Ukraine crisis: Shelling adds to tension, Russia plans more drills

Biden to speak to NATO allies amid escalation on eastern Ukraine border

The eastern part of Ukraine saw the most intense artillery bombardment for years on Friday with the Ukraine government and the separatists trading blame. The firing which started around the 30 villages and towns along a 250-mile stretch of land separating Ukrainian and Russia-backed forces on Thursday, continued on Friday.

Western countries believe Russia will use the pretext as US President Joe Biden said Moscow is preparing a pretext to justify a possible attack and invade Ukraine. Invade Ukraine.

Later on Friday, Biden was slated to speak with NATO allies on the issue. The call will be the latest in a flurry of diplomatic engagements between Biden administration officials and European allies about Russia’s threatening military buildup on Ukraine’s border.  

Russia also announced new drills involving ‘strategic forces’ on Saturday, with Moscow saying that Putin will oversee the operations. The number of Russian troops around Ukraine has reached 149,000, Kyiv said on Friday.

According to sources, Russia’s drills will test its strategic nuclear forces, which include the land-based launchers, bombers and warships used to deliver nuclear weapons. They will involve the Black Sea Fleet, which has been engaged in large-scale exercises in the region bordering Ukraine. Putin will preside over them from a “situation center,” the Kremlin said. “Even test launches of this type are, of course, impossible without the head of state,” Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters. “You all know about his famed ‘black briefcase’, ‘the red button’ and so on.”

The defence ministry said the drills were planned in advance, and Mr. Peskov denied that they were intended to raise tensions. But they will come at a critical juncture in the standoff over Ukraine.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday the world is probably a more dangerous place now than during the Cold War. Guterres warned that a small mistake or miscommunication between major powers could have catastrophic consequences.

Gold slips

Gold prices slipped from the $1,900 level on Friday, as a potential Russia-U.S. meeting next week spurred expectations of a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Ukraine. Spot gold fell 0.4% to $1,890.05 per ounce, as of 0456 GMT, after touching its highest in eight months at $1,902.22 earlier in the session. The metal on Thursday rose above $1,900 for the first time since June.

Russia welcomes India's position

Russia on Friday welcomed India's position on the Ukraine crisis, amid spike in tensions between the NATO countries and Moscow over the situation in the eastern European nation.

The reaction came a day after India said at the UN Security Council that "quiet and constructive diplomacy" is the need of the hour and that any step that could escalate the tension should be avoided "We welcome #India's balanced, principled and independent approach," the Russian embassy in India tweeted.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on the Ukraine situation, India's Permanent Representative to the UN T S Tirumurti on Thursday pitched for immediate de-escalation of the situation.

In Delhi,  Ministry of External Affairs (EAM) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi too said that India has been supportive of an immediate de-escalation of tensions and resolution of the situation through sustained diplomatic