Kyiv – Ukrainian and Russian delegates sat down on Monday for the first direct talks between the two countries since Russia began its invasion five days earlier. Negotiations lasted for hours, and although they brought some hope for an end to the war, UkraineThe President of Russia and the people of Kyiv have indicated that they expect little from the discussion. Already during the meeting, there were reports of intensified Russian shelling in eastern Ukrainian cities.
Russia will not clarify its goals for the talks, but CBS News’s Hailey Ott said Ukraine’s key demands are an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian troops. Russian officials said the meeting ended early in the evening and that the delegations concerned were returning to their capitals to discuss the talks.
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was still on the brink on Monday, but residents were allowed to leave their homes and shelters for the first time since Saturday night, when the local government, which is preparing to escalate Russia’s siege of the city, said someone had in the streets will be treated as an enemy.
A Russian armored personnel carrier (APC) burns next to the body of an unidentified soldier during battles between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, February 27, 2022.
SERGEY BOBOK / AFP / Getty
Hours before Russian-Ukrainian talks began near the border with Belarus, Ukrainian authorities said Russia was shelling major cities again at night. Defense officials say Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, came under heavy artillery fire after Ukrainian forces captured it from Russian troops the day before.
Explosions have been reported in Ukraine. (February 24, 2022)
CBS News
Meanwhile, pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin is mounting as the entire UN General Assembly gathers for extraordinary extraordinary meeting to discuss the crisis a day after Putin said he was putting his nuclear forces on alert in response to what he called NATO’s “aggressive statements” and sanctions by the world’s richest nations.
Deputies in the House, who received a secret briefing Monday night from senior Biden officials about Russia’s invasion, were told that Ukraine had suffered 1,500 civilian and military casualties since the attack began, according to two people in the briefing. It was not clear whether the death toll was only dead or included.
The group, which included Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Energy Minister Jennifer Granholm, Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and National Intelligence Director Avril Haynes, also estimated that the current phase of the conflict could continue for another three to four weeks before turning into riot. against the invasion of Russian forces.
“In the end, I think Russia will win this, but what they gain will be the bigger question,” said Ruben Galego (D-Ariz). . “
Representative Jason Crowe (D-Colo.) Called on the administration to deliver more weapons to Ukrainian forces more quickly.
“Ukrainians are fighting hard and putting an end to this – we just have to provide them with the supplies and ammunition needed to continue the battle,” Crowe said.
The number of victims of the House of Representatives briefing differs from other publicly available figures, but variations in these statistics are not surprising, given the difficulty of quantifying the fee in real time as terrain conditions deteriorate.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for example, reported at least 406 civilian casualties – including 102 dead – but UNHCR Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Coordinator Martin Griffiths said “the real figure could be significant. higher. “
The death toll, already significant in just a few days of fighting, is also expected to rise significantly in the coming days, military and intelligence experts said.
“It’s only going to get worse,” said Angela Stent, a Georgetown University scientist and former intelligence official who has worked on Russia.
Representative Victoria Sparz, who was born and raised in Ukraine, also said she expects the death toll to rise, especially given the heavy shelling in major cities such as Kharkiv.
“It will probably be a very significant loss of life,” she said, but added: “In the long run, Ukrainians will not give up. Ukrainians simply will not obey. “
He was approached by Russian troops shortly after the invasion began last Thursday, but Ukrainian forces kept the Russians at bay for three days.
Then, on Sunday, Russian troops entered the city, according to regional governor Oleh Sinekhubov.
What happened further provides evidence of the fierce resistance that Russian troops are facing in Ukrainian cities – and why they have not yet progressed as fast as experts initially feared they would.
“Ukraine’s armed forces are eliminating the enemy,” Sinekhubov assured Kharkiv residents that day.
Videos uploaded on social media give a rare idea of the clashes on the city’s streets.
A series of videos uploaded on social media shows an attempt by a Russian unit to advance to an important airport and arms factory in northeastern Kharkiv. The airport at the Kharkov State Aircraft Company is small – with only one runway – but could be a useful springboard for the Russians.
CNN geolocated and authenticated the videos.
The first video, taken by a resident, shows a column of Russian troops surrounding military vehicles crawling on the roadway that ends near the airport.
“There are two [military vehicles] as far as I can see, “says someone in the video.” Third infantry crawls with automatic weapons, getting ready. ”
Suddenly a shot is heard and seen. A Russian soldier quickly knelt down and fired a rocket fired from his shoulder at the area where the shooting appeared to come from.
A second video, taken after the shooting, shows military vehicles reversing in an apparent retreat. Russian troops are seen huddled behind their vehicles.
