Ukraine war: The latest
- Russian army tells citizens in Kyiv they can ‘freely leave’ as it hints of attacks on civilian areas
- Russian forces shell Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, killing at least 11 civilians in residential areas
- Russian forces reach the southern city of Kherson near Moscow-controlled Crimea
- Kyiv says 352 civilians have been killed, including 14 children, since the invasion began last Thursday
- Nearly 520,000 people have fled Ukraine in the last five days, the UN’s refugee agency says,
- International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan says he is investigating the ‘situation in Ukraine’, saying there is a ‘reasonable basis’ to believe ‘war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed’
- Turkey blocks warships from the Bosphorus and Dardanelles strait, limiting the movement of Russian and other naval assets by invoking a 1936 treaty
- Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia end a first round of talks with no breakthrough. Both sides agree to conduct a second round ‘soon’
- In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin demands ‘demilitarisation and denazification’ of Ukraine
- Head of UN’s atomic watchdog ‘gravely concern’ that invading Russian troops are operating close to Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s largest nuclear power station
- Twitter and Facebook move to curb the online presence of Russian state-linked news outlets
- Russia is expelled from the 2022 World Cup and its teams suspended from all international football competitions ‘until further notice’
- International Olympic Committee urges sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes
- US moves to expel 12 members of Russia’s UN mission from America for being ‘intelligence operatives’
- US and Canada ban all transactions with Russia’s central bank in an unprecedented sanction. EU adds more Putin allies to its sanctions blacklist
- Putin orders emergency capital controls and forces exporters to buy rubles to prop up his currency, which plunges by a fifth, reaching record lows.
- Lawmakers in traditionally non-aligned Finland – which has a long border with Russia – are to debate NATO membership
- Disney and Sony Pictures stop the release of their films in Russian cinemas because of its invasion of Ukraine
The woman who broke down in tears as she demanded Boris Johnson tighten UK sanctions against Russia is a high-profile Ukrainian campaigner who helped establish the country’s anti-corruption court.
Daria Kaleniuk’s voice began to crack as she urged the Prime Minister to impose tougher sanctions on Russia and its oligarchs following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
During a press conference in Poland, where Mr Johnson is visiting today ahead of talks with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Ms Kaleniuk said Ukrainian children were ‘taking the hit’ because of the refusal of NATO to get involved in the conflict.
She also urged the Prime Minister to get tough on Russian billionaires such as Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and their families, including Vladimir Putin’s, who she said were safe ‘in mansions’ while Ukrainian children were hiding in bomb shelters.
Mr Abramovich vehemently denies he is close to the Kremlin or has done anything that would merit sanctions being imposed against him.
Breaking into tears as she talked, Ms Kaleniuk, who said she recently fled her home in Kyiv, where many of her family and colleagues remain, she told the Prime Minister: ‘These are Ukrainian children who are there taking the hit.
‘You’re talking about more sanctions Prime Minister but Roman Abramovich is not sanctioned.
‘His children are not in the bombardments. His children are there in London. Putin’s children are in Netherlands, in Germany, in mansions, where all these mentioned seized? I don’t see that.
‘I see that my family members, that my team members, I’d say that we crying. We don’t know where to run. This is what is happening Prime Minister.’
Ms Kaleniuk, believed to be a mother-of-two, is the co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), an organisation that has shaped Ukraine’s anti-corruption legislation
After listening in awkward silence, Mr Johnson replied that he was doing what he could, but ‘cannot pretend’ that the West will step in militarily.
‘Unfortunately the implication of that would be that the UK would be engaged in shooting down Russian planes, engaged in direct combat with Russia, that’s not something we can do,’ he said.
The confrontation came after Mr Johnson accused Mr Putin of using ‘barbaric and indiscriminate tactics’ against innocent Ukrainian civilians.
As the invading forces escalated their attacks with harrowing pictures of children falling victim to the violence, he warned that the world was witnessing an ‘unfolding disaster’.
The UN says at least 136 civilians have been killed so far, including 13 children, and hundreds more injured.
