Page 5 - aruba-today-20220726

A5
WORLD NEWS Tuesday 26 July 2022
Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s `unacceptable regime’

By SUSIE BLANN ter, school and other infra-
Associated Press structure, authorities said.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Rus- Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Sinye-
sia’s top diplomat said hubov said: “It looks like
Moscow’s overarching a deadly lottery when no
goal in Ukraine is to free its one knows where the next
people from its “unaccept- strike will come.”
able regime,” expressing — Ukraine charged two
the Kremlin’s war aims in former cabinet ministers
some of the bluntest terms with high treason over
yet as its forces pummel their role in extending Mos-
the country with artillery cow’s lease on a navy
barrages and airstrikes. base in Crimea in 2010.
The remark from Russian Prosecutors said Oleksandr
Foreign Minister Sergey Lav- Lavrynovych and Kostyan-
rov comes amid Ukraine’s tyn Hryshchenko conspired
efforts to resume grain ex- with then-President Vik-
ports from its Black Sea ports tor Yanukovych to rush a
something that would help treaty through parliament
ease global food shortages granting Moscow a 25-year
under a new deal tested extension, leaving Crimea
by a Russian strike on Ode- vulnerable to Russian ag-
sa over the weekend. gression.
“We are determined to — Russia said it thwarted
help the people of eastern an attempt by Ukrainian in-
Ukraine to liberate them- telligence to bribe Russian
selves from the burden of military pilots to turn their
this absolutely unaccept- In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister planes over to Ukraine. In
able regime,” Lavrov said Sergey Lavrov, right, listens to Secretary General of the Arab League Secretary General Ahmed a video released by Rus-
at an Arab League summit Aboul Gheit during their meeting in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, July 24, 2022. sia’s main security agency,
in Cairo late Sunday, refer- Associated Press a man purported to be a
ring to Ukrainian President Ukrainian intelligence of-
Volodymr Zelenskyy’s gov- well as the export of Rus- Ukraine’s presidential of- gion, workers searched for ficer offered a pilot $2 mil-
ernment. sian grain and fertilizer. fice said Monday at least people believed trapped lion to surrender his plane
Apparently suggesting that Ukraine’s deputy infrastruc- two civilians were killed under the rubble after 12 during a mission over
Moscow’s war aims extend ture minister, Yury Vaskov, and 10 wounded in Russian rockets hit the town of Ukraine. The Russian claims
beyond Ukraine’s industrial said the first shipment of shelling over the preceding Chuhuiv before dawn, couldn’t be independently
Donbas region in the east, grain is planned for this 24 hours. In the Kharkiv re- damaging a cultural cen- verified.q
Lavrov said: “We will cer- week.
tainly help the Ukrainian While Russia faced accusa-
people to get rid of the re- tions that the weekend at-
gime, which is absolutely tack on the port of Odesa
anti-people and anti-histor- amounted to reneging on
ical.” the deal, Moscow insisted
Lavrov’s comments fol- the strike would not affect
lowed his warning last week grain deliveries.
that Russia plans to retain During a visit to the Repub-
control over broader areas lic of Congo on Monday,
beyond eastern Ukraine, Lavrov repeated the Rus-
including the Kherson and sian claim that the attack
Zaporizhzhia regions in the targeted a Ukrainian naval
south, and will make more vessel and a depot con-
gains elsewhere. taining Western-supplied
His remarks contrasted with anti-ship missiles. He said
the Kremlin’s line early in the grain agreements do
the war, when it repeat- not prevent Russia from at-
edly emphasized that Rus- tacking military targets.
sia wasn’t seeking to over- In other developments:
throw Zelenskyy’s govern- Russia’s gas giant Gaz-
ment, even as Moscow’s prom said it would further
troops closed in on Kyiv. reduce the flow of natural
Russia later retreated from gas through a major pipe-
around the capital and line to Europe to 20% of ca-
turned its attention to cap- pacity, citing equipment
turing the Donbas. The war repairs. The move height-
is now in its sixth month. ened fears that Russia is try-
Last week, Russia and ing to pressure and divide
Ukraine signed agreements Europe over its support for
aimed at clearing the way Ukraine at a time when
for the shipment of mil- countries are trying to build
lions of tons of desperately up their supplies of gas for
needed Ukrainian grain, as the winter.