Joe Biden meets top Ukrainian ministers in Warsaw

 

Warsaw, MAR 26: Joe Biden on Saturday met in Warsaw with two Ukrainian ministers in the first face-to-face talks between the US president and top Kyiv officials since Russia’s invasion began.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov made a rare trip out of Ukraine in a possible sign of growing confidence in the fightback against Russian forces.

The meeting took place at the Marriott Hotel in the city centre — opposite a Warsaw train station where there has been a constant flow of Ukrainian refugees since the conflict started.

Biden could be seen seated at a long white table between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, facing Kuleba and Reznikov, the reporter said.

There were Ukrainian and US flags in the background.

Biden last met Kuleba in Washington on February 22 — two days before Russia began its assault.

Since then, Kuleba has also met with Blinken in Poland next to the border with Ukraine on March 5.

Biden is on the second and final day of a visit to Poland after he met with European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders in Brussels earlier in the week.

On Friday, he met with US soldiers stationed in Poland near the Ukrainian border and with aid workers helping refugees fleeing the conflict.

He praised Ukrainians for showing “backbone” against the Russian invasion and compared their resistance to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in China in 1989.

“This is Tiananmen Square squared,” he said.

He also referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a man who, quite frankly, I think is a war criminal”.

“And I think we’ll meet the legal definition of that as well,” he said.

Biden said he would have liked to see the devastation caused by the conflict “first-hand”.

“They won’t let me, understandably I guess, cross the border,” he said.

Speaking to the troops, he said: “You’re in the midst of a fight between democracies and autocrats. What you’re doing is consequential, really consequential.”

Later on Saturday, he is due to meet with Polish leaders, visit a reception centre for refugees and give a major speech on the conflict.

--------------------------------------

Courtesy Dawn News

-----------

Putin says Ukraine’s future in doubt as ceasefires collapse

 

MOSCOW, MAR 6: A promised ceasefire in the besieged port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror but a pro-Russian official said safe-passage corridors would open again for city residents on Sunday, while Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the ongoing resistance is putting Ukrainian statehood in jeopardy and likened the West’s sanctions on Russia to “declaring war”.

With the Kremlin’s rhetoric growing fiercer and a reprieve from fighting dissolving, Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities and the number of Ukrainians forced from their country grew to 1.4 million.

By nighttime on Saturday, Russian forces had intensified their shelling of Mariupol, while dropping powerful bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Bereft mothers mourned slain children, wounded soldiers were fitted with tourniquets and doctors worked by the light of their cellphones as bleakness and desperation pervaded. Crowds of men lined up in the capital to join the Ukrainian military.

The government has ordered men between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay and be available to fight. Some, like Volodymyr Onysko, have volunteered.

“We know why we are here. We know why we defend our country,” Onysko told Britain’s Sky News. “We know what we are doing, and that’s why we will win.”

Eduard Basurin, the head of the military in separatist-held Donetsk territory, said safe passage corridors for residents of two cities in the region — Mariupol and Volnovakha — would be open again on Sunday.

He did not give any details on how long the corridors would remain open, nor whether there would be a ceasefire to facilitate the evacuation of the two cities. He made the comments on Russian state television.

Russia’s defence ministry said the country had struck and disabled Ukraine’s Starokostiantyniv military airbase with long-range high-precision weapons.

“The Russia armed forces continue to strike the military infrastructure of Ukraine,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“On the morning of March 6, strikes were carried out by high-precision long-range weapons. The Ukrainian air force base near Starokostiantyniv was disabled.”

He said a Ukrainian-controlled S-300 missile system had also been destroyed by Russian rocket forces. He said Russia had downed 10 Ukrainian planes and helicopters over the past 24 hours.

Putin continued to pin the blame for the war squarely on the Ukrainian leadership and slammed their resistance to the invasion.

“If they continue to do what they are doing, they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood,” he said on Saturday. “And if this happens, it will be entirely on their conscience.”

He also hit out at Western sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy and sent the value of its currency tumbling.

“These sanctions that are being imposed, they are akin to declaring war,” he said during a televised meeting with flight attendants from Russian airline Aeroflot. “But thank God, we haven’t got there yet.”