A Reuters reporter who went to the scene after the shooting shot a video showing an abandoned Russian convoy and a significant amount of blood staining snow on the ground nearby.
A Reuters journalist spoke to a resident identified as Eugene, who told them that at least one Russian soldier had been killed there.
“After we killed this one, the others fled,” Eugene told Reuters, pointing to bloodstains in the snow. He told the journalist that there were between 12 and 15 people in the group.
“They will not take Kharkiv,” he insisted. “They ran away from where they came from. They don’t have good navigation, as you can see. Nothing works for them. They came and hid behind the houses.”
Retreat troops appear to have been halted by another attack. A column of vehicles – of the same type as those seen in previous videos – appears to be lit in another video.
“This is how we congratulate the Russian army bitch,” someone is heard shouting in the video. “Come here and blindfold him. And this will happen to everyone who came to us here, on Kharkiv land. ”
It is not possible to say categorically that the Russian trucks seen on fire are the same as those taken in an attempt to reach the airport, but they are in the same place, of the same type and have the same markings.
Another video, apparently shot later at the site of the abandoned military convoy – the vehicles are no longer on fire – shows the involvement of Ukrainian troops.
During the shootout, a Ukrainian soldier came out of the wall and was seen firing a rocket fired from his shoulder.
Watching the video, retired General Mark Hertling, a national security analyst and military man for CNN, said the Ukrainian unit was equipped with rocket-propelled grenades.
You see this force, that little squad of about 10 boys, the man furthest away from us shoots multiple grenades, he’s fired from my counting about five of them, he hands over the launcher to another man, they reload and he’s ready to shoot again, “he said.
“And everyone else, look at the cool, calm, collective approach of these soldiers under fire, they are not afraid, they are ready to kick their ass,” he added.
Later, another video showed Ukrainian soldiers around the convoy, as if digging through abandoned cars. Sporadic shots are heard and some Ukrainian forces move along a wall in the background.
“Slava Ukraini,” says someone in the video (“Glory to Ukraine”).
Quick response
But on Monday, Russian troops returned to the northeastern suburbs of Kharkov and resumed their attack on the city.
Numerous videos on social networks, geolocated by CNN, show rockets exploding close to each other in a residential area of the Saltivka neighborhood, near a supermarket. One showed a rocket booster stuck on the sidewalk while civilians watched.
“Today is more hellish in Kharkiv than it was yesterday,” Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Irina Venediktov, said on Facebook.
According to the Kharkiv City Council, one civilian woman was killed and 31 people – 15 servicemen and 16 civilians – were injured in the latest shelling.
In recent days, the city council has registered seven dead – two servicemen and five civilians – and 44 wounded, including 20 servicemen.
“Kharkov has just been subjected to massive shelling of Grad! Dozens of victims, “said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser at Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, on Monday, describing the situation there as a” nightmare “.
KYIV, Ukraine—Talks between Russia and Ukraine on a potential cease-fire ended with no deal on Monday as Moscow intensified its assault, killing at least 10 civilians in a shelling attack on residential neighborhoods in the eastern city of Kharkiv and pursuing efforts to seize the capital, Kyiv.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators, who met in Belarus just inside its border with Ukraine, returned to their capitals for consultations and agreed to meet again in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border. Both delegations said the five-hour meeting led to some progress.
The talks, on the fifth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, convened after Russian forces have struggled in most of the country, failing to take any major city because of fierce resistance, particularly around Kyiv.
Russia was pouring large reinforcement convoys across the border on Monday, in what could be preparation for a renewed push to besiege Kyiv. Satellite imagery Monday from
Maxar Technologies
shows that a large Russian convoy, approximately 40 miles long, is moving closer to Kyiv. On Monday night, airstrikes on Kyiv picked up and Russia also fired an Iskander ballistic missile at the capital’s Brovary suburb, local officials said.
Russia, facing battlefield difficulties and under mounting economic sanctions, appears to be preparing a possible escalation of its war on Ukraine. In an indication that Moscow may be shifting to a more destructive approach, two residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, came under heavy shelling on Monday, likely by multiple rocket launchers.
At least 10 civilians were killed and more than 40 injured, with the toll likely to grow because continued shelling interfered with rescue efforts, said Kharkiv Gov.
Oleh Synehubov.
“It’s a war crime,” he said. Most of Kharkiv’s residents are Russian-speakers, the population whose rights Moscow says it wants to protect through its military operation.
The city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said that the fatalities included four residents who had left a shelter to get water and a family of two parents and three children who were incinerated when a Russian rocket hit their car. “It’s not just a war, it’s murder,” he said.
