As Kostyantynivka is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, authorities urge residents to evacuate. Ukraine expects new EU sanctions to hit Russia’s war budget, its foreign minister says. Trump will not sanction Russia yet, Rubio tells Politico.
As Kostyantynivka is on brink of humanitarian disaster, authorities urge residents to evacuate
The city of Kostyantynivka, in Donetsk region, is on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe, head of the regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin said in a post to Telegram on Wednesday.
Russian attacks cut power supply to nearly half of the city. Some 1,900 houses in the Santurynivka neighborhood were cut off from gas supply, and it is currently not possible to restore it. Water is delivered to the households once a day: between 5p.m. and 8p.m., covering only 20-25 per cent of the consumers’ needs, Filashkin said.
The city’s bus service has been suspended due to drone attacks. Intercity buses to nearby Druzhkivka are operating with limits.
Seven water reservoirs and 11 water tanks were installed in the city. There are 12 water wells, including six that have water purification systems. Five “points of invincibility” [spots where people can charge their electronics and get internet service – edit.] are operating with two more ready to open.
Medics, utility workers, police and city authorities are working despite everything. The enemy is systematically destroying the city’s critical infrastructure. Filashkin urged the residents to evacuate, saying that evacuation is not just a matter of choice, but a matter of life.
Russian forces have seized the villages of Andriyivka and Kostyantynopil in Donetsk region, DeepState, a Ukrainian OSINT project said Wednesday. They have also advanced near Oleksiyivka and Dniproenerhiya, and in Shevchenko in Donetsk region, it added.
Ukraine expects new EU sanctions to hit Russia’s war budget, its foreign minister says
Ukraine expects the EU to slap Russia with strong sanctions that will hit its war budget, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on Wednesday following a meeting with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Sybiha described the meeting as “good.”
“We discussed the next steps for the EU to increase sanctions pressure on Russia. We expect them to be really strong and hurt Putin’s war budget,” Sybiha said on X.
He said they also discussed the need to speed up Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
“I emphasized that Ukraine met all of the requirements to open the first negotiation cluster, and that one country obstructing the process is unacceptable,” Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
Hungary and Slovakia opposed EU’s new package of sanctions against Russia, saying they wanted to wait until a European Council meeting of EU leaders at the end of the week, Ukrainian news site European Pravda said on Tuesday, citing two EU diplomats familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this week, Kallas said the EU aims to adopt an 18th package of sanctions against Russia by the end of the week.
Trump will not sanction Russia yet, Rubio tells Politico
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico that the United States will not impose further sanctions on Russia yet, and still wants room to negotiate a peace deal. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders are hoping to convince Trump later on Wednesday to add more sanctions on Moscow, particularly after Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rebuffed American attempts to broker a ceasefire with Ukraine.
“If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the ceasefire and then who’s talking to them?,” Rubio said in an exclusive interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Trump will “know the right time and place” for new economic measures and the administration is working with Congress to make sure they allow Trump the appropriate flexibility, Rubio said. But once that happens, he added, it means the window for talking with Russia is likely closed.
“If he does it, you’re almost admitting that this is not going to be negotiated anytime soon,” Rubio said.
“We’re going to continue to engage,” he said. “In the sense that if there’s an opportunity for us to make a difference and get them to the table, we’re going to take it.”
As talks with Russia have stalled, Rubio said Moscow believes it can achieve its territorial goals on the battlefield – an assessment Washington disagrees with.
“Our sense of it is that the Russians are going to try to achieve in the battlefield what they’ve demanded in the negotiating table, which is certain territories [maintain] their administrative lines and the like,” he said. “We think it’s going to be a lot harder for them to achieve that than they think it’s going to be.”