- Chubais was the architect of the Yeltsin-era reforms
- Biden on first trip abroad since war began
- Destruction of Mariupol seen in new satellite images
LVIV/MYKOLAIV/KHARKIV, Ukraine, March 23 – A veteran Kremlin envoy has resigned and left Russia with no intention of returning, a source said on Wednesday, the first senior official to reportedly resign. since Russia started its invasion of Ukraine a month ago.
Anatoly Chubais was one of the main architects of Boris Yeltsin’s economic reforms in the 1990s and held senior economic and political positions under President Vladimir Putin. He has been Putin’s special envoy to international organizations since 2020.
Chubais hung up when contacted by Reuters. The source didn’t say why he quit or where he was.
US President Joe Biden flies to Europe on Wednesday for an emergency NATO summit over Ukraine, where invading Russian troops are stalling, cities are being bombed and the besieged port of Mariupol is ablaze.
Four weeks after a war that drove a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes, Russia has failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city while Western sanctions lock it out of the world economy.
After the failure of what Western countries described as an attempt to capture Kyiv and overthrow the government, Russian forces have suffered heavy casualties, been frozen on most fronts for at least a week, and are facing supply problems and fierce resistance.
They have turned to siege tactics and bombing of cities, resulting in massive destruction and many civilian casualties.
Moscow says its goal is to disarm its neighbor and its “military special operation” is on track. She denies attacking civilians.
Worst hit was Mariupol, a southern port completely surrounded by Russian forces, where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge since the early days of the war, under constant bombardment and without food, water and heat supplies.
New satellite images released overnight by trading firm Maxar showed massive destruction of what was once a town of 400,000, with plumes of smoke rising from burning apartment buildings.
Journalists have been unable to report from Ukrainian-controlled parts of the city for more than a week, during which time Ukrainian officials said Russia bombed a theater and art school used as a bomb shelter, burying hundreds of people alive. Russia denies targeting these buildings.
Biden, who is due to arrive in Brussels on Wednesday evening, will meet NATO and European leaders for an emergency summit at the Western military alliance’s headquarters. Leaders are expected to impose additional sanctions on Russia on Thursday. Sources said the US package will include measures against Russian MPs.
Biden will also visit Poland, which has hosted most of the more than 3.6 million refugees who fled Ukraine and has been the main route for Western arms shipments to Ukraine.
In a sign of Moscow’s continued isolation, Poland announced it would expel 45 Russian diplomats accused of either being covert spies or being “associated” with them. Several other Eastern European countries have announced similar moves in recent days, albeit not on as large a scale. Russia has denied all allegations. Continue reading
‘going nowhere’
For Ukrainians, life goes on under the relentless bombardment. In Kharkiv in the east, a maternity hospital had moved patients to the basement for safety. Crying mother Yana rocked her baby in a room with beds against the walls. Her house was bombed. “I have nowhere to go,” she said.
Far away in Mykolaiv, a southern port that Russian forces have tried and failed to storm for the past 10 days, Tamara Kravchuk, 37, lay happily with her baby, just minutes old, on her chest. She was scared, especially when explosions struck just 500 meters from the hospital, she said. But baby Katya has her fears melted away.
“I think the war will end and we will live as before, our life will be calm again,” she said. “I hope our kids don’t see all these crazy things and everything will be fine.”
Despite its losses to date, Russia may still be hoping for more gains on the battlefield, particularly in the east, in areas like Mariupol that Moscow is demanding Ukraine cede to Russian-backed separatists.
In a daily intelligence update, Britain’s MoD said the entire battlefield in northern Ukraine – which includes huge columns of tanks that once headed for Kyiv – is now “static” and the invaders appeared to be trying to reorganize.
But to the east, the Russians were attempting to link troops in Mariupol with those near Kharkiv in hopes of encircling Ukrainian forces, while to the southwest they bypassed the city of Mykolaiv to try to hit Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port. to advance.
Ukrainian officials described overnight sporadic bombings in other cities that killed two civilians in the Mykolayiv region, destroyed a bridge in the Chernihiv region and hit residential buildings and a shopping center in two districts of Kyiv, injuring at least four people.
Reporting from Reuters offices Writing by Peter Graff Editing by Philippa Fletcher