A military convoy in southern Ivankiv, Ukraine, on Monday.
After intelligence briefings Monday night, U.S. senators said that Russia’s focus is encircling Kyiv, and the U.S. and its allies will be racing against the clock to get humanitarian aid and weapons into the country.
“Even if you provide the assistance, how do you get it to them? asked Sen.
Marco Rubio
(R., Fla.), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “If Western Ukraine, if west of Kyiv is shut off, surrounded, how do you deliver logistical support into a city like that? How do you deliver logistical support to the east of that city?” Other senators said they expect a bloody battle in Kyiv.
The Kremlin on Monday cited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands for ending the conflict as Ukraine recognizing the 2014 annexation of its Crimean Peninsula by Russia, neutrality, and “demilitarization and de-Nazification” of the country.
Mr. Putin has long alleged that Ukraine is governed by American-guided neo-Nazis, a claim dismissed as outlandish by Western governments. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is of Jewish origin and a grandson of a Soviet World War II veteran, has repeatedly condemned Mr. Putin’s war on Ukraine and destruction of Ukrainian cities as the worst atrocity visited on the country since the Nazi invasion of 1941.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke to Mr. Putin on Monday, said that the Russian leader agreed during the call to his request not to attack Ukraine’s civilian targets and infrastructure and not to encircle Kyiv. In previous conversations this year, Mr. Putin promised Mr. Macron that he wouldn’t invade Ukraine.
Russian forces faced heavy resistance in Ukraine and satellite images showed the extent of damage from combat. Delegations from Ukraine and Russia agreed to meet Monday, a day after Vladimir Putin said he had put his country’s nuclear forces on alert. Photo: Maxar Technologies
Russia’s financial system has started to feel the impact of Western sanctions imposed over the weekend. The ruble nosedived and Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate to 20% to try to prevent an outflow of deposits from Russian banks as sanctions curb their access to international markets.
The U.S. and the European Union said over the weekend they would hinder Russia’s central bank from using its foreign reserves and exclude a number of Russian banks from the international Swift payments network, among other measures. The EU also closed its airspace to all Russian planes.
Authorities in Kyiv allowed residents to move around on Monday. Long lines snaked around grocery stores and pharmacies as Kyivites patiently waited for their turn. Municipal authorities banned the sale of alcohol and said that merchants raising prices would be tried as war profiteers. Kyiv had been under curfew starting Saturday afternoon while Ukrainian forces engaged in firefights in several neighborhoods with Russian infiltrator units wearing civilian clothes or Ukrainian uniforms.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian police on Monday detained men carrying Georgian passports that they deemed suspicious.
Photo:
Christopher Occhicone for the Wall Street Journal
Even though many of the neighborhood’s residents have fled the city for the relative safety of western Ukraine, outside one Kyiv supermarket the waiting time to enter was roughly two hours. “We’re not going anywhere. I was born in Kyiv and I will die here,” said
Valeria Voytenko,
a 23-year-old post-office worker whose husband is fighting on the front lines of Kharkiv.
“If they had given us weapons, I would also go shoot them up and defend my home,” added her friend
Yana Kamun,
a 20-year-old manicurist. “We will fight to the last one. And we have faith that Ukraine will win.”
The city was calm, with no looting or violence, as regular troops and volunteers with yellow armbands staffed checkpoints at key intersections. Kyiv authorities warned that any looters would be shot on sight. In some areas, signs of intense fighting were visible: broken glass, a car with a bullet hole in its windshield, fragments of shells and grenades.
One of the volunteer troopers, 30-year-old
Taras Oleksandovych,
joined the new Territorial Defense force on Sunday, after a shootout with Russian infiltrators in his neighborhood of high-rise buildings on Kyiv’s western edge. “Neighborhood people gave us all this—old washing machines, tires, roofing, anything they could throw out of their windows—to create this barricade,” he said. “We will resist.”
Ukrainians lined up Monday outside a supermarket in Kyiv.
Photo:
Manu Brabo for The Wall Street Journal
A Ukrainian shopper in a nearly empty grocery store in Kyiv on Monday.
Photo:
mikhail palinchak/EPA/Shutterstock
Myroslav Malynovski,
a construction worker, said he drove his family to western Ukraine as the war began but has now returned to Kyiv to help the military. When a Ukrainian T-64 tank on the western edge of the city broke down, he drove to the city center to find a welder to fix it, and brought camping gear, food and warm clothes for the tank’s crew.
