RUSSIA, UKRAINE, FRANCE: Russia will publish individual sanctions against the West in the near future, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday. “The lists are ready,” Ryabkov said on Russian broadcaster Channel One, adding that the sanctions will be made public soon, reported Xinhua.
According to Ryabkov, Moscow sees no indication that the United States was ready to continue dialogue on Ukraine.
The diplomat also warned Washington against transferring weapons to Ukraine, adding that these weapons will become legitimate targets for the Russian forces, reported the news agency.
On February 24, Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics requested help in defending themselves. The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger.
The West however denies these claims by the Russians and in response, Western nations have imposed comprehensive sanctions on Moscow. In addition, they introduced sanctions on Belarus for supporting Russia’s operation in Ukraine.
Meanwhile,Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday there were some “positive shifts” in talks with Ukraine, a view that was rejected by the other side just hours later, leaving little hope for the devastating assault launched by Moscow to relent anytime soon.
Putin’s remarks and the rebuttal by Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba came as western powers issued strong warnings to Moscow as fears of a possible chemical attack arose.
“There are certain positive shifts, negotiators from our side reported to me,” Putin told his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko during a televised meeting in Moscow.
Meanwhile, Western sanctions against Russia could cause the International Space Station to crash, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos warned Saturday, calling for the punitive measures to be lifted.
According to Dmitry Rogozin, the sanctions, some of which predate Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS.
As a result, the Russian segment of the station — which helps correct its orbit — could be affected, causing the 500-tonne structure to “fall down into the sea or onto land”, the Roscosmos chief wrote on Telegram.
“The Russian segment ensures that the station’s orbit is corrected (on average 11 times a year), including to avoid space debris”, said Rogozin, who regularly expresses his support for the Russian army in Ukraine on social networks.
Publishing a map of the locations where the ISS could possibly come down, he pointed out that it was unlikely to be in Russia.
Meanwhile, with the Russian invasion now in its third week, attention is increasingly focused on the West’s efforts to arm and re-supply Ukrainian forces against an enemy with vastly superior weaponry.