Dubai Telegraph - Austrian leader heads to Moscow as Ukraine prepares for eastern offensive

EUR -
AED 3.833114
AFN 76.567491
ALL 99.259156
AMD 416.113834
ANG 1.876383
AOA 951.75484
ARS 1102.422229
AUD 1.658046
AWG 1.878463
AZN 1.77241
BAM 1.962496
BBD 2.102103
BDT 126.4916
BGN 1.956508
BHD 0.393332
BIF 3082.557627
BMD 1.043591
BND 1.409063
BOB 7.193545
BRL 6.019742
BSD 1.041057
BTN 90.414201
BWP 14.410307
BYN 3.407074
BYR 20454.380029
BZD 2.091266
CAD 1.487999
CDF 2995.105789
CHF 0.951025
CLF 0.026012
CLP 998.192852
CNY 7.627658
CNH 7.601745
COP 4348.851656
CRC 526.943418
CUC 1.043591
CUP 27.655157
CVE 110.640926
CZK 25.050315
DJF 185.393466
DKK 7.459066
DOP 64.565872
DZD 141.659649
EGP 52.823958
ERN 15.653862
ETB 133.710299
FJD 2.411373
FKP 0.838686
GBP 0.83527
GEL 2.942647
GGP 0.838686
GHS 16.084419
GIP 0.838686
GMD 74.61865
GNF 8999.69945
GTQ 8.037308
GYD 218.027661
HKD 8.125878
HNL 26.543221
HRK 7.535612
HTG 136.371646
HUF 401.40678
IDR 17067.145132
ILS 3.733248
IMP 0.838686
INR 90.652299
IQD 1363.866694
IRR 43922.136075
ISK 146.603632
JEP 0.838686
JMD 163.936434
JOD 0.740426
JPY 160.901901
KES 134.738025
KGS 91.261942
KHR 4173.741074
KMF 495.235707
KPW 939.325723
KRW 1510.905541
KWD 0.322302
KYD 0.867569
KZT 525.076636
LAK 22636.780841
LBP 93247.90984
LKR 309.318384
LRD 207.695689
LSL 19.197463
LTL 3.081453
LVL 0.631258
LYD 5.129527
MAD 10.412429
MDL 19.609379
MGA 4846.583383
MKD 61.53006
MMK 2190.454189
MNT 3612.026342
MOP 8.352178
MRU 41.449201
MUR 48.589402
MVR 16.069533
MWK 1805.320449
MXN 21.40199
MYR 4.649176
MZN 66.696045
NAD 19.197186
NGN 1569.372692
NIO 38.314403
NOK 11.70635
NPR 144.675041
NZD 1.844208
OMR 0.401795
PAB 1.041052
PEN 3.863483
PGK 4.185623
PHP 60.68011
PKR 290.673695
PLN 4.157828
PYG 8192.069765
QAR 3.795998
RON 4.977196
RSD 117.110727
RUB 98.098587
RWF 1482.522415
SAR 3.914022
SBD 8.815174
SCR 15.242662
SDG 627.198197
SEK 11.284676
SGD 1.406588
SHP 0.859488
SLE 23.790587
SLL 21883.578854
SOS 595.056039
SRD 36.739585
STD 21600.222927
SVC 9.109169
SYP 13569.828152
SZL 19.195773
THB 35.302069
TJS 11.373745
TMT 3.652568
TND 3.31697
TOP 2.444196
TRY 37.687401
TTD 7.063168
TWD 34.204007
TZS 2709.161534
UAH 43.552422
UGX 3829.958033
USD 1.043591
UYU 45.113282
UZS 13523.142074
VES 63.940076
VND 26559.386313
VUV 129.053828
WST 2.961052
XAF 658.231323
XAG 0.032325
XAU 0.000358
XCD 2.820356
XDR 0.797128
XOF 658.206007
XPF 119.331742
YER 258.810603
ZAR 19.264217
ZMK 9393.568829
ZMW 29.124795
ZWL 336.035818
  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    23.28

    -0.77%

  • CMSD

    -0.1800

    23.71

    -0.76%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    11.93

    -0.42%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.13

    +0.17%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    60.58

    -1.49%

  • BCC

    -4.6000

    118.72

    -3.87%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    23.26

    +1.63%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    62.04

    +0.63%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    74.43

    +2.28%

  • RBGPF

    64.0100

    64.01

    +100%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.85

    -0.16%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    7.69

    +0.26%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.59

    +1.05%

  • BTI

    0.2200

    42.74

    +0.51%

  • BP

    0.1300

    34.68

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.44

    +0.21%

Austrian leader heads to Moscow as Ukraine prepares for eastern offensive
Austrian leader heads to Moscow as Ukraine prepares for eastern offensive

Austrian leader heads to Moscow as Ukraine prepares for eastern offensive

Austria's chancellor on Monday will become the first European leader to visit Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as Kyiv prepares for a huge Russian offensive in the country's east.