Sturdier tank traps, concrete blocks and orange garbage trucks blocked key roads. Electronic billboards that once advertised nightclubs, vacations in the Dominican Republic and sushi restaurants beamed black-and-white messages to the enemy. One, in central Kyiv, instructed Russian soldiers in vulgar language what to do with themselves.
On the front lines along the city’s northern and western edges, soldiers were buoyed by recent victories. “The famed Russian special forces came here, and ran away so fast that they left us three vehicles as trophies,” said a Ukrainian trooper as he readied to leave on a mission with a squad armed with sniper rifles.
In a sign that Russia doesn’t so far have control of the skies, convoys carrying Ukrainian reinforcements rumbled in broad daylight through the city, including several long-range artillery pieces followed by truckloads of shells.
Areas penetrated by Russian ground troops
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Controlled by
separatists
Areas penetrated by Russian ground troops
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Controlled by
separatists
Areas penetrated by Russian ground troops
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Controlled by
separatists
Areas penetrated by Russian ground troops
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Areas penetrated by Russian ground troops
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
“On the fifth day of the full-scale Russian war against the people of Ukraine, we’re standing firm,” Mr. Zelensky said Monday. “Every crime that the occupiers commit against us brings us closer and closer to each other. Russia never imagined that it would face such solidarity.”
Hundreds of Ukrainians in Kyiv waited for the train to Lviv on Monday.
Photo:
Manu Brabo for The Wall Street Journal
The White House on Monday dismissed talk of the U.S. implementing a no-fly zone ban on Russian planes in Ukraine’s skies, as it would draw the U.S. into direct military conflict with Russia. “It would essentially mean the U.S. military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on MSNBC.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations sent positive signals after Monday’s talks. “We have found a number of important points on which it is possible to achieve progress,” said one of the Russian negotiators, Leonid Slutsky. He added that the Ukrainian delegation, led by Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, “was ready to listen and participate in a thorough and detailed discussion of the essence of the issues that are on today’s agenda.”
A Ukrainian negotiator, Mr. Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, said that the talks’ main goal was the cessation of hostilities, and that the two sides “determined a number of priority issues on which certain decisions have been drafted.” He didn’t describe these decisions and later described the negotiations as difficult.
Mr. Zelensky on Monday also asked European Union leaders to allow the country to immediately join the club, signing an application letter in the afternoon, but EU membership is a request the bloc is unlikely to accept.
The EU membership process can take years and involves broad economic, judicial and political changes.
In recent days Russian forces have cut off the main direct highway leading from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, and on Monday continued to pour troops into that area, inching closer to the Ukrainian capital’s remaining lifeline, the highway leading south to Odessa. Connections between Kyiv and Lviv have remained open via a detour on that highway and by train.
Tires blocked a road at a checkpoint in Kyiv.
Photo:
Manu Brabo for The Wall Street Journal
A destroyed bridge near the town of Bucha, Ukraine, on Monday.
Photo:
MAKSIM LEVIN/REUTERS
On Monday, Ukraine’s railways operated additional evacuation trains from Kyiv free of charge, on top of the previously scheduled connections to Lviv and other western Ukrainian cities. A large proportion of Kyiv’s population, which stood at three million people before the war began, has fled the city in the past five days.
Nikita Darnostup
and
Ulyana Panteleeva,
both computer graphic designers, decided after watching the news on Monday morning that it was time to leave Kyiv while they still can. “We are getting ready for the worst,” said Mr. Darnostup, 28, as they waited for their train to Lviv outside Kyiv’s crowded main station. “We see that the situation is escalating, and it’s getting scarier and scarier.”
The couple previously fled their hometown of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, in 2014 after Russian-backed forces seized it. “This is complete surrealism,” sighed Ms. Panteleeva, 27. “I never imagined we would have to go through this for a second time.”
Mr. Darnostup said, “I really want to believe that we will be able to see Kyiv again, one day.”
Over 520,000 people have fled from Ukraine to neighboring countries and up to four million refugees could follow in coming weeks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday.
In the five days of the offensive, Russia so far hasn’t seized any big Ukrainian city, and dozens if not hundreds of Russian troops have been taken prisoner, videos of them posted on social media so that their families in Russia could find out about their fate. Russia’s military on Sunday acknowledged for the first time that its forces suffered fatal casualties in Ukraine.
A mother and her daughters reached the Polish border crossing of Medyka after a two-day, 300-mile journey from central Ukraine.
Photo:
Dawid Zielinski for The Wall Street Journal
Moscow on Monday repeated its assertion that it has gone to war in Ukraine because Kyiv threatens Russia’s own security and accused it of attacking the residents of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which has been under Russian control since 2014. Ukrainian and Western officials say these claims have no basis in reality.
