Day 73: Russia says it destroyed US, Europe military stockpile in Kharkiv

Russia's defense ministry says it has destroyed a large stockpile of military equipment from the United States and European countries near the Bohodukhiv railway station in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

The ministry said Saturday it has hit 18 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including three ammunition depots in Dachne, near the port city of Odesa.

Western nations have imposed broad economic sanctions on Russia and have been shipping increasing quantities of weapons to confront Russian forces.

Earlier in May, Russia's defense ministry said it had carried out a missile strike on a military airfield near the port city of Odesa, destroying a runway and a hangar containing weapons and ammunition supplied to Ukraine by the US and European countries.

French general: West must brace for long-term rivalry with Russia 

General Thierry Burkhard, the overall chief of staff for the French armed forces, told AFP in an interview, said the West must brace for a long-term rivalry with Moscow that risks going beyond the current conflict.

Europe needs to re-arm and strengthens its own unity for what will be a period of "long competition" with Russia, he was quoted as saying.

"We must be well aware that the Russians have a long-term strategy," added Burkhard, pointing to the emphasis Moscow has placed on developing specialized capacities, including hypersonic weapons.

"They are engaged an informational struggle and they have put the West under a form of energy dependency. Our lack of freedom of action comes from being in this spider's web put in place by Russia."

Pentagon denies role in sinking Moskva

The Pentagon denied reports that it helped Ukrainian forces sink the Russian warship Moskva in the Black Sea last month in a stunning setback for Moscow's military operation.

"We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out," said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby in a statement.

"The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case," he said.

US media have reported in recent days that the United States has helped Ukraine identify and target the Moskva as well as Russian generals while they are in the field.

Kremlin: Poland could be a source of threat

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was hostile rhetoric coming out of Poland, and that Warsaw could be "a source of threat".

Poland has led calls for the EU to toughen sanctions and for the Western NATO alliance to arm Ukraine as it tries to resist Russian forces that have poured into its east.

Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesman for the Polish security services, claimed that Russia has been conducting a coordinated disinformation campaign against Poland for several days, including suggestions it could be a threat to Ukraine's territorial integrity.

"The aim of Russian actions is to create distrust between Poland and Ukraine, as well as to slander Poland and present it as a dangerous country generating conflicts in Eastern Europe," he wrote in an emailed comment.

Official: Russia remain in southern Ukraine ‘forever’ 

Andrey Turchak, a senior official from the Russian parliament, said his country will remain in southern Ukraine for good. 

"Russia is here forever. There should be no doubt about this. There will be no return to the past," he said.

"We will live together, develop this rich region, rich in historical heritage, rich in the people who live here," Turchak added.

Russia denies intention to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Russia does not intend to employ nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a Russian official says, rejecting reports by Western media suggesting the possibility of a nuclear strike by Moscow are “deliberate lies.”

UK ambassador summoned by Russia over new sanctions

The British ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Bronnert, was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry to be warned over new UK sanctions imposed on Russian media outlets, in a move seen as likely to presage reprisals on British press operations in Russia.

In a statement late on Friday, the ministry said Russia would continue to react “harshly and decisively” to all sanctions imposed by London.

The UK earlier this week announced sanctions against the state-owned television station Channel One, accusing it of “spreading disinformation in Russia, justifying Putin’s illegal invasion as a ‘special military operation’”.

Britain also imposed sanctions on a group of Russian journalists embedded with the Russian army in Ukraine, including Evgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent for the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, Alexander Kots, a war correspondent for the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, and Dmitry Steshin, a special correspondent for the same outlet.

Russia denies stealing grain from Ukraine

Information that Russia is stealing grain from Ukraine is likely to be fake, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, after a UN food agency official said there were signs that Russia had been trucking grain out of occupied regions of its neighbor.

“We have no information, it appears to be fake,” Peskov said.

A UN food agency official said on Friday that nearly 25 million tonnes of grain were stuck in Ukraine and unable to leave due to infrastructure challenges and the blockade of ports in the Black Sea.

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