Escalating situation

Russia’s financial system suffered yet another blow as Mastercard and Visa announced they were suspending operations in the country.

Ten days after Russian forces invaded, the struggle to enforce the temporary ceasefires in Mariupol and Volnovakha showed the fragility of efforts to stop the fighting across Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said Russian artillery fire and airstrikes had prevented residents from leaving before the agreed-to evacuations got underway. Putin accused Ukraine of sabotaging the effort.

A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place on Monday, according to Davyd Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation. He gave no additional details, including where they would take place.

Previous meetings were held in Belarus and led to the failed ceasefire agreement to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of children, women and older people from besieged cities, where pharmacies have run bare, hundreds of thousands face food and water shortages, and the injured have been succumbing to their wounds.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said thousands of residents had gathered for safe passage out of the city of 430,000 when the shelling began and the evacuation was stopped. Later in the day, he said the attack had escalated further.

“The city is in a very, very difficult state of siege,” Boychenko told Ukrainian TV. “Relentless shelling of residential blocks is ongoing, airplanes have been dropping bombs on residential areas. The Russian occupants are using heavy artillery, including Grad multiple rocket launchers.”

Russia has made significant advances in the south, seeking to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea. Capturing Mariupol could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Meanwhile, the head of the Chernihiv region said Russia has dropped powerful bombs on residential areas of the city of the same name, which has a population of 290,000. Vyacheslav Chaus posted a photo online of what he said was an undetonated FAB-500, a 500-kilogramme bomb.

“Usually this weapon is used against military-industrial facilities and fortified structures,” Chaus said.

In a speech to Ukrainians, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed to “the 500kg bombs that were dropped on the houses of Ukrainians. Look at Borodyanka, at the destroyed schools, at the blown-up kindergartens. At the damaged Kharkiv Assumption Cathedral. Look what Russia has done.”

The West has broadly backed Ukraine, offering aid and weapons and slapping Russia with vast sanctions. But the fight itself has been left to Ukrainians, who have expressed a mixture of courageous resolve and despondency.

“Ukraine is bleeding,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a video released on Saturday, “but Ukraine has not fallen.”

Russian troops advanced on a third nuclear power plant, having already taken control of one of the four operating in the country and the closed plant in Chernobyl, Zelenskyy told US lawmakers.

Zelenskyy pleaded with the lawmakers for additional help, specifically fighter planes to help secure the skies over Ukraine, even as he insisted Russia was being defeated.

“We’re inflicting losses on the occupants they could not see in their worst nightmare,” Zelenskyy said.

Russian troops took control of the southern port city of Kherson this week. Although they have encircled Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, Ukrainian forces have managed to keep control of key cities in central and southeastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

Frenetic meetings

US President Joe Biden called Zelenskyy early on Sunday, Kyiv time, to discuss Russia sanctions and speeding US assistance to Ukraine.

The White House said the conversation also covered talks between Russia and Ukraine but did not give details.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Poland to meet with the prime minister and foreign minister, a day after attending a Nato meeting in Brussels in which the alliance pledged to step up support for eastern flank members.

Blinken also spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who said Beijing opposes any moves that “add fuel to the flames” in Ukraine, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Blinken said the world is watching to see which nations stand up for freedom and sovereignty, the State Department said.

In Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Putin at the Kremlin. Israel maintains good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, and Bennett has offered to act as an intermediary in the conflict, but no details of the meeting emerged immediately.

Bennett’s office said he spoke twice with Zelenskyy afterwards.

In the wake of Western sanctions, Aeroflot, Russia’s flagship state-owned airline, announced plans to halt all international flights except to Belarus starting on Tuesday.

The death toll of the conflict was difficult to measure. The UN human rights office said at least 351 civilians have been confirmed killed since the February 24 invasion, but the true number is probably much higher.

Ukraine’s military is vastly outmatched by Russia’s, but its professional and volunteer forces have fought back with fierce tenacity. Even in cities that have fallen, there were signs of resistance.

Onlookers in Chernihiv cheered as they watched a Russian military plane fall from the sky and crash, according to video released by the Ukrainian government. In Kherson, hundreds of protesters waved blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and shouted, “Go home.”

A vast Russian armoured column threatening Ukraine’s capital remained stalled outside Kyiv.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said in the afternoon that the military situation was quieter overall and Russian forces hadn’t “taken active actions since the morning”.