The woman who broke down in tears as she demanded Boris Johnson tighten UK sanctions against Russia is high-profile Ukrainian campaigner, Daria Kaleniuk (pictured), who helped establish the country’s anti-corruption court
Daria Kaleniuk told Boris Johnson said women and children were ‘taking the hit’ because NATO would not enforce a no-fly zone
Ms Kaleniuk said Mr Johnson was coming to Warsaw rather than Kyiv because he is ‘afraid’
Mr Johnson said he could not pretend NATO is ready to intervene militarily, warning that the situation could spiral out of control if there was a direct confrontation with Russia
Speaking alongside Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw, Boris Johnson said the UK ‘stands ready’ to take refugees in ‘considerable numbers’
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Vladimir Putin (left) has ‘blood on his hands’ and urge the West to ‘isolate’ him further in a speech at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
A wounded woman is helped in aftermath of Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine today
A view shows the regional administration building following the Russian rocket attack in central Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 1, 2022
Daria Kaleniuk’s emotional appeal to the PM in full
I passed the border a couple of days ago. I’m from Kyiv. Most of my family. Most of my team members are still in Ukraine in Kyiv, in Lviv. A woman from my team is now in Bilozerka. She is there with two kids, and Russian military is over there and she is so much afraid that she will be shot.
Kharkiv, the city where I was studying was bombed today, fully, the downtown square.
‘So you’re talking about the stoicism of the Ukrainian people. But Ukrainian women and Ukrainian children are in deep fear because of bombs and missiles which are going from the sky.
And Ukranian people are desperately asking for the West to protect our sky. We are asking for the no fly zone. We are saying response that it will trigger World war three.
But what is the alternative Mr Prime Minister, to observe how our children are instead of planes are protecting NATO from the missiles and bombs?
What’s the alternative for the no fly zone? We have planes here we have air defence system in Poland in Romania.
NATO has this air defence, at least this air defence shield the Western Ukraine. So this these children with women could come to the border.
‘It’s impossible now to cross the border. There are 30 kilometres of mines. Imagine crossing the border with a baby or with two children.
‘I’m so glad that Samantha Power is coming here to the border from the Polish side. Let her come to the border from Ukrainian side and see that.
‘Britain guaranteed our security under Budapest Memorandum. So you’re coming to Poland you’re not coming to Kyiv Prime Minister, you’re not coming to Lviv, because you are afraid.
Because NATO is not willing to defend. Because NATO is afraid of World War Three, but it is already started.
‘And these are Ukrainian children who are there taking the hit. You’re talking about more sanctions Prime Minister but Roman Abramovich is not sanctioned. He’s in London. His children are not in the bombardments. His children are there in London.
Putin’s children are in Netherlands, in Germany, in mansions, where all these mentioned seized? I don’t see that.
I see that my family members, that my team members, I’d say that we crying. We don’t know where to run.
This is what is happening. Prime Minister.
Kyiv endured another night of bombing on Monday before satellite images revealed the huge column of tanks headed for the city, with Putin’s men trying to cut off the capital and bomb it into submission
The tearful Ukrainian campaigner who begged Boris to do more: American-educated anti-corruption chief fled Kyiv but has family and colleagues stuck in under-siege capital
The woman who broke down in tears as she demanded Boris Johnson tighten UK sanctions against Russia is a high-profile Ukrainian campaigner who helped establish the country’s anti-corruption court.
Ms Kaleniuk is the co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), an organisation that has shaped Ukraine’s anti-corruption legislation.
Her group, which is funded by donations, and with the support of the US and the European Union, helped establish the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), as well as the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine – which was founded in 2019.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Ms Kaleniuk has called for heavy sanctions on Russia, including a no-fly, cutting Russia from the SWIFT banking system and arresting all Russian oligarchs and their family members – accusing them of being ‘enablers’ of the war
Ms Kaleniuk, who according to Linkedin studied law in Kharkiv before studying and working in the Chicago, US, for a year, co-founded the group with Vitaliy Shabunin, who is the head of the council of public control at NABU.
As co-founder of the group she has held talks with a number of high profile politicians, including Andy Baukol, then US acting Secretary of the Treasury, who she met in September last year, and George Kent, who served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2018 to 2021.
She visited Washington last year with Hanna Hopko, a former Member of Parliament and head of the committee on foreign affairs of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and the influential chairwoman of Ukrainian Democracy in Action.
And pictures from 2020 show her in discussion with Larry Fink – the billionaire businessman behind the highly influential BlackRock, an American multinational investment firm with an annual revenue of more than $22billion.
The pair are said to have discussed investment and the environment, according to her Facebook post.
Alongsider her work with AntAC, Ms Kalniuk has also founded resources aiming to track money laundering and corruption across the world and last year organised a Zero Corruption conference in Kyiv, where she was living prior to the Russian invasion.
She told the press conference in Poland she had escaped Ukraine ‘a couple of days’ ago but that most of her family and team remained in under siege Kyiv.
Ms Kaleniuk has demanded Russia be banned from world economy and financial markets and said Russia should be immediately removed from the UN Security Council
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Ms Kaleniuk has called for heavy sanctions on Russia, including a no-fly, cutting Russia from the SWIFT banking system and arresting all Russian oligarchs and their family members – accusing them of being ‘enablers’ of the war.
