• Russia’s ambassador to London says he doesn’t think Russia will leave parts of Ukraine it controls.
• Ukraine urges allies for more weapons as its forces dig in against the Russian advances.
• Moscow warns of consequences for Western reprisals over its invasion of the Donbas region.

KYIV: Ukraine urged its partners on Friday to provide more weapons as its soldiers dug in to halt Russia’s military advance through the eastern Donbas region, while a bellicose Moscow threatened Western nations with repercussions for their reprisals against Russia’s invasion.

President Vladimir Putin said that continuing sanctions against Russia could lead to “catastrophic” increases in energy prices, which showed that the Kremlin was not willing to give in.

At a Group of 20 summit, Putin’s senior diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, battled with his Western counterparts, who pressed Russia to allow Kyiv to ship blockaded Ukrainian food to an increasingly hungry world.

Also, Moscow’s representative in London said that he didn’t think Russia would leave parts of Ukraine that it controls.

[embedpost slug=”/russians-may-be-preparing-to-attack-sloviansk-and-kramatorsk-at-the-same-time/”]

According to Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin, Russian troops will seize the remainder of Donbas and will not likely retreat from the southern shore.

Eventually, he added, Ukraine would have to reach a peace agreement or “continue slipping down this hill” to disaster.

On the frontlines of the Donbas, Ukrainian officials reported Russian shelling of towns and villages in advance of an expected push for additional territory.

A Ukrainian infantry regiment on the road to the town of Siversk, whose members spoke to an international news agency, had established positions on the edge of a deep earth bunker protected by machine guns and covered with wood and sandbags.

[embedpost slug=”/ukrainian-airstrikes-destroy-russian-tanks/”]