The US Congress is considering a request for $10 billion in emergency funding for humanitarian aid and security needs.

The UN said it would increase its humanitarian operations both inside and outside Ukraine, and the Security Council scheduled a meeting for Monday on the worsening situation.

The UN World Food Programme has warned of an impending hunger crisis in Ukraine, a major global wheat supplier, saying millions will need food aid “immediately”.

Kyiv’s central train station remained crowded with people desperate to flee. “People just want to live,” one woman, Ksenia, said.

--------------------------------------------------

Courtesy Dawn News

-----------------

Neutral Finland, Sweden warm to idea of Nato membership in wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

 

Kyiv, MAR 3: Through the Cold War and the decades since, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining Nato — until now.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining Nato has surged to record levels.

A poll commissioned by Finnish broadcaster YLE this week showed that, for the first time, more than 50 per cent of Finns support joining the Western military alliance. In neighbouring Sweden, a similar poll showed those in favour of Nato membership outnumber those against it.

“The unthinkable might start to become thinkable,” tweeted former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, a proponent of Nato membership.

Neither country is going to join the alliance overnight. Support for Nato membership rises and falls, and there’s no clear majority for joining in their parliaments.

But the signs of change since Russia began its invasion last week are unmistakable.

The attack on Ukraine prompted both Finland and Sweden to break with their policy of not providing arms to countries at war by sending assault rifles and anti-tank weapons to Kyiv. For Sweden, it’s the first time offering military aid since 1939, when it assisted Finland against the Soviet Union.

Apparently sensing a shift among its Nordic neighbours, the Russian Foreign Ministry last week voiced concern about what it described as efforts by the United States and some of its allies to “drag” Finland and Sweden into Nato and warned that Moscow would be forced to take retaliatory measures if they joined the alliance.

The governments of Sweden and Finland retorted that they won’t let Moscow dictate their security policy.

“I want to be extremely clear: It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said.

Finland has a conflict-ridden history with Russia, with which it shares a 1,340-kilometre border. Finns have taken part in dozens of wars against their eastern neighbour, for centuries as part of the Swedish Kingdom, and as an independent nation during the world wars, including two fought with the Soviet Union from 1939-40 and 1941-44.

In the postwar period, however, Finland pursued pragmatic political and economic ties with Moscow, remaining militarily nonaligned and a neutral buffer between East and West.

Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, choosing a path of peace after centuries of warfare with its neighbours.

Both countries put an end to traditional neutrality by joining the European Union in 1995 and deepening cooperation with Nato. However, a majority of people in both countries remained firmly against full membership in the alliance — until Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The YLE poll showed 53pc were in favour of Finland joining Nato, with only 28pc against. The poll had an error margin of 2.5 percentage points and included 1,382 respondents interviewed from February 23 to 25. Russia’s invasion began on Feb 24.

“It’s a very significant shift,” said senior researcher Matti Pesu from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “We’ve had a situation in the past 25-30 years where Finns’ opinions on Nato have been very stable. It seems to now to have changed completely.”

While noting that it’s not possible to draw conclusions from a single poll, Pesu said no similar shift in public opinion occurred after Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia and the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, “so this is an exception”.

In Sweden, a late February poll commissioned by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT found 41pc of Swedes supported Nato membership and 35pc opposed it, marking the first time that those in favour exceeded those against.

The Nordic duo, important partners for Nato in the Baltic Sea area where Russia has substantially increased its military manoeuvres in the past decade, has strongly stressed that it is up to them alone to decide whether to join the military alliance.

In his New Year’s speech, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto pointedly said that “Finland’s room to manoeuvre and freedom of choice also include the possibility of military alignment and of applying for Nato membership, should we ourselves so decide.”

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted last week that for Helsinki and Stockholm “this is a question of self-determination and the sovereign right to choose your own path and then potentially in the future, also to apply for Nato.”

There are no set criteria for joining Nato, but aspiring candidates must meet certain political and other considerations. Many observers believe Finland and Sweden would qualify for fast-track entry into Nato without lengthy negotiations and membership could be a reality within months.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said this week that her Social Democratic Party would discuss possible Nato membership with other parties but didn’t set a time frame. She said everyone agrees that the events of the past weeks have been a game-changer.

