Ukraine war latest news: Russian state media claims UK on ‘brink of cannibalism’ over food shortage

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West will fail in its attempts to isolate Russia and face growing economic problems.

Speaking today via video link to members of the Eurasian Economic Forum, Putin said Russia wasn’t going to shut itself off from international cooperation.

The forum includes several ex-Soviet nations.Putin said that trying to isolate Russia is “impossible, utterly unrealistic in the modern world” and “those who try to do it primarily hurt themselves.”

The Russian leader cited growing economic challenges in the West, including “inflation unseen in 40 years, growing unemployment, rupture of supply chains and the worsening of global crises in such sensitive spheres as food.”

“This is not a joke,” he said. “This is a serious thing that will have an impact on the entire system of economic and political relations.”

He lambasted the West for seizing Russian reserves, saying that “the theft of others’ assets never brought any good.”

Albania has offered Nato the use of a Soviet naval base “in these dangerous times,” country has announced.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said the Pashaliman naval base, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of the capital Tirana, could have “added value” to the alliance and they had prepared a project on its renovation.

“In these dangerous times I believe the general may consider having a Nato’s naval base in Albania,” Rama said in a speech Wednesday.

My colleague Llazar Semini reports:

A senior Ukrainian military official conceded at a briefing on Thursday that Russia had the upper hand in fighting in Ukraine‘s eastern Luhansk region at present.

“Russia has the advantage, but we are doing everything we can,” General Oleksiy Gromov said.

Gromov also said Ukraine had observed Russia moving Iskander missile systems to Belarus’ western Brest region, which Gromov said raised the possibility of new missile strikes on west Ukraine.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it has been able to give answers to 300 families in Russia and Ukraine about the fate of their loved ones.

ICRC Director-General Robert Mardini told reporters that the organisation’s work trying to clarify the fate of missing persons “is very much on track.” He did not disclose the fate of the 300 Russians and Ukrainians, saying only that their families had provided “very concrete questions about their loved ones.”

Mardini said some progress has also been made on the right of the ICRC to visit prisoners of war, which is part of the Geneva conventions.

“There is agreement on both sides” on this right, “which is good news,” Mardini said, but the major obstacle in the ICRC carrying out visits is the war itself and the logistical constraints.

Mardini said the ICRC registered all the Ukrainian fighters that held out until last week at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol before they were taken to Russian-controlled territory. Russia said there were 2,439 Ukrainian fighters.

“Registering prisoners of war or detainees amounts to nothing short of a life insurance,” Mardini said.

The Russian military says it has destroyed a large Ukrainian unit with equipment at a railway station in the east.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Thursday that the Russian warplanes hit the railway station in Pokrovsk when an assault brigade that arrived to reinforce the Ukrainian forces in the region was unloading there.

Konashenkov also said that the Russian military destroyed Ukraine‘s electronic intelligence center in Dniprovske in the southern Mykolaiv region, killing 11 Ukrainian soldiers and 15 foreign experts. His claims couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Konashenkov stated that the Russian air force has struck 48 troops and weapons concentrations and two ammunition depots over the past 24 hours.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian artillery hit over 500 Ukrainian targets, including troops concentrations and artillery positions, he said.