“Russia did not start these hostilities, Russia is putting an end to them,” Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen.
Igor Konashenkov
said in a video statement. “Hostilities by the regime in Kyiv and the systematic destruction of the inhabitants of Donbas lasted eight years. This needed to end. It was necessary to put an end to the endless threats from the Kyiv regime against Russia. And Russia will do that.”
Russian troops, however, have made considerable progress in southern Ukraine as they advanced from the Crimean Peninsula toward Kherson, Mykolaiv and Mariupol. Another offensive, stalled by Russia’s failure to capture Kharkiv, pushed to link up with these troops from the north, aiming to encircle some of Ukraine’s most capable forces that are deployed in the Donbas region.
In the Azov Sea town of Berdyansk, one of the handful that the Russian military currently controls, video footage broadcast by Ukrainian media showed dozens of residents protesting outside the city hall that now houses Russian occupation authorities. Waving Ukrainian flags, they chanted an obscene epithet to describe Mr. Putin, and “Glory to Ukraine.”
The Russian soldiers watched, unmoved.
—Evan Gershkovich and Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.
LONDON – In Switzerland, the Lucerne Music Festival canceled two symphony concerts featuring a Russian maestro. In Australia, the national swimming team said it would boycott the World Cup in Russia. In the Magic Mountain ski area in Vermont, a bartender poured bottles of Stolichnaya vodka down the drain.
From culture to trade, sports to travel, the world is avoiding Russia in countless ways to protest President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the cold days of the Cold War, so many doors have not closed for Russia and its people – a global rejection driven both by the impetus to show solidarity with the besieged Ukrainians and by any hope that this will force Mr Putin to withdraw. his troops.
Boycotts and repeals are piling up in parallel with sanctions imposed by the United States, Europe and other powers. Although these mass gestures do less harm to the Russian economy than sharp restrictions on Russian banks or the shutdown of the natural gas pipeline, they carry a powerful symbolic blow, leaving millions of ordinary Russians isolated in an interconnected world.
Among the most visible targets of this disgrace are cultural icons such as Valery Gergiev, the conductor and longtime supporter of Mr Putin. He dropped out of Lucerne, Carnegie Hall, La Scala in Milan and faces the inevitable dismissal from the Munich Philharmonic, where he is chief conductor, unless he denies the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia was banned from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which it last won in 2008, with Dima Bilan performing his powerful ballad Believe. Russia’s Grand Prix in Formula 1, scheduled for September in Sochi, has been canceled. St. Petersburg lost the Champions League final, which was moved to Paris.
Russia’s hopes for the World Cup were dashed on Monday after a dozen countries joined Poland in refusing to play with their national football team in the qualifying rounds. Under strong pressure, the two main governing bodies of football, FIFA and UEFA, ruled that Russia did not qualify for their tournaments. In Germany, the Schalke football club has terminated a sponsorship agreement with Russian oil giant Gazprom. The National Hockey League has also suspended business in Russia.
Also Monday, Greece announced it would suspend all co-operation with Russian cultural organizations. Former French ballet star Laurent Iller has resigned as director of the Stanislavsky Theater Company in Moscow, saying “the context no longer allows me to work calmly.”
“The cessation of all these cultural exchanges and sporting events will be felt by the Russian population,” said Angela E. Stent, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of The World of Putin. “Unfortunately, at the Kremlin level, this will be seen as just another example of the West trying to keep us in a corner.
“This will be part of the victim narrative we heard from Putin at the peak of the last few weeks,” Ms. Stent said. “The boycott affects the people involved in these events, but we are talking about Putin and the few people around him. I’m not sure that will make him change his mind. “
The last time the country’s leaders provoked such a global reaction was in 1980, when the United States, West Germany, Japan and Canada boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The councils retaliated by skipping the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
This was during the depths of the Cold War, when Hollywood released jingo films such as Red Dawn about the fictional Soviet invasion of Colorado, and more than 100 million Americans joined The Day After, a television movie about the devastating nuclear exchange between the United States. and the Soviet Union.
The boycott of the Olympic Games had a major impact on popular sentiment, according to Russian experts, as then-Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev had portrayed them as a simulacrum of Soviet power and influence, just as Mr Putin described the invasion of Ukraine as a return. Russian greatness.
“The Soviet government had to explain why the United States and other countries were not there,” said Michael A. McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia. “This began to affect the way Soviet citizens saw themselves in the world.
Although Russian villains remained a major part of Hollywood, the country’s black-hat image faded after the fall of the communist regime. Younger Russians have grown up in a relatively open, albeit rough, society. Those with money had access to foreign education and European vacations, where the hosts took care of the free Russians.