“Together we see that the security situation has changed remarkably since Russia attacked Ukraine. It is a fact that we have to acknowledge,” Marin said.

--------------------------------------------

Courtesy Dawn News

----------------

Pakistan stays on sidelines as UN debates Ukraine

 

UNITED NATIONS, MAR 2: Pakistan allowed its turn to pass as the UN General Assembly on Tuesday continued to debate a resolution demanding immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

In Washington, the US State Department urged journalists not to “focus on individual specific countries” when they asked questions about India’s abstentions.

On Friday, India did not vote on a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Russian invasion.

Two days later, India abstained again when the Security Council voted to convene an emergency special session of the 193-member General Assembly to debate the crisis.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken telephoned his Indian counterpart and urged him to back US efforts in the United Nations and other international platforms.

Pakistan, which is trying not to take sides on this issue, stayed away from both sessions. As a UN member, Pakistan can participate in the UNGA debate, which entered its second day on Tuesday, but so far it has avoided doing so.

Indications are that Pakistan wants to avoid getting involved in the dispute which places it in an uncomfortable position. Pakistan is a traditional US ally, which once provided Washington a corridor to reach out to China.

Relations between the two countries, however, have strained recently, as the United States grew closer to India, which now has a key role in the US efforts to contain China.

China is Pakistan’s closest ally which supports Islamabad on key issues on various international fora, such as the United Nations and the FATF.

Diplomatic observers in Washington claim that China also played a key role in arranging Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia last week. 

The observers argue that Pakistan is gradually orbiting out of the American influence and getting closer to both China and Russia, a claim Islamabad rejects as incorrect.

Pakistan says it wants to maintain close ties with both China and the United States and apparently that’s why it does not want to get involved in the Ukrainian dispute.

The United Arab Emirates had also abstained from voting on both occasions.

-------------------------------------------

Courtesy Dawn News

----------------

Qureshi underscores 'importance of de-escalation' in phone call with Ukrainian FM Kuleba

 

ISLAMABAD, FEB 27: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday held a telephonic conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and “underscored the importance of de-escalation”.

In a statement, the Foreign Office (FO) said that Qureshi “shared Pakistan’s perspective in detail, reiterating serious concern at the situation, underscoring the importance of de-escalation, and stressing the indispensability of diplomacy”.

Qureshi also noted that Prime Minister Imran Khan, during his recent visit to Moscow, had regretted the latest situation between Russia and Ukraine and said that Pakistan had hoped diplomacy could avert a military conflict.

“[Qureshi] stressed that conflict was not in anyone’s interest and that developing countries were always hit the hardest economically in case of conflict. The foreign minister underlined Pakistan’s belief that disputes should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy,” the FO statement said.

FM Qureshi also discussed the evacuation of Pakistani citizens and students in Ukraine with his counterpart.

“He appreciated the role played by the Ukrainian authorities in the evacuation process and asked for continued facilitation and smooth border crossing at the earliest possible,” the FO said, adding that the two ministers agreed to remain in contact.

During the Moscow visit, PM Imran had conveyed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he regretted the situation developing between Russia and Ukraine, adding that Islamabad had hoped that military conflict could be averted through a diplomatic solution.

A communiqué issued after the meeting between the two leaders stated that the prime minister stressed that conflict was not in anyone’s interest and that developing countries were always hardest hit economically in case of conflict. “He underlined Pakistan’s belief that disputes should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.”

----------------------------------------

Courtesy Dawn News

-----------------

Ukraine says will meet Russia as Putin puts 'nuclear deterrence' forces on alert

 

MOSCOW, FEB 27: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military command to put nuclear-armed forces on high alert on Sunday as Ukrainian fighters defending the city of Kharkiv said they had repelled an attack by invading Russian troops.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that “President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable and we have to continue to stem his actions in the strongest possible way”.

On the fourth day of the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two, the Ukrainian president's office said negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would be held at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border. They would meet without preconditions, it said.

The meeting is set to take place near Chernobyl — the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians, mainly women and children, were fleeing from the Russian assault into neighbouring countries.

The capital Kyiv was still in Ukrainian government hands, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rallying his people despite Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure.

