Russia threatens broad Ukraine offensive as US presses China over war stance

Ukrainian defenders battled on Saturday to contain Russian forces along several fronts, officials said, as the United States urged China to align itself with the West in opposing the invasion following an ill-tempered G20 meeting.

A missile strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded three civilians, its governor said, though Russia’s main attacks appeared focused southeast of there in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Those two provinces, parts of which were held by pro-Russian separatists before the conflict began in February, comprise the eastern industrial region of the Donbas.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes in both on Saturday, while Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Moscow was assembling reserve forces from across Russia near Ukraine.

Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging service that a Russian missile had struck Druzhkivka, a town behind the frontline, and reported shelling of other population centres.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Telegram that Russian forces were “firing along the entire frontline”, though a subsequent Ukrainian counter-attack that hit weapons and ammunition stores had forced Moscow to halt its offensive.

Russia, which claimed control over all of Luhansk province last weekend, denies targeting civilians.

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On Friday, Ukraine had pleaded for more of the high-end weapons from the West that Kyiv said had enabled it to slow Russia’s advance.

Hours later, US President Joe Biden signed a weapons package for Ukraine worth up to $400 million, including four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the armaments were priority needs. “It is what helps us press on the enemy,” he said on Twitter.

In reaction, the Russian Embassy in Washington said the United States wanted to “prolong the conflict at all costs”.

On Saturday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the international community to join forces to condemn Russian attack, told journalists he had raised concerns with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow.

The pair held over five hours of talks on the sidelines of the G20 gathering of foreign ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali. On Friday, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov had walked out of a meeting there, denouncing the West for “frenzied criticism”.

Russia’s ambassador to Britain, Andrei Kelin, on Friday offered little prospect of a pullback from parts of Ukraine under Russian control and said Russian troops would capture the rest of Donbas.