In Jerusalem, Russian-speaking Israelis flocked to the popular Putin Pub, where the name looked like a lark – no more problematic than the late Russian karaoke at the bar. On Thursday, Russian-born owners removed the golden letters “PUTIN” from its facade and announced they were looking for a new name.
“It was our initiative,” said Julia Kaplan, one of three owners who moved to Israel from St. Petersburg in 1991. “Because we are against the war.”
Israel in its own way serves as an example of the boundaries of this type of boycott. For years, critics of its occupation of the West Bank have sought to put pressure on the government through the boycott, sale, and sanctions movements. Although successful, he opposed people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian division and failed to pressure consistent Israeli leaders to change their policy toward the Palestinians.
“Such boycotts will certainly not change Putin’s mind,” said Martin C. Indic, a former US ambassador to Israel. “But it will raise the morale of Ukrainians to know that people around the world are on their side. And that will put the oligarchs in place in a way that I suspect financial sanctions will not do. “
However, the reaction will hit ordinary Russians hard. They can no longer fly to London and large parts of the European Union due to bans on Russian flights. Canada closed its airspace to Russian aircraft on Sunday and said it was investigating Russian carrier Aeroflot for violating the restrictions.
“Middle-class Russians have been going to Turkey on holiday for a decade,” Mr McFaul said. “Now they will have to wonder: Will their credit cards work?” Will their money be worth anything? “
In the capitals from Madrid to London, tens of thousands marched in solidarity with the Ukrainians and against the Russian invasion. In Ottawa, the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, the backdrop of three weeks of truck protests in the Canadian capital, was lit in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
In Rio de Janeiro, where the invasion coincided with the start of the annual carnival festival, people wore costumes and placards. “Throw acid, not bombs,” said a sign in English.
Understand Russia’s attack on Ukraine
Map 1 of 7
What is the basis of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine in its natural sphere of influence and is concerned about Ukraine’s proximity to the West and the prospect of the country joining NATO or the European Union. Although Ukraine is not part of either, it receives financial and military assistance from the United States and Europe.
Are these tensions just beginning? Antagonism between the two nations has been rampant since 2014, when Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory after an uprising in Ukraine replaced their Russian-friendly president with a pro-Western government. Russia then annexed Crimea and inspired a separatist movement in the east. A ceasefire was agreed in 2015, but fighting continues.
How did Ukraine respond? On February 23, Ukraine declared a 30-day state of emergency as cyberattacks shattered government institutions. After the attacks began, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky declared martial law. The foreign minister called the attacks a “full-scale invasion” and called on the world to “stop Putin”.
“All this – the sanctions, the applause of football fans for the Ukrainians, the crowds marching in Berlin and Prague – I think it matters because it makes the Russians feel isolated,” Mr McFaul said.
This is likely to deepen some Russian resistance to the invasion, he said, especially among urban, educated elites. These people have access to the Internet and are aware of the contemptuous response to Mr Putin’s aggression. But among those living in more rural areas, where the media is tightly controlled by the government, the reaction against Russia may spark further resentment.
Some cultural institutions have taken action against people who are known for their close ties to Mr Putin. The Metropolitan Opera, for example, said it would no longer work “with artists or institutions that support or are supported by Putin,” said Peter Gelb, Met’s general manager, in a video statement.
This provoked a demonstration of challenge by some Russian artists. Star soprano Anna Netrebko, who is due to appear at the Met in Puccini’s Turandot in April, has tried to distance herself from the Russian invasion. But she also posted on her Instagram account, “it is not right to force artists or any public figure to express their political views and condemn their homeland.”
Not all cultural exchanges have been divided. The blockbuster show of French and Russian paintings at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris remains open.
The exhibition, featuring 200 works collected by two 20th-century Russian textile tycoons, is the result of high-level discussions between French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Putin and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. Both leaders signed contributions to the exhibition’s catalog, and Mr Putin signed loans for the paintings.
For many, however, the idea of supporting Russia is simply unbearable. Pennsylvania, Utah, Ohio, New Hampshire and other states, as well as Canada, withdrew Russian-branded vodka from the shelves of liquor stores.
In some cases, the gesture is inappropriate: Stolichnaya, although historically a Russian brand, is produced in Riga, Latvia. In Brazil, a bar in Sao Paulo renamed its Moscow mule, a drink made in the United States and made with vodka, ginger beer and lime, a UN mule.
“We are not very happy with what Moscow has done, with what Russia has done,” said bar co-owner Mauricio Meireles, a well-known comedian and television presenter in Brazil. “And then we thought of changing the name,” he added. “The UN Mule: The Drink That Doesn’t Attack Anyone.”
