The British government will introduce new legisla-tion this week to broaden the scope of sanctions it can apply to Russia in an effort to deter aggression towards Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said.
“Any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia would be able to be targeted so there will be nowhere to hide for Putin’s oligarchs, for Russian companies involved in propping up the Russian state,” she said on Sunday.
Tensions have soared as Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops near the Ukrainian border.
Russia said on Sunday it wants “mutually respect-ful” relations with the United States and denied posing a threat to Ukraine, but accused NATO of wanting to “drag” Ukraine into the alliance. NATO’s chief said the alliance has no plans to de-ploy combat troops to Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion.
Basic military training for Kyiv volunteers
Members of Ukraine’s far right movement Azov together with the National Corp held military train-ing for volunteers in Kyiv to teach them self-defence in case of an attack from Russia.
Training under the slogan “Do not panic, get ready!” was held at the outskirts of Kyiv where hundreds of volunteers had showed up.
The training involved tactical maneuvers, as well as basic instructions on how to hold a weapon.
Head of Azov battalion Maxim Zhorin told The Associated Press the group was holding training because of the “absolute ineffective actions” of Ukraine’s government.
1 hour ago (14:34 GMT)
Russia demonstrates new fighters in Kaliningrad
sukhoi su-35 jetsSukhoi Su-35 multi-role fighters of the Sokoly Rossii (Falcons of Russia) aerobatic team fly in formation during a demonstration flight at the MAKS 2017 air show in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, Russia in 2017 [File: Sergei Kar-pukhin/Reuters]
Amid tensions with Ukraine and NATO, Russia has launched military drills across multiple fronts, the latest being in the Kaliningrad region.
Russian state TV showed the country’s new Sukhoi SU-30SM2 fighter jets being deployed to the region.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the new multi-purpose fighters have more modern en-gines and radars compared to previous SU-30 mod-els, and could also bear an extended arsenal of air-to air and ground-to-air weapons.
Speaking to Russian media, Oleg Shevchenko, the head of flight security service at the air base, said the true potential of these fighter jets was still “to be discovered”.—Agencies