She has demanded Russia be banned from world economy and financial markets and said Russia should be immediately removed from the UN Security Council.
She has also shared graphics comparing Vladimir Putin to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Ms Kalniuk, who is a mother of two, has previously shared her support for Hong Kong on social media, and has visited in China, having posted a picture of herself in the port city of Dalian in June 2019.
Mr Johnson said the UK ‘stands ready’ to take refugees in ‘considerable numbers’ – suggesting that could mean more than 200,000.
He also pledged to stay for the long haul, insisting Putin has ‘fatally underestimated’ the resolve of the West and Ukraine’s citizens under the leadership of ‘inspirational’ Volodymyr Zelensky. He stressed there is still ‘more things that we can and will do’ on sanctions,
But Ms Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre civil society organisation, stood up to lambast the West’s response.
Saying she had recently come over the border from Ukraine, she said her family and friends are still there.
‘Ukrainian women and Ukrainian children are in deep fear because of bombs and missiles which are going from the sky.
‘Ukrainian people are desperately asking for the rights to protect our sky, we are asking for a no-fly zone.
‘What’s the alternative for the no-fly zone?
‘Nato is not willing to defend because Nato is afraid of World War Three but it’s already started and it’s Ukrainian children who are there taking the hit.
‘You are talking about more sanctions Prime Minister but Roman Abramovich is not sanctioned, he’s in London, his children are not in the bombardments, his children are there in London.’
She added: ‘Putin’s children are in Netherlands, in Germany, in mansions, where all these mentioned seized? I don’t see that.
‘I see that my family members, that my team members, I’d say that we crying.
‘We don’t know where to run.’
Mr Abramovich vehemently denies he is close to the Kremlin or has done anything that would merit sanctions being imposed against him.
A Downing Street source said Mr Johnson ‘sympathised’ with Ms Kaleniuk’s ‘very important’ intervention. They are not thought to have spoken after the encounter.
Ms Kaleniuk’s group, which is funded by donations, and with the support of the US and the European Union, helped establish the country’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), as well as the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine – which was founded in 2019.
Ms Kaleniuk, who according to Linkedin studied law in Kharkiv before studying and working in the Chicago, US, for a year, co-founded the group with Vitaliy Shabunin, who is the head of the council of public control at NABU.
As co-founder of the group she has held talks with a number of high profile politicians, including Andy Baukol, then US acting Secretary of the Treasury, who she met in September last year, and George Kent, who served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2018 to 2021.
She visited Washington last year with Hanna Hopko, a former Member of Parliament and head of the committee on foreign affairs of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and the influential chairwoman of Ukrainian Democracy in Action.
And pictures from 2020 show her in discussion with Larry Fink – the billionaire businessman behind the highly influential BlackRock, an American multinational investment firm with an annual revenue of more than $22billion.
The pair are said to have discussed investment and the environment, according to her Facebook post.
Alongsider her work with AntAC, Ms Kalniuk has also founded resources aiming to track money laundering and corruption across the world and last year organised a Zero Corruption conference in Kyiv, where she was living prior to the Russian invasion.
She told the press conference in Poland she had escaped Ukraine ‘a couple of days’ ago but that most of her family and team remained in under siege Kyiv.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Ms Kaleniuk has called for heavy sanctions on Russia, including a no-fly, cutting Russia from the SWIFT banking system and arresting all Russian oligarchs and their family members – accusing them of being ‘enablers’ of the war.
She has demanded Russia be banned from world economy and financial markets and said Russia should be immediately removed from the UN Security Council.
‘If you can’t, just dissolve UN and throw it out from fancy offices in New York and other key cities at the West. Use these building for shelters of Ukrainians who are must flee their homes because of full impotence of international community,’ she said in a Facebook post last week.
She has also shared graphics comparing Vladimir Putin to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and has shared inspirational quotes from Winston Churchill.
Ms Kalniuk has previously shared her support for Hong Kong on social media, and has visited in China, having posted a picture of herself in the port city of Dalian in June 2019.
The confrontation came after Mr Johnson accused Mr Putin of using ‘barbaric and indiscriminate tactics’ against innocent Ukrainian civilians.
As the invading forces escalated their attacks with harrowing pictures of children falling victim to the violence, he warned that the world was witnessing an ‘unfolding disaster’.
The premier is now heading on to Estonia as the UK pushes for sanctions to be ratcheted up again.
In his speech, Mr Johnson said it was clear Putin is willing to ‘bomb tower blocks, to send missiles into tower blocks, to kill children, as we are seeing in increasing numbers’.