But Putin, who has described the invasion as a “special military operation”, thrust an alarming new element into play on Sunday when he ordered Russia's deterrence forces — a reference to units which include nuclear arms — onto high alert.

He cited aggressive statements by Nato leaders and economic sanctions imposed by the West against Moscow.

“As you can see, not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension — I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well — but also the top officials of leading Nato countries allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our country,” Putin said on state television.

Russian soldiers and armoured vehicles rolled into Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, and witnesses reported firing and explosions. But city authorities said Ukrainian fighters had repelled the attack.

“Control over Kharkiv is completely ours! The armed forces, the police, and the defence forces are working, and the city is being completely cleansed of the enemy,” regional Governor Oleh Sinegubov said.

Reuters was unable to immediately corroborate the information. Ukrainian forces were also holding off Russian troops advancing on Kyiv.

“We have withstood and are successfully repelling enemy attacks. The fighting goes on,” Zelenskiy said in a video message from the streets of Kyiv.

In other developments, Russian troops blew up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkiv before daybreak, a Ukrainian state agency said, sending a burning cloud up into the darkness.

Ukraine lodges case against Russia in The Hague

Ukraine also lodged a complaint against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to get it to halt its invasion.

Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression," Zelensky declared in a tweet.

"We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week."

The ICJ, which is based in the Netherlands capital The Hague, does not have a mandate to bring criminal charges against individual Russian leaders behind the four-day-old invasion.

But it is the world's top court for resolving legal complaints between states over alleged breaches of international law. It is the supreme judicial institution of the United Nations.

Banking curbs on Russia

The US, European Union and the United Kingdom agreed to block “selected” Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging system, which moves money around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions worldwide, part of a new round of sanctions aiming to impose a severe cost on Moscow for the invasion.

They also agreed to impose ”restrictive measures” on Russia’s central bank.

It was unclear how much territory Russian forces had seized or to what extent their advance had been stalled. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said, “the speed of the Russian advance has temporarily slowed likely as a result of acute logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance.”

A senior US defence official said more than half the Russian combat power that was massed along Ukraine’s borders had entered the country and Moscow has had to commit more fuel supply and other support units inside Ukraine than originally anticipated.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal US assessments.

The curfew forcing everyone in Kyiv inside was set to last through Monday morning. The relative quiet of the capital was sporadically broken by gunfire.

Russian Army military vehicles drive along a street, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine, in the town of Armyansk, Crimea on Feb 24, 2022. — Reuters

Fighting on the city’s outskirts suggested that small Russian units were trying to clear a path for the main forces. Small groups of Russian troops were reported inside Kyiv, but Britain and the US said the bulk of the forces were 30 kilometres from the city’s centre as of Saturday afternoon.

Russia claims its assault on Ukraine from the north, east and south is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighbourhoods have been hit.

Ukraine’s health minister reported on Saturday that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded during Europe’s largest land war since World War II. It was unclear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties.

A missile struck a high-rise apartment building in Kyiv’s southwestern outskirts near one of the city’s two passenger airports, leaving a jagged hole of ravaged apartments over several floors. A rescue worker said six civilians were injured.

200 Russian soldiers captured

Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said troops in Kyiv were fighting Russian “sabotage groups.” Ukraine says some 200 Russian soldiers have been captured and thousands killed.

Markarova said Ukraine was gathering evidence of shelling of residential areas, kindergartens and hospitals to submit to The Hague as possible crimes against humanity.

Zelenskyy reiterated his openness to talks with Russia in a video message, saying he welcomed an offer from Turkey and Azerbaijan to organize diplomatic efforts, which so far have faltered.

The Kremlin confirmed a phone call between Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev but gave no hint of restarting talks.

A day earlier, Zelenskyy offered to negotiate a key Russian demand: abandoning ambitions of joining Nato.

Putin sent troops into Ukraine after denying for weeks that he intended to do so, all the while building up a force of almost 200,000 troops along the countries’ borders.

He claims the West has failed to take seriously Russia’s security concerns about Nato, the Western military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join. But he has also expressed scorn about Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent state.

The effort was already coming at great cost to Ukraine, and apparently to Russian forces as well.

Ukrainian artillery fire destroyed a Russian train delivering diesel to troops heading toward Kyiv from the east, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister.