The reporting was contributed by Jack Nikas in Rio de Janeiro,Andre Spigariol in Brazil, Aurelien Breeden in Paris, Rafael Minder in Madrid,Elizabeth Povoledo in Rome, Carlotta Gal in Istanbul, Niki Kicantonis in Athens, Vyosa Isai in Ottawa, Livia Albek-Ripka in California and Isabel Kershner to Jerusalem.
HONG KONG, March 1 – Hong Kong leader Kari Lam called for calm on Tuesday after residents emptied supermarkets, stocking up on products ahead of reports of mandatory mass testing for COVID-19 and rumors of a nationwide blockade.
Local media reported that mandatory COVID testing would begin after March 17, raising fears that many people would be forced to isolate and families with a positive test would be separated.
Lam urged the public “not to fall victim to rumors to avoid unnecessary fears,” with food and goods supplies remaining normal, according to a statement Tuesday.
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“There is no need for members of the public to worry, they need to be vigilant and pay attention to the information disseminated by the government, so as not to be misled by rumors.
Authorities plan to test 7.4 million people in the city three times in nine days, with the government recommending people stay home during that period, the Sing Tao newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.
Exceptions will be made for those who buy food, seek treatment and support public operations. The Hong Kong stock market will continue to operate, the newspaper writes.
Earlier, Lam said he was not considering blocking the entire city.
In the Chinese-run city, coronavirus infections have jumped about 34 times to more than 34,000 on Monday from just over 100 in early February. Deaths are also climbing, with facilities for storing dead bodies in hospitals and public morgues at maximum capacity. Read more
Hong Kong continues to adhere to COVID’s “dynamic zero” policy, the same as that of mainland China, which seeks to limit all outbreaks at all costs. The territory controlled by China has implemented its most draconian measures since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
The rules exacerbated fears of separation among many families, with many fleeing the scheme of mass testing and building tens of thousands of isolation centers. Read more
Lam, who inspected a mainland isolation center in China on Monday, said the team had raced against time to “work a miracle” in the city’s construction industry.
The Tsing Yi facility, located in the northwestern part of the city, will provide about 3,900 rooms for infected people with mild or no symptoms and others who need to be isolated, she said.
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Reporting by Farah Master; Edited by Michael Perry
An African medical student told CNN that she and other foreigners had been ordered to get off a public transport bus at a checkpoint between the Ukraine-Poland border.
They were told to stay away while the bus left with only Ukrainian citizens on board, she said.
Rachel Onigbule, Nigeria’s first year in medicine in Lviv, remained stranded in the border town of Shehini, about 400 miles from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
She told CNN: “More than 10 buses came and we all watched them leave. We thought that after they took all the Ukrainians they would take us, but they told us that we had to walk, that there were no more buses and they told us to walk. “
“My body was numb from the cold and we haven’t slept for about 4 days. Ukrainians have given priority to Africans – men and women – at all times. No need to ask why. We know why. I just want to go home, “Oniegbule told CNN in a phone call Sunday as he waited in line at the border to cross into Poland.
Onyegbule says she eventually received a stamp of her release document Monday morning around 4:30 p.m.
Charges of violence
Saakshi Ijantkar, a fourth-year medical student from India, also shared his test with CNN on Monday over a phone call from Lviv, western Ukraine.
“There are three checkpoints we have to go through to get to the border. Many people are blocked there. They do not allow the Indians to pass.
CNN was unable to confirm the identity or affiliation of the people who ran the checkpoints, but Ijantkar said they were all in uniform.
“ They allow 30 Indians only after 500 Ukrainians enter. To reach this limit you have to walk 4 to 5 kilometers from the first point to the second. Ukrainians are given taxis and buses to travel, all other nationalities must walk. They were very racist towards Indians and other nationalities, “the 22-year-old from Mumbai told CNN.
She added that she had witnessed security violence against students waiting on the Ukrainian side of the Shekhini-Medica border.
Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are no longer allowed to leave the country, but this decree does not apply to men who are foreign nationals.
Ijantkar says she has seen Indians queuing for hours with other non-Ukrainian nationalities.
“They were very cruel. The second checkpoint was the worst. When they opened the gate to cross the Ukrainian border, staying between Ukraine and Poland, the Ukrainian army did not allow Indian men and boys to cross when you got there. They only allowed the Indians to enter. We literally had to cry and pray at their feet. After the Indians entered, the boys were beaten. “There was no reason to beat us with this cruelty,” Ijantkar said.
