{"id":252775,"date":"2022-04-27T07:24:45","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T07:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=252775"},"modified":"2022-04-28T05:24:01","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T05:24:01","slug":"russia-accuses-nato-of-fighting-proxy-war-as-moldova-fears-new-front-in-war-on-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=252775","title":{"rendered":"Russia accuses Nato of fighting proxy war as Moldova fears new front in war on Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Kingsley \u2013 The Independent April 26, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Russia has accused Nato<\/a> of fighting a proxy war by supplying Ukraine<\/a> with arms, as explosions in Moldova\u2019s breakaway region of Transnistria raise fears of a new front in the conflict.<\/p>\n

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the danger of a third world war was \u201cserious and real\u201d, and that Moscow views weapons provided to Ukraine by the alliance as legitimate targets.<\/p>\n

\u201cNato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy, and is arming that proxy. War means war,\u201d Mr Lavrov said.<\/p>\n

His comments came as western allies pledged new packages of yet more powerful weapons for Ukraine during a meeting at a German air base.<\/p>\n

Nato partners have recently approved shipments of hundreds of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of arms, including artillery and drones they held back from sending during the earlier phase of the war, and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that more help was on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cNations from around the world stand united in our resolve to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia\u2019s imperial aggression,\u201d he told officials from more than 40 countries at the Ramstein air base. \u201cUkraine clearly believes that it can win, and so does everyone here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a notable shift, Germany, whose government has previously come under fire after refusing Ukrainian appeals for major arms, announced it would now send \u201cGepard\u201d light tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns. Berlin also said it would train Ukrainian troops on German soil.<\/p>\n

Moldova raised its terrorist threat level<\/a> and the Kremlin voiced serious concerns after two blasts damaged Soviet-era radio masts in the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, where authorities said a military unit was also targeted.<\/p>\n

Moldovan authorities are sensitive to any sign of growing tensions in Transnistria, an unrecognised Moscow-backed territory bordering southwestern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Ukraine said it was a Russian attempt to drag the region into the war, but Moscow blamed the blasts on \u201cterrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Analysts said it was unclear whether the incidents were a false-flag operation by the Kremlin or genuine acts of sabotage by anti-Russian groups.<\/p>\n

In eastern Ukraine, authorities in the besieged city of Mariupol said that the Azovstal steel plant \u2013 currently being used as a shelter for Ukrainian civilians and remaining troops \u2013 had been hit by 35 airstrikes in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia has drastically intensified strikes over the past 24 hours and is using heavy bunker bombs,\u201d said Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to Mariupol\u2019s mayor. \u201cThe number of those wounded will be clear once the rubble is cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Ukraine, bloodshed continued as local officials said at least nine people had been killed and several more injured in Russian attacks in towns and cities in the east. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces \u201ccontinue to deliberately fire at civilians and to destroy critical infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russia\u2019s offensive in the Kharkiv region had become more intense as Russian troops try to advance.<\/p>\n

In its latest assessment of the fighting, the UK\u2019s Ministry of Defence reported Russian advances and heavy fighting in the Donbas, with one city, Kreminna, apparently falling after days of street-by-street fighting.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s armed forces minister, James Heappey, claimed that Vladimir Putin\u2019s increased attacks on the east were part of a desire to win the war before Russia\u2019s Victory Day parade on 9 May<\/a>. But speaking on BBC Breakfast<\/em> he added that Russian commanders \u201cwill know from all their command and staff training it is absolute folly to launch an offensive before you\u2019ve massed all of your combat power\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cdriving the Russian army to launch an offensive now, simply so Putin can have a nice day in the sun\u201d would cost Russia thousands of lives.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s defence ministry warned of a swift and \u201cproportional response\u201d if the UK continues its \u201cdirect provocation\u201d of the Kyiv regime.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres began talks in Moscow with Mr Lavrov and Mr Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution,\u201d Mr Guterres said at a meeting with Mr Lavrov ahead of talks with the Russian president.<\/p>\n

In a separate development, the UN refugee agency said it expected some 8.3 million refugees to have fled Ukraine<\/a> by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the war shows signs of spreading, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warns the danger of a third world war is \u2018serious and real\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":252777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252776,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252775\/revisions\/252776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/252777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}