Heaping praise on Mr Zelensky he added: ‘I think he has inspired and mobilised not only his own people, he is inspiring and mobilising the world in outrage at what is happening in Ukraine.’
In a nod to criticism of the government’s visa offer to those fleeing Ukraine, Mr Johnson told Mr Morawiecki: ‘We stand ready, clearly, to take Ukrainian refugees in our own country, working with you, in considerable numbers, as we always have done and always will.’
In a speech in Warsaw afterwards, Mr Johnson said Putin is ‘tearing up every principle of civilised behaviour between states’ and Ukraine’s ‘spirit will not be broken’.
‘Putin has lied to his people and his troops about how this will go… and he has now been caught out in that lie.’
He added: ‘He has hurled his war machine on the people of Ukraine, a fellow Slavic country, he has bombarded civilian targets, fired rockets at blocks of flats, he is responsible for hundreds of civilian casualties including growing numbers of children.
‘And also, of course, for the deaths of many Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.
‘We must accept the grim reality that Putin will continue to tighten the vice and, if you go by the size and firepower of Vladimir Putin’s war machine, the odds have always been heavily against Ukrainian armed forces.’
Ms Kalniuk, who is a mother of two, has previously shared her support for Hong Kong on social media, and has visited in China, having posted a picture of herself in the port city of Dalian in June 2019
Since the invasion of Ukraine, Ms Kaleniuk has called for heavy sanctions on Russia, including a no-fly, cutting Russia from the SWIFT banking system and arresting all Russian oligarchs and their family members – accusing them of being ‘enablers’ of the war
She visited Washington last year with Hanna Hopko, a former Member of Parliament and head of the committee on foreign affairs of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and the influential chairwoman of Ukrainian Democracy in Action. Pictured: Daria Kaleniuk
Pictures from 2020 show her in discussion with Larry Fink – the billionaire businessman behind the highly influential BlackRock, an American multinational investment firm with an annual revenue of more than $22billio
Mr Johnson had ‘tripped and stubbed his toe’ on the fact that no matter how many troops and tanks he sends Ukrainians will want to be independent.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today warned that ‘nothing and no-one is off the table’ when it comes to punishing Russia – amid claims of ‘indisputable evidence’ of war crimes.
She delivered a stark message to Vladimir Putin and his allies that they will be held accountable as she gave a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Ms Truss said Mr Putin has ‘blood on his hands’ and the consequences ‘will only increase in breadth and severity’ as the conflict continues.
Delegates at the session staged a walkout when Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov appeared on screen to give a speech.
Meanwhile, Ireland has highlighted ‘deliberate’ targeting of civilians with a probe under way into the use of cluster bombs and vacuum bombs.
The UN says at least 136 civilians have been killed so far, including 13 children, and hundreds more injured.
Ms Truss told the UNHRC meeting: ‘Putin is responsible for civilian casualties and over 500,000 people fleeing with the numbers still rising fast. The blood is on Putin’s hands, not just of innocent Ukrainians but the men he has sent to die.
‘We’re using our collective heft, making up over half the world’s economy to cut funding from Putin’s war machine and we’re delivering severe economic costs through these sanctions as ordinary Russians are finding form queues at their local banks and rising interest rates.’
Ms Truss went on: ‘These consequences will only increase in breadth and severity as the conflict goes on, we’re working to squeeze the Putin regime harder and harder by steadily tightening the vice.
‘We’re going after the highest echelons of the Russian elite, targeting President Putin personally and all of those complicit in his aggression. Nothing and no one is off the table.’
Earlier, Mr Johnson said that Russians considering whether to follow Mr Putin’s orders should bear in mind that they will face justice in the end.
Ms Truss told the UNHRC session that ‘nothing and no-one is off the table’ when it comes to punishing Russia
He pointed out that Radovan Karadzic was eventually convicted of genocide during the war in the former Yugoslavia.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said there is ‘indisputable evidence’ of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
‘We’ve seen I think indisputable evidence now that war crimes are taking place in Ukraine – the brutalising of a number of Ukrainian cities, the deliberate targeting of civilians,’ he told reporters in Dublin.
‘First of all, it is now under investigation from the International Criminal Court, who have now opened a file on potential war crimes in Ukraine, and I think that says a lot.
‘But I think we can see for ourselves in terms of some of the social media pictures that are coming out, which I think are being stood over by the media organisations, as to the extent of civilian targeting in Ukrainian cities, which is essentially terrorising civilian populations.
‘And that is something that can’t go unchecked and we need to call it out.’
In a call with world leaders from the G7, Nato and the EU last night, Mr Johnson stressed the need for allies to continue to provide Kiev with defensive weapons.
He also said neighbouring countries will require support to deal with ‘large numbers of Ukrainians escaping violence’.
