Over 350 civilians killed during invasion, says Ukraine
Kharkiv, Ukraine:
Russia opened fire on Ukraine’s Kharkiv city as it pressed on with its offensive on Tuesday, defying mounting global pressure that launched a war crimes investigation against Moscow, sanctions ravaged its economy and FIFA. Banned it from the World Cup.
Their first talks since the start of the war failed to achieve a breakthrough on Monday, with Russia continuing to target residential areas and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calling for global sanctions on Russian aircraft and ships.
“We should close all ports, all canals and all airports in the world to this state,” he said on Facebook.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously outlined Moscow’s demands to end the invasion, which included recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and the demilitarization of Ukraine.
He issued his demands in a phone call with French leader Emmanuel Macron, shortly before the Russian-Ukrainian talks.
Instead, the world has responded with an intense diplomatic, economic, cultural and sporting backlash, with the United Nations General Assembly and the International Criminal Court (ICC) under fire in Moscow for launching an investigation into war crimes.
“I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine have been committed since 2014,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement.
Russia also faced urgent calls in an extraordinary UN General Assembly debate to end its “unprovoked” and “unreasonable” attack, which provoked a massive diplomatic, economic, cultural and sporting backlash.
Inside the General Assembly Hall on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded: “The fighting in Ukraine must stop. Enough is enough.”
Then, in Putin’s phone call with Macron, the Russian leader stressed that a deal is possible only if Russia’s legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, the Kremlin said.
Fighting continued as talks continued, with Russian attacks in Kharkiv and Russian missile fire on several residential buildings killing at least 11 people.
There were also explosions in and around Brovry, on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.
Mayor Igor Terekhov, quoted by Ukrainian media, said Russian fire killed several civilians, including children, in Kharkiv and that Russian armored vehicles and tanks are “everywhere” around the city.
Ukraine says more than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed in the attack, while more than half a million have fled the country.
In Kyiv, many were preparing for a fresh attack by putting up temporary barricades in the streets.
Russian forces urged Ukrainians to leave Kyiv “freely” on a highway expected Russian offensive to capture the capital.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was “gravely concerned” as Russian forces were moving toward Ukraine’s largest nuclear plant, warning strongly against any military action that could threaten the Zaporizhzhya facility.
the ruble fell
Western nations have moved to increasingly isolate Russia, with the United States expelling 12 members of Moscow’s UN mission from the US for being “intelligence operatives”.
Canada on Monday announced a ban on Russian oil imports.
A Macron aide told reporters that the European Union and its allies were preparing to impose more sanctions against Russia in the coming days to “increase the cost” of the war in Ukraine.
And Turkey said it would implement an international treaty to limit ships passing through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus Strait, a move requested by Ukraine to block the transit of Russian warships.
The Russian ruble fell to a record low as sanctions imposed by the West over the weekend had an immediate effect in Moscow, forcing the central bank to more than double its key interest rate to 20 percent.
Putin also announced emergency measures to push the ruble forward, including banning residents from transferring money abroad.
long queues
Long queues for groceries lined the streets of Kyiv on Monday after a strict 36-hour military curfew was lifted and volunteer militias learned to make homemade explosives.
“We will greet them with Molotov cocktails and bullets to the head,” bank employee Viktor Rudnichenko told AFP. “They can get from us the only flowers that will be for their graves.”
Many Russians rushed to withdraw the cash.
Eduard Sioyev, a 51-year-old retired soldier, gets impatient while standing in line at a bank in Moscow.
He said, “Ninety-nine percent of Russians are rushing to withdraw their ruble and convert them into dollars, property or even gold… It will be the common people who pay for this military bread-fight, ” They said.
‘Unprovoked armed attack’
In Russia, there were more signs of rare discontent among the usually ultra-loyal elites that surround the Russian leader – in addition to anti-war demonstrations, in which an estimated 2,100 people were arrested on Sunday.
Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska said “we need real crisis managers, not fantasists”, while billionaire banker Oleg Tinkov said, “Innocent people are dying every day, this is unimaginable and unacceptable!”
Western defense officials and the Kyiv government say Ukrainian troops have so far kept the country’s major cities out of Russian hands, despite incursions into the capital and Kharkiv over the weekend.
However, the small southern city of Bardiansk has been captured, Ukraine said.
Moscow claimed it had “achieved air superiority over the entire territory of Ukraine”, while accusing Ukrainian troops of using civilians as human shields.
However, Olivier Kempf, a security analyst at the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank, said the Russian military was “not pressurised”.
“It’s a war, so there are difficulties. They may have logistics issues. But from what we’ve been told, they’re making progress,” he told AFP. “Only in a video game can you conquer a country in two days.”
out of the world cup
The weekend saw a significant series of announcements from Europe, Germany unveiling a historic shift in its defense policies, and the EU saying it would buy and supply arms to Ukraine, a first such move in its history.
On Monday the European Union said it would add Russian oligarchs and a Kremlin spokesman to its sanctions blacklist, while traditionally neutral Switzerland said it would adopt the bloc’s sanctions.
However the EU poured cold water on Zelensky’s request for “immediate” membership in the bloc, saying the process of joining takes years.
FIFA and UEFA said the reaction from the sports world also intensified, as Russia was expelled from the World Cup and the country’s clubs and national teams were suspended from all international football competitions “until further notice”. .
According to the United Nations, Poland has captured more than half of the 500,000 people who fled Ukraine.
Katerina Zaporozhets, a laboratory worker in the central city of Cherkasy, said it took her 24 hours to reach the western Shegny border post – and she would wait another 48 hours before crossing.
“The journey was really tough,” the 31-year-old told AFP. “It’s quiet here, but the drive was really scary.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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