Ukrainian attack helicopters executed a low-flying pre-dawn raid on Russian territory yesterday, a Russian official said, eluding air defenses to strike a fuel depot and signalling Kyiv’s ability to broaden the field of the war.
Peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials resumed via video, but Moscow warned that the helicopter attack on the fuel depot in the town of Belgorod would hamper negotiations.
After over a month of a military campaign that has reduced parts of Ukraine to rubble, Moscow said in peace talks earlier this week it would scale back attacks on the capital Kyiv and the city of Chernigiv.
But Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was consolidating and preparing “powerful strikes” in the country’s east and south, joining a chorus of Western assessments that Moscow troops were regrouping.
“This is part of their tactics,” said Zelensky in a late-night address.
“In Donbas and Mariupol, in the Kharkiv direction, the Russian army is accumulating the potential for attacks, powerful attacks,” he said.
Washington echoed that assessment, with a senior US defence official saying Russia’s focus on Donbas could herald a “longer, more prolonged conflict”.
Fears grew that the theatre of war may yet grow, as Russia for the first time yesterday accused Ukraine of an air strike with helicopters hitting Rosneft’s fuel storage facility in the western town of Belgorod, around 40 kilometres from the border with Ukraine.
“There was a fire at the petrol depot because of an air strike carried out by two Ukrainian army helicopters, which entered Russian territory at a low altitude,” Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on messaging app Telegram.
The consequence of the accusation was swiftly made clear by the Kremlin.
“Of course, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to ongoing peace talks.
In the southern city of Mariupol, civilians were still desperately waiting for help after weeks under heavy shelling with little water, food and electricity, reports AFP.
The international Red Cross said it remained “hopeful … but it’s not yet clear that (the evacuation) will happen today[Friday].”
Meanwhile, Russia allowed gas to keep flowing to Europe yesterday despite a deadline for buyers to pay in roubles or be cut off.
An order by Putin cutting off gas buyers unless they pay in roubles from yesterday had caused alarm in Europe, where it was seen as Moscow’s strongest card to play to retaliate for Western financial sanctions.
Germany, the biggest buyer, rejected the demand as “blackmail”.
But pipelines were pumping as normal yesterday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the decree would not affect shipments which were already paid for, only becoming an issue when new payments were due in the second half of the month.
“Does this mean that if there is no confirmation in roubles, then gas supplies will be cut off from April 1? No, it doesn’t, and it doesn’t follow from the decree,” Peskov told reporters.
The United Nations said yesterday the number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s war in their country has crossed 4.1 million.