Text size:

Karl Nehammer said he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is expected to raise alleged war crimes in devastated areas around Kyiv that were under Russian occupation, including the town of Bucha.

Ukrainian authorities say over 1,200 bodies have been found in the area so far and that they are weighing cases against "500 suspects" including Putin and other top Russian officials.

Russian forces are now turning their focus to the Donbas region in the east, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops were preparing "even larger operations".

Russia is believed to be seeking a link between occupied Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbas.

"They can use even more missiles against us... But we are preparing for their actions. We will answer," Zelensky said.

Lugansk governor Sergiy Gaiday warned that the region could suffer as badly as Mariupol, a besieged port city that even pro-Russian authorities say has been 70 percent ruined by fighting.

"The battle for Donbas will last several days, but during these days our cities may be completely destroyed," Gaiday said.

In a later Telegram message, he said Russian troops knew that "there is no surviving critical or any other infrastructure in our area".

"Therefore, every shelling of the housing stock is a deliberate terrorist attack."

- 'War on civilians ' -

Over the weekend, ongoing attacks on the region hampered evacuations, and 12 people were killed in and around northeast Kharkiv, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.

"The Russian army continues to wage war on civilians due to a lack of victories at the front," Synegubov said on Telegram.

In Dnipro, an industrial city of around a million inhabitants, a rain of Russian missiles nearly destroyed the local airport, causing an unknown number of casualties, local authorities said.

Gaiday said a missile strike on a railway station in the city of Kramatorsk on Friday, which killed 57 people, had left many afraid to flee. Russia has denied involvement in the strike.

He estimated just 20 to 25 percent of the local population remained, with "fewer and fewer" now evacuating.

Over the weekend, nearly 50 wounded and elderly patients were transported from the east in a hospital train by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the first such evacuation since the attack on the Kramatorsk station.

Electrician Evhen Perepelytsia was evacuated after he lost his leg in shelling in his hometown of Hirske in Lugansk.

"We hope that the worst is over -- that after what I've been through, it will be better," said the 30-year-old after arrival in the western city of Lviv.

On Monday, the Chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Railways Alexander Kamyshin said another railway station in the east had been attacked overnight.

"They continue to aim at the railway infrastructure," he wrote.

- 'Progress towards peace'? -

On the diplomatic front, EU foreign ministers meet Monday to discuss a sixth round of sanctions, with concerns that divisions over a ban on Russia gas and oil imports could blunt their impact.

Austria is an EU member, but does not belong to NATO, though Nehammer's spokesperson said Brussels, Berlin and Kyiv had been informed about the trip to Moscow.

The chancellor decided to organise the meeting after he met Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday, his office said.

He wants "to do everything so that progress towards peace can be made" even if the chances of success are minimal, the spokesperson added.

"We are militarily neutral, but have a clear stance on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine," Nehammer tweeted, calling for humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire and a full investigation of war crimes.

US President Joe Biden meanwhile will hold virtual talks on Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, just weeks after saying India had been "shaky" in its response to the invasion.

A US spokeswoman said the two leaders would consult on ways to offset the "destabilizing impact (of the war) on global food supply and commodity markets".

The World Bank warned Sunday that Ukraine's economy would collapse by 45.1 percent this year -- a much bleaker outlook than it predicted even a month ago -- while Russia would see an 11.2 percent decline in GDP.

- 'Inciting hatred' -

Ukraine's allies have sought to pile pressure on Moscow over allegations its troops carried out war crimes in areas around Kyiv, and there has been little sign that intermittent peace talks are progressing.

The Pope has urged an Easter ceasefire, denouncing a war where "defenceless civilians" suffered "heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty."

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday accused the Kremlin and Russian media of laying the groundwork for war "for many years".

"Russian political elites and propaganda have been inciting hatred, dehumanising Ukrainians, nurturing Russian superiority and laying ground for these atrocities," he tweeted.

But in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press", Kuleba said he was still open to negotiating with the Russians.

"If sitting down with the Russians will help me to prevent at least one massacre like in Bucha, or at least another attack like in Kramatorsk, I have to take that opportunity," he said.

Bucha -- where authorities say hundreds were killed, some with their hands bound -- has become a byword for the brutality allegedly inflicted under Russian occupation.

But other villages, towns and roads on the northwest flank of Kyiv have their own tragedies.

An AFP reporter saw at least two corpses inside a manhole at a petrol station on a motorway outside Kyiv on Sunday, in a mix of civilian and military clothing.

A distraught woman peered in before breaking down, clawing at the earth and wailing: "My little son."

burs-reb/sah/je

A.Ragab--DT