The country’s Infrastructure Ministry said a Russian missile was shot down early on Saturday as it headed for the dam of the sprawling reservoir that serves Kyiv.

The government also said a Russian convoy was destroyed. Video images showed soldiers inspecting burned-out vehicles after Ukraine’s 101st brigade reported destroying a column of two light vehicles, two trucks and a tank. The claim could not be verified.

Highways into Kyiv from the east were dotted with checkpoints manned by Ukrainian troops and young men in civilian clothes carrying automatic rifles. Low-flying planes patrolled the skies, though it was unclear if they were Russian or Ukrainian.

In addition to Kyiv, the Russian assault appeared to focus on Ukraine’s economically vital coastal areas, from near the Black Sea port of Odesa in the west to beyond the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in the east.

Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol guarded bridges and blocked people from the shoreline amid concerns the Russian navy could launch an assault from the sea.

“I don’t care anymore who wins and who doesn’t,” said Ruzanna Zubenko, whose large family was forced from their home outside Mariupol after it was badly damaged by shelling.

“The only important thing is for our children to be able to grow up smiling and not crying.”

Fighting also raged in two eastern territories controlled by pro-Russia separatists. Authorities in Donetsk said hot water supplies to the city of about 900,000 were suspended because of damage to the system by Ukrainian shelling.

Ukrainian president declines US offer

The US government urged Zelenskyy early on Saturday to evacuate Kyiv but he turned down the offer, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation. Zelenskyy issued a defiant video recorded on a downtown street, saying he remained in the city.

Ukrainian servicemen walk by a damaged vehicle, at the site of fighting with Russian troops, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb 26, 2022.

“We aren’t going to lay down weapons. We will protect the country,” he said. “Our weapon is our truth, and our truth is that it’s our land, our country, our children. And we will defend all of that.”

Hungary and Poland both opened their borders to Ukrainians.

Refugees arriving in the Hungarian border town of Zahony said men between the ages of 18 and 60 were not being allowed to leave Ukraine. “My son was not allowed to come. My heart is so sore, I’m shaking,” said Vilma Sugar, 68.

At Poland’s Medyka crossing, some said they had walked for 15 miles (35km) to reach the border.

“They didn’t have food, no tea, they were standing in the middle of a field, on the road, kids were freezing,” Iryna Wiklenko said as she waited on the Polish side for her grandchildren and daughter-in-law to make it across.

Officials in Kyiv urged residents to stay away from windows to avoid debris or bullets.

Shelves were sparsely stocked at grocery stores and pharmacies, and people worried how long food and medicine supplies might last.

The US and its allies have beefed up forces on Nato's eastern flank but so far have ruled out deploying troops to fight Russia. Instead, the US, the European Union and other countries have slapped wide-ranging sanctions on Russia, freezing the assets of businesses and individuals including Putin and his foreign minister.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, warned that Moscow could react by opting out of the last remaining nuclear arms pact, freezing Western assets and cutting diplomatic ties.

“There is no particular need in maintaining diplomatic relations,” Medvedev said. “We may look at each other in binoculars and gunsights.”

-----------------------------------------------------

Courtesy Dawn News

--------------------

Ukraine takes Russia to Int’l Court of Justice

 

Kyiv, FEB 27: Ukraine has taken Russia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the country’s president said on Sunday. “Ukraine has submitted its application against Russia to the ICJ. 

Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter.

“We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week,” he added.

----------------------------------------------

Courtesy Anews

------------

Greek PM Mitsotakis tells Zelensky ready to provide help to Ukraine

 

Greece‘s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, saying Greece had favoured the harshest European Union sanctions against Russia after its attack and stood ready to provide assistance.

Greece’s health ministry is sending medicines and medical supplies to Ukraine, Mitsotakis’ office said.

Greece‘s embassy staff and its ambassador in Kyiv, who left the city on Friday by car on safety concerns, had safely passed the Moldavian border, the ambassador himself and foreign ministry officials said.

Consulates in Mariupol and Odessa will remain open to assist Greek citizens and expatriates, they added.

Russian forces pounded Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv with artillery and cruise missiles on Saturday for the third day running.

--------------------------------

Courtesy Anews

----------------