a la imperialism, which led to the worst conflict in Europe since World War Two.
Russia is currently waging an attrition war for Ukraine’s Donbas region, parts of which are controlled by Russian separatist proxies, after failing to seize the country’s capital Kyiv early.
Putin celebrated his biggest victory on Sunday when Ukrainian forces left the province of Luhansk. Then, Russian forces launched an offensive to seize the nearby province of Donetsk. The Donbas is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk.
For the benefit of separatists backed by Moscow in two self-declared people’s republics, Russia claims it wants to seize control of the eastern, heavily industrialized region.
LIGHT SHELLING
The pressure is increasing with heavy shelling on the city of Sloviansk and nearby populated areas, according to the Ukrainian military, which claimed on Wednesday that it had so far resisted any significant Russian advance into the north of Donetsk.
According to the report, heavy weaponry was being used by Russian forces to bombard a number of Ukrainian towns, allowing ground forces to move southward into the area and get closer to Sloviansk.
“The adversary is attempting to strengthen its tactical position…
After being repelled by our soldiers and retreating with casualties, they advanced, the Ukrainian military reported in an evening note.
Other Russian forces, it claimed, were attempting to take control of the main road connecting the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk as well as two towns on the way to Kramatorsk, south of Sloviansk.
According to Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk, “We are holding back the enemy on the (Luhansk/Donetsk) border.” Later, he claimed that Russia had suffered “colossal losses” and that Russian forces were still occupying only a portion of Luhansk.
They will keep trying to make progress toward Sloviansk and Bakhmut. That is beyond question,” he said.
In a video briefing, Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Lyakh stated that the city had been shelled for the previous two weeks.
He declared that things were tense and mentioned that 17 locals had died there since February 24.
According to Wednesday’s statement by the Russian defense ministry, the country uses high-precision weapons to neutralize military threats without targeting civilians.
Ukraine has pleaded with the West on numerous occasions to send more weapons to stop the invasion, which has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions of people, and leveled cities.
Finally, the Western artillery that we are receiving from our allies has begun to fire powerfully. In his nightly video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “And their accuracy is exactly what is needed.”
NO SAFE AREA
On Wednesday, a small group of civilians and a few Ukrainian soldiers carried out errands in green-painted cars and vans in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk, which Russian forces are anticipated to attempt to retake in the coming weeks. The population has largely dispersed.
“Almost nobody is there. Oleksandr, a 64-year-old retired metal worker, described it as “spooky.” Even though there had been an increase in missile strikes, he said he was unlikely to heed the government’s advice to evacuate.
I’m not looking for death, but if I do, I’d rather meet it at home, he declared.
Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, is experiencing “constant” longer-range Russian shelling outside of the Donbas, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov, who made the statement on Ukrainian TV.
He declared, “Russia is attempting to demoralize Kharkiv, but it won’t succeed.” Early in the conflict, Ukrainian defenders drove Russian armored forces far away from Kharkiv, where Terekhov estimated that 1 million people still lived.
Oleksandr Senkevych, the mayor of Mykolaiv, reported to a briefing that the port city had also been heavily shelled. The region was reportedly battered by missiles and shelling south of Kharkiv, according to the governor of Dnipropetrovsk.
Mykolaiv has no secure areas, he declared. I’m telling them to get out, I’m telling them.