Mr Zelensky is said to be providing the PM with a ‘shopping list’ of military gear to fight the Russian advance in near-daily phone calls.
Mr Johnson is scheduled to visit British troops serving in Estonia, which shares a border with Russia, as well as holding talks with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
They will jointly visit British troops serving ‘on the front line of Russian aggression’ in Tapa, No 10 said, before meetings with Estonian PM Kaja Kallas and Estonian President Alar Karis to discuss security.
In a round of interviews this morning, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab warned Putin could resort to ‘even more barbaric tactics’ as his campaign stalls, and insisted any war crimes must be pursued.
Western ambassadors and diplomats walk out while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s pre-recorded video message is played to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva
Boris Johnson arrived in Poland today and will head for Estonia later as he vows to exert ‘maximum pressure’ on the Kremlin
Ukraine ambassador warns Putin could try to starve cities
Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko has warned that Russian invaders could try to starve civilians in major cities in a bid to win the war.
Asked about the possibility by MP Bob Seely, the ambassador told the Commons Foreign Affairs committee that Vladimir Putin was facing a ‘lack of progress’, with civilians meeting his tanks with ‘molotov cocktails from their cars’ rather than the ‘flowers’ he dreamed of.
‘The support and resilience is going so much against his plans and in Russia themselves start asking questions ‘what are we doing’,’ the ambassador said.
‘I believe they might use the tactics you described in the second part, try to block our cities, try to soften political position, try and maybe … some riots in Ukraine, because of the lack of food, against the Government.’
Mr Raab told Sky News: ‘Those that engage in war crimes will be held to account.’
He said it must be clear to ‘both to Putin but also to commanders in Moscow and on the ground in Ukraine that they will be held accountable for any violations of the laws of war’.
Voicing alarm at the prospects for escalation, Mr Raab said: ‘We know that Putin will react to this, or we fear that he will react to this, with even more barbaric tactics, that’s why we must be prepared that this could be a long haul.
The former foreign secretary added: ‘This is turning into a much, much more perilous misadventure for Putin than I think he realised and it has a demoralised effect on Russia forces and it has had the effect of steeling the will of the Ukrainian people.
‘That’s how we will ensure Putin fails in Ukraine and we’re there for the long haul.’
Britain’s UN ambassador Dame Barbara Woodward told an emergency meeting of the Security Council last night that Ukraine is on the brink of a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’.
As Russia continues its assault on the eastern European country, Dame Barbara was among those at the UN to accuse the Kremlin of launching ‘indiscriminate attacks against men, women and children’ and violating international humanitarian law.
She said: ‘As a result of President Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a country of 44 million people is now on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe.
‘Missiles have rained down on Kharkiv, with cluster munitions hitting residential areas and injuring residents. Disruption to supply chains has caused food shortages in Kramatorsk.
‘The reckless bombing of an oil depot in Vasylkiv, has unleashed toxic fumes in nearby communities.
‘Violence in Kyiv has forced people to seek refuge underground, with many thousands, including the elderly and disabled, unable to evacuate.’
The UK permanent representative to the UN told the Security Council that ‘hundreds of civilians had been killed as a result of the Russian invasion’ and seven million people had been displaced, with the figure ‘rising exponentially’.
Ukraine’s representative, Sergiy Kyslytsya, told the council that Kyiv was ‘sitting within Russian crosshairs right now’ and that 352 people, including 16 children, had been killed as of Monday in the fighting.
He accused Moscow troops of attacking hospitals and ambulances in a determination to ‘kill civilians’, adding: ‘There is no debate. These are war crimes.’
But Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian UN permanent representative, said his country’s armed forces did ‘not have the goal of occupying Ukraine or harming the local population’.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he plans to open an investigation ‘as rapidly as possible’ into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky echoed Mr Kyslytsya’s statements in an address late last night. In a video posted to social media, the leader said that in five days Russian forces had launched 56 missile strikes and 113 cruise missiles in Ukraine.
He added: ‘Today, Russian forces brutally fired on Kharkiv from jet artillery. It was clearly a war crime.
‘Kharkiv is a peaceful city, there are peaceful residential areas, no military facilities. Dozens of eyewitness accounts prove that this is not a single false volley, but deliberate destruction of people: the Russians knew where they were shooting.’
