(Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the raising of the Ukrainian flag on Snake Island in the Black Sea was a sign his country would not be broken, as President Vladimir Putin warned the West that its efforts to defeat him would bring tragedy to Ukraine.
FIGHTING
* Russia is likely concentrating its equipment in the direction of Siversk, about 8 km (4.9 miles) west of the current Russian front line, Britain’s defence ministry said on Friday. Russian forces are likely pausing to replenish before undertaking new offensive operations in the Donetsk region.
DIPLOMACY/ECONOMY
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday dismissed the what he cast as the West’s “frenzied” criticism of the war in Ukraine at a G20 meeting, scolding Russia’s rivals for scuppering a chance to tackle global economic issues.
* In a hawkish speech to parliamentary leaders more than four months into the war, Putin said on Thursday that Russia had barely got started in Ukraine and the prospects for negotiation would grow dimmer the longer the conflict dragged on.
* Zelenskiy, in his nightly video message on Thursday, responded with defiance, saying that the two-month operation to retake Snake Island was a warning to all Russian forces that Ukraine will not be broken.
* Kyiv lost one of its main international supporters after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would step down. Moscow did not conceal its delight at the political demise of a leader whom it has long criticised for arming Kyiv so energetically.
REFUGEES
* More than 8.79 million people have crossed the border from Ukraine since the invasion on Feb. 24 the U.N. refugee agency said.
* Removed from a warzone, a Ukrainian circus troupe delights in France.
QUOTES
* “We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading towards this,” said Putin.
* “It’s their (Russians’) fantasy to occupy these cities, but they don’t expect the level of resistance. It’s not just the Ukrainian government, it’s the people who refuse to accept them,” said mechanic-turned-soldier Artchk in Kramatorsk.
(Compiled by Grant McCool, Alexandra Hudson and Michael Perry)
