More sanctions vs Russia eyed as Kyiv officials fired

KYIV: The European Union was set to discuss tightening sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine on Monday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sacked his top two law enforcement officials in a major shakeup.The talks were to take place as Kyiv accused Moscow of launching fresh strikes on multiple residential areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.The new attacks came after Russia announced it would step up its military operations, and Kyiv accused Moscow of installing missile launchers at Europe's largest nuclear plant.In Brussels, EU foreign ministers were to tackle the new sanctions against Moscow, which has already been hit with a series of punitive measures since launching the war on February 24.The bloc is considering banning gold purchases from Russia, and more Russian figures could also be placed on the EU blacklist."Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after forwarding the proposed measures.Brussels is not expected to decide on the matter on Monday, according to a senior EU official.In Kyiv's most serious government shakeup since the invasion began, Zelenskyy said on Sunday he was firing prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova and security chief Ivan Bakanov.In a national address, Zelenskyy said more than 650 cases of suspected treason and aiding and abetting Russia by Ukrainian security officials were being investigated, including 60 cases of officials whom he said had remained in territories occupied by Russia and were "working against our state.""Such a great number of crimes against the foundations of national security, and the connections established between Ukrainian law enforcement officials and Russian special services, pose very serious questions to the relevant leaders," Zelenskyy said. "Each such question will be answered."The Ukrainian leader also highlighted the devastating military might Moscow had used against his country, saying that as of Sunday, Russian forces had launched more than 3,000 cruise missiles on targets in Ukraine.The heaviest fighting continues to focus on the country's industrial east and on Sunday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, accused Moscow of shelling "civilian infrastructure, especially educational institutions."Meanwhile, near Ukraine's Black Sea coast, the southern city of Mykolaiv came under "massive shelling," said Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region.He added that several residential areas were shelled in the region on Saturday, with three people killed in the village of Shevchenkove and one woman killed in Shyrokiv, where a "residential building was destroyed."In a British Broadcasting Corp. television interview aired on Sunday, the head of the United Kingdom's armed forces, Adm. Tony Radakin, estimated that 50,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the invasion. Nearly 1,700 Russian tanks and some 4,000 armored vehicles were destroyed, he said.Radakin suggested that Moscow's land forces may pose less of a threat now, but more than 20 weeks since the invasion began, Moscow said on Saturday it would step up its military operations.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu "gave the necessary instructions to further increase" military pressure, according to his ministry.The orders come after Energoatom, Ukraine's atomic energy agency, accused Russians of installing missile launchers at the nuclear plant in the city of Zaporizhzhia and using it to shell the Dnipro region.Russia's defense ministry said in its daily briefing on Sunday that it destroyed a "warehouse for Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by" the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the port city of Odesa.Ukraine denied the claim, saying Russia destroyed the "storage facility" of a company with no military links.