‘There will definitely be an international tribunal for this crime — it’s a violation of all conventions. No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful Ukrainian people,’ he said.
resident Volodymyr Zelensky is said to be providing the PM with a ‘shopping list’ of military gear to fight the Russian advance in near-daily phone calls
The bombardment of Kharkiv continued Tuesday morning with a rocket landing just in front of the civilian public administration building, destroying the road outside and blowing the windows out of the building itself. Footage from inside shows the building was heavily damaged, with ceilings collapsing and rubble strewn around
Belarus troops have invaded Ukraine, Kyiv claims, as 40-mile convoy of Putin’s artillery snakes towards the capital amid fears Russia will ‘use medieval tactics’ to bomb the city into submission as supermarket shelves run empty
Belarusian troops have joined in the invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv claimed today, as a 40-mile Russian convoy bared down on the capital amid warnings that Putin will now use ‘medieval tactics’ to try and force a bloody victory after being handed a series of embarrassing defeats in the opening days of the war.
Vitaliy Kyrylov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s North Territorial Defense Forces, said that Minsk’s men had entered the city of Chernihiv, north-east Ukraine, on Tuesday morning. Dictator Alexander Lukashenko acknowledged sending ‘rapid deployment groups’ to the border ‘to stop any military action against Belarus’, without acknowledging that his men had joined the attack.
It came as a convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks, artillery pieces and trucks was pictured snaking its way towards Kyiv, leading to fears that its mission will be to surround the city, besiege it, and bomb it into submission as Russian forces did in Syria while fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, said Russian forces may also try to spark a food crisis by cutting off supplies to major cities as pictures showed some store shelves already running empty in the capital. He said the military may have to step in to ensure everyone has access to food.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg today said Putin had ‘shattered peace in Europe’ with an invasion ‘enabled by Belarus’ while vowing to support Kyiv and defend ‘every inch’ of allied territory should the Russian strongman’s sights wander outside Ukraine’s borders.
But, speaking during a visit to the Lask airbase in NATO member Poland, Mr Stoltenberg repeated that the alliance is ‘defensive’ and that no troops will be sent to assist Ukraine. ‘NATO is not going to be part of the conflict,’ he said.
Russia already appeared to be employing siege tactics elsewhere in Ukraine today as the city of Mariupol, in the south, came under ‘constant shelling’ by Russian forces using artillery, Grad rockets, and fighter jets targeting civilians areas such as schools and homes which had left many dead, including women and children.
Power to the city, which is in danger of being surrounded by Russian forces, has been cut – region head Pavlo Kyrylenko said Tuesday – but it remains under Ukrainian control.
Kherson, another key city located in southern Ukraine with a bridge over the Dnieper River, also came under bombardment by Russian forces today as missiles landed near civilian buildings on the outskirts and troops were pictured moving through the streets.
Kharkiv, in the east, continued to be bombed today with a large rocket landing in front of the civilian public administration building, leaving the interior heavily damaged. It came just a day after the city was hit by cluster bombs that landed near a shopping centre, killing at least 11 people and leaving dozens more wounded.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN later said that a thermobaric ‘vacuum bomb’ was also used on the country, though did not saying exactly when or where.
President Volodymyr Zelensky this morning branded the Kharkiv bombing a ‘terrorist’ attack and branded Russia a ‘terrorist state’ while repeating calls for a war crimes investigation. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hauge has said that a probe will be established ‘as soon as possible’.
Philip Reeker, America’s Charge d’Affairs to the UK, warned separately that ‘medieval tactics are certainly what we can expect’ from Moscow’s forces going forward. ‘[That is] exactly what President Putin and the Russian military have in mind,’ he added.
Sergey Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said Tuesday morning that the invasion will continue until ‘objectives are met’ – which he said was to prevent Russia being threatened by the West.
In a grim sign of the carnage to come, he also warned that Ukraine’s army is using civilians as human shields in what looks to be an attempt to justify the deaths of innocents as they ramp up over the coming days.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both said that Russian forces appeared to have used widely banned cluster munitions, with Amnesty accusing them of attacking a preschool in northeastern Ukraine while civilians took shelter inside.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, told reporters after meeting with members of the U.S. Congress that Russia had used a thermobaric weapon, known as a vacuum bomb, in its invasion of her country.
‘They used the vacuum bomb today,’ Markarova said after a meeting with lawmakers. ‘…The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.’
A vacuum bomb, or thermobaric weapon, sucks in oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, typically producing a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than that of a conventional explosive and is capable of vaporizing human bodies.
There has been no official confirmation that thermobaric weapons have been used in the conflict in Ukraine. CNN reported that one of its teams had spotted a Russian thermobaric multiple rocket launcher near the Ukrainian border early on Saturday afternoon.
