In recent days, Lithuania has shut the route for basic goods including construction materials, metals and coal
\n KYIV
\nRussia summoned the European Union\u2019s ambassador in Moscow on Tuesday, fuming over a rail blockade that has halted shipments of many basic goods to a Russian outpost on the Baltic Sea, the latest stand-off over sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.
\nOn the ground in eastern Ukraine, Russia\u2019s separatist proxies said they were advancing towards Kyiv\u2019s main battlefield bastion. A Ukrainian official described a lull in fighting there as the \u201ccalm before the storm\u201d.
\nThe latest diplomatic crisis is over the Kaliningrad enclave, a port and surrounding countryside on the Baltic Sea that is home to nearly a million Russians, connected to the rest of Russia by a rail link through EU- and NATO-member Lithuania.
\nIn recent days, Lithuania has shut the route for basic goods including construction materials, metals and coal.
\nVilnius and Brussels say Lithuania is implementing new EU sanctions that came into force on Saturday. Moscow calls the move an illegal blockade and has threatened unspecified retaliation.
\nThe EU ambassador in Moscow appeared at the Russian foreign ministry headquarters on Tuesday, Russia\u2019s RIA state news agency reported. Overnight, the Kaliningrad governor told Russian television EU ambassador Marcus Ederer was to be summoned and \u201ctold of the appropriate conditions involved here\u201d.
\nNikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia\u2019s powerful Security Council, arrived in Kaliningrad to hold a council meeting, RIA reported.
\nMoscow had summoned a Lithuanian diplomat on Monday, but the EU has deflected responsibility from the Lithuanians. Vilnius was \u201cdoing nothing else than implementing the guidelines provided by the (European) Commission\u201d, said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
\nHeavyweight Fight
\nWithin Ukraine, the battle for the east has become a brutal war of attrition in recent weeks, with Russia concentrating its overwhelming firepower on a Ukrainian-held pocket of the Donbas region that Moscow claims on behalf of its separatist proxies.
\nMoscow has made slow progress there since April in a relentless fighting that has cost both sides thousands of troops killed, one of the bloodiest land battles in Europe for generations.
\nThe fighting has spanned the Siverskyi Donets river that curls through the region, with Russian forces mainly on the east bank and Ukrainian forces mainly on the west, though Ukrainians are still holding out in the east bank city of Sievierodonetsk.
\nIn recent days Russia has captured Toshkivka, a small city on the west bank further south, giving it a potential foothold to try to cut off the main Ukrainian bastion at Lysychansk.
\nRodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the pro-Moscow separatist self-styled Luhansk People\u2019s Republic, said forces were \u201cmoving from the south towards Lysychansk\u201d with firefights erupting in a number of towns.
\n\u201cThe hours to come should bring considerable changes to the balance of forces in the area,\u201d he said on Telegram.
\nThe governor of Ukraine\u2019s surrounding Luhansk region said Russian forces had gained some territory on Monday. It was relatively quiet overnight, but more attacks were coming, Serhiy Gaidai said: \u201cIt\u2019s a calm before the storm\u201d.
\nAlthough fighting has favoured Russia in recent weeks because of its huge firepower advantage in artillery, some Western military analysts say Russia\u2019s failure to make a major breakthrough so far means time is now on the Ukrainians\u2019 side.
\nMoscow is running out of fresh troops, while Ukraine is receiving newer and better equipment from the West, tweeted retired U.S. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, a former commander of U.S. ground forces in Europe.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a heavyweight boxing match. In 2 months of fighting, there has not yet been a knockout blow. It will come, as RU forces become more depleted,\u201d Hertling wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In recent days, Lithuania has shut the route for basic goods including construction materials, metals and coal KYIV Russia summoned the European Union\u2019s ambassador in Moscow on Tuesday, fuming over a rail blockade that has halted shipments of many basic goods to a Russian outpost on the Baltic Sea, the latest stand-off over sanctions imposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8802,2064,3154],"class_list":{"0":"post-267366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-baltic-outpost","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-moscow"},"yoast_head":"\n