Time working against Russia with economy collapsing, German minister says

German vice chancellor Robert Habeck admitted that Russian income as a result of high fuel prices ‘hurts’.

Germany’s vice chancellor has said Russia’s continued income from high fuel prices “hurts”, but insisted “time is working against Russia” with its economy collapsing.

Robert Habeck, who is also Germany’s economy minister, told the German parliament on Thursday that “the income that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has obtained in recent months because of high prices hurts, and we can only be ashamed that we haven’t yet managed to reduce this dependence more significantly”.

But he argued that looking at Russia’s gas and oil income does not tell the whole story.

Russia Ukraine War — People clean an area of a building damaged by an overnight missile strike in Sloviansk (AP)

The minister said that “time is not working for Russia. It is working against Russia, it is working against the Russian economy”.

He added that “no-one wants to invest in Russia any more”.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s emergency officials said Russian shelling overnight set a school on fire in the city of Kharkiv, with a woman dying in the blaze.

Another man sustained injuries, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine supporter — A woman wears a band and flowers in the Ukrainian flag colours before the World Cup 2022 qualifying play-off soccer match between Scotland and Ukraine at Hampden Park (AP)

Russian forces also shelled the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, its governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said on Telegram.

He said the shelling took place on the border with the Kherson region, much of which is under Moscow’s control.

In the Sumy region that borders Russia, three people were wounded as a result of overnight missile strikes, governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyi said.

In the east, according to Ukraine’s General Staff, Russian troops continued storming the key city of Sievierodonetsk.

Russia Ukraine — The Russian military’s Uragan multiple rocket launchers fire rockets at Ukrainian troops at an undisclosed location (Russian defence ministry press service via AP)

Earlier, a Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies, officials said.

Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said five people were wounded in the strike.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the country’s interior minister, said the Russians hit the Beskidy railway tunnel in the Carpathian Mountains in an apparent effort to cut a key railway link and disrupt shipments of weapons and fuel.

However, the head of Ukrainian railways said the damage to the railway was still being assessed, but the tunnel was spared.

The strike reportedly delayed three passenger trains, but all later resumed their journeys.