A convoy of Russian tanks, artillery pieces, fighting vehicles and support trucks now stretches all the way from Hostomel, on the outskirts of Kyiv, to the village of Prybirs’k some 40 miles away (part of the convoy is seen, right)
There are fears the purpose of the convoy (pictured) is to surround Kyiv, besiege it and bomb it into submission – mirroring tactics Russia used in Syria while fighting alongside the forces of Basahar al-Assad
A line of Russian vehicles is seen snaking its way via the town of Ivankiv towards Kyiv, around 40 miles to the south
Russian vehicles are seen to the southeast of Invankiv and heading towards Kyiv in this satellite image taken on Monday
A handout satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows part of a military convoy and burning buildings, northwest of Ivankiv
As Kyiv prepares for a dramatic escalation in bloodshed, Kherson, Kharkiv and Mariupol all came under shelling attack by Russian forces as Putin looks to achieve victory by brute forces after more-sophisticated tactics failed
People walk by a damaged vehicle and an armored car at a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv
A volunteer of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces walks by a damaged armored vehicle at a checkpoint in Brovary, Kyiv
A man reacts inside a vehicle damaged by shelling, in Brovary, outside Kyiv
Members of an Ukrainian civil defense unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown up bridge on Kyiv’s northern outskirts, where fighting with Russian forces has been taking place
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she had seen reports but did not have confirmation that Russia had used such weapons. ‘If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime,’ she told a press briefing, noting that there are international organizations that would assess that and President Joe Biden’s administration ‘would look to be a part of that conversation.’
The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Markarova said Ukraine was working actively with the Biden administration and Congress to obtain more weapons and tougher sanctions.
‘They should pay, they should pay a heavy price,’ she told reporters after leaving the meeting.
One lawmaker who attended the meeting, Democratic Representative Brad Sherman, said the Ukrainians had asked for a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine but that he felt that was too dangerous because it could provoke conflict with Russia.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could retaliate with increasingly ‘heavy-handed tactics’ if his invasion of Ukraine faces further hitches.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We can expect, for every stutter and stumble, him to try and come back for even more heavy-handed tactics, but that is a sign that the initial phase at least – and this is going to be a long haul – has not lived up to his expectations.’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their support amid the Russian invasion.
‘Olena and I are grateful to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge that, at this crucial time, when Ukraine is courageously opposing Russia’s invasion, they stand by our country and support our brave citizens,’ he tweeted.
‘Good will triumph.’
Amnesty International said international humanitarian law prohibits the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions. Launching indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians constitutes a war crime.
As the bloodshed ramps up, the Kremlin has found itself increasingly isolated by tough economic sanctions that have sent its currency plummeting.
After a first, five-hour session of talks between Ukraine and Russia yielded no stop in the fighting, both sides agreed to another meeting in coming days. Ukraine’s embattled president, however, said he believed the stepped-up shelling was designed to force him into concessions.
‘I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the talks that took place Monday, but he said Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions ‘when one side is hitting another with rocket artillery.’
Six days into the invasion, the Russian military’s movements have been stalled by fierce resistance on the ground and a surprising inability to dominate the airspace. Many Ukrainian civilians, meanwhile, spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors.
‘I sit and pray for these negotiations to end successfully, so that they reach an agreement to end the slaughter,’ said Alexandra Mikhailova, weeping as she clutched her cat in a shelter in Mariupol. Around her, parents tried to console children and keep them warm.
The Kremlin has twice in as many days raised the specter of nuclear war and put on high alert an arsenal that includes intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range bombers. Stepping up his rhetoric, President Vladimir Putin denounced the United States and its allies as an ’empire of lies.’
Supermarket shelves have started to run empty in Kyiv as the city is slowly encircled and besieged by Putin’s forces
A woman looks at empty shelves that typically contain in Kyiv, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues
A view of empty shelves in a local grocery in Kyiv, Ukraine, as Russian tightens the noose around the capital
A photo shows empty shelves at a market due to the problems in food stocks, in Ukrainian capital Kyiv
Houses destroyed as a result of shelling by the Russian army in Bucha, Kyiv
Military equipment destroyed during the hostilities with the Russian army in Bucha
Military equipment destroyed during the hostilities with the Russian army in Bucha, Kyiv
Burned bits of polystyrene litter the road – evidence that homemade Molotov cocktails were used against Russian military vehicles during fighting in Bucha, near Kyiv
Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union – a largely symbolic move for now, but one that won’t sit well with Putin, who has long accused the United States of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscow’s orbit.
A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that during the first talks held between the sides since the invasion, the envoys ‘found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen.’ He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the days ahead.
As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city and stretched about 40 miles, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.
People in Kyiv lined up for groceries after the end of a weekend curfew, standing beneath a building with a gaping hole blown in its side. Kyiv remained ‘a key goal’ for the Russians, Zelenskyy said, noting that it was hit by three missile strikes on Monday and that hundreds of saboteurs were roaming the city.
‘They want to break our nationhood, that’s why the capital is constantly under threat,’ Zelenskyy said.
Messages aimed at the advancing Russian soldiers popped up on billboards, bus stops and electronic traffic signs across the capital. Some used profanity to encourage Russians to leave. Others appealed to their humanity.
‘Russian soldier – Stop! Remember your family. Go home with a clean conscience,’ one read.
Video from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, showed residential areas being shelled, with apartment buildings shaken by repeated, powerful blasts.
Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher.
‘They wanted to have a blitzkrieg, but it failed, so they act this way,’ said 83-year-old Valentin Petrovich, who watched the shelling from his downtown apartment. He gave just his first name and his patronymic, a middle name derived from his father’s name, out of fear for his safety.
The Russian military has denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of homes, schools and hospitals.
Fighting raged in other towns and cities. The strategic port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, is ‘hanging on,’ said Zelenskyy adviser Oleksiy Arestovich. An oil depot was reported bombed in the eastern city of Sumy.
Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, and more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, the head of the region wrote on Telegram. Dmytro Zhyvytskyy posted photographs of the charred shell of a four-story building and rescuers searching rubble.
In a later Facebook post, he said many Russian soldiers and some local residents also were killed during the fighting on Sunday. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Despite its superior military strength, Russia still lacked control of Ukrainian airspace. This may help explain how Ukraine has so far prevented a rout.
In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, dozens of protesters chanted angrily in the main square against Russian occupiers, yelling at them to go home and singing the Ukrainian national anthem. They described the soldiers as exhausted young conscripts.
Kharkiv was struck by more Russian rockets on Tuesday morning, with one striking outside the civilian public administration building which was heavily damaged in the blast. The rocket can be seen a split second before it slams into the building, triggering a massive blast
The rocket caused huge damage to the building and threw up a huge plume of smoke in the aftermath of the explosion
This image, posted by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, shows the square outside the administrative building covered in rubble following the rocket attack
A view shows the regional administration building following the Russian rocket attack in central Kharkiv, Ukraine, March 1, 2022
Rescue workers and medics are pictured close to the regional administration building in central Kharkiv, picking their way through the debris following the explosion
The bombardment of Kharkiv continued Tuesday morning with a rocket landing just in front of the civilian public administration building, destroying the road outside and blowing the windows out of the building itself. Footage from inside shows the building was heavily damaged, with ceilings collapsing and rubble strewn around
‘Frightened kids, frightened looks. They want to eat,’ Konstantin Maloletka, who runs a small shop, said by telephone. He said the soldiers went into a supermarket and grabbed canned meat, vodka and cigarettes.
‘They ate right in the store,’ he said. ‘It looked like they haven’t been fed in recent days.’
For many, Russia’s announcement of a nuclear high alert stirred fears that the West could be drawn into direct conflict with Russia. But a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had yet to see any appreciable change in Russia’s nuclear posture.
As far-reaching Western sanctions on Russian banks and other institutions took hold, the ruble plummeted, and Russia’s Central Bank scrambled to shore it up, as did Putin, signing a decree restricting foreign currency.
But that did little to calm Russian fears. In Moscow, people lined up to withdraw cash as the sanctions threatened to drive up prices and reduce the standard of living for millions of ordinary Russians.
In yet another blow to Russia’s economy, oil giant Shell said it was pulling out of the country because of the invasion. It announced it will withdraw from its joint ventures with state-owned gas company Gazprom and other entities and end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Russia and Europe.
The economic sanctions, ordered by the U.S. and other allies, were just one contributor to Russia’s growing status as a pariah country.
Russian airliners are banned from European airspace, Russian media is restricted in some countries, and some high-tech products can no longer be exported to the country. On Monday, in a major blow to a soccer-mad nation, Russian teams were suspended from all international soccer.
In other developments:
– The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he will open an investigation soon into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
– Cyberattacks hit Ukrainian embassies around the world, and Russian media outlets.
– The United States announced it is expelling 12 members of Russia’s U.N. mission, accusing them of spying.
The U.N. human rights chief said at least 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded – warning that figure is probably a vast undercount – and Ukraine’s president said at least 16 children were among the dead.
More than a half-million people have fled the country since the invasion, another U.N. official said, many of them going to Poland, Romania and Hungary.
Among the refugees in Hungary was Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology project manager from a city west of Kyiv. She said her father stayed behind to fight the Russians.
‘I am proud about him,’ she said, adding that many of her friends were planning to fight, too.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10563639/Boris-vows-maximum-pressure-Putin-heads-Poland-Estonia.html