“I saw an Egyptian standing in front with his hands on the rails, and that’s why one of the guards pushed him so hard, and the man hit the fence, which is covered with spikes, and he lost consciousness,” she said. .
“We took him outside to resuscitate him. They just didn’t care and beat the students, they didn’t call us, only the Ukrainians,” she added.
CNN contacted the Ukrainian military in light of allegations of violence, but did not receive an immediate response.
Freezing conditions
Iyantkar said many of the students had waited at least a day, but she eventually returned to Lviv because she was terrified of waiting at low temperatures without food, water or blankets.
“I saw people shaking so badly in the cold, fainting from hypothermia. Some have frostbite and blisters. We couldn’t get any help and (stayed) for hours, “she said.
Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s border service, told CNN on Monday that allegations of border segregation were false and that security guards were working under enormous pressure at the borders but working within the law.
“Since the day (Russian President Vladimir) Putin attacked Ukraine, the influx of people trying to leave Ukraine and the war zone has increased dramatically. up to 50,000 (people) per day, now the amount has doubled and continues to grow. There is a huge pressure on checkpoints, on border guards.
“In order to speed up the process and allow more people to cross, the government has simplified the border crossing procedure as much as possible. Due to the increase in the volume of passage of individuals, people have to stay longer. queues. However, I can say that everything happens according to the law. At the border, there is absolutely no division by nation, citizenship or class, “Demchenko said.
Ukraine attracts many foreign students who want to study medicine because it has a strong reputation for medical courses and training – and other costs are much lower than in programs in other Western countries.
Another blocked student told CNN on Sunday that border guards on the Ukrainian side of the border were showing prejudice against foreign students.
“They are depriving foreigners. They are very racist with us at the border. We are told that Ukrainian citizens must cross first while telling foreigners to stay,” said Nneka Abigail, a 23-year-old medical student from Nigeria.
“It is very difficult for Nigerians and other foreigners to cross at the moment. Ukrainian authorities allow more Ukrainians to cross into Poland. For example, about 200 to 300 Ukrainians can cross, and then only 10 foreigners or 5 will be allowed to cross … and the length of time is too long. It’s really hard … they push us, they kick us, they insult us, “Abigail said.
Africans share their experiences online using the hashtag #AfricansinUkraine. Their stories sparked protests and a number of calls for group funding were launched to try to help those stranded in the country.
One of those who shared her story online was Korrine Sky, a medical student from Zimbabwe who has been studying in Ukraine since September.
She fled the country on Friday, but with the help of two London-based friends, she managed to raise more than 20,000 British pounds ($ 26,800) to help stranded African-Caribbean students.
“This situation we are in is a life or death situation. We need to make sure that all African students cross the border successfully and safely, “she said on Instagram Live on the Romanian side of the border on Sunday.
About 500,000 refugees from Ukraine have so far moved to neighboring European countries, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. said on Monday.
Are home countries doing enough to help their citizens?
Some of those interviewed by CNN said they did not accuse the Ukrainian authorities of giving priority to their citizens, but rather of their own governments, for failing to take steps to help them leave the country.
“The Nigerian government is usually carefree,” Oniegbule said.
“There are a lot of us in Ukraine. They can’t just leave us like that. It’s so sad, but we’re used to bad governance in Nigeria. It’s very sad.”
Onyegbule acknowledged that there are Nigerian officials waiting to meet with her and others after she moves to Poland.
“It would be so useful in Ukraine that we were looking for someone to speak on our behalf.”
Nigerian Foreign Minister Jeffrey Onyama said on Twitter that Ukrainian authorities had assured him that there were no restrictions on foreigners wishing to leave Ukraine.
“The problem is a result of the chaos at the border and the checkpoints leading to them,” he said, adding that he “personally coordinates with our missions in Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Romania and Hungary to ensure that we bring our citizens of Ukraine and return to Nigeria those who are ready to return, while supporting those who remain in Ukraine. “
CNN contacted Onyeama for comment on allegations that the Nigerian government had not done enough to help its citizens leave Ukraine.
African nations at the UN Security Council on Monday condemned discrimination against African citizens at the Ukrainian border during a UN Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York.
“We strongly condemn this racism and believe that it is to the detriment of the spirit of solidarity that is so urgently needed today. “Improper treatment of African peoples on Europe’s borders must end immediately, whether against Africans fleeing Ukraine or those crossing the Mediterranean,” Kenyan Ambassador to the UN Martin Kimani said Monday.
Oneegbule, a first-year medical student, said she was attracted to study in Ukraine because she was looking for a “safe and cheap option outside of Nigeria.”
“In general, life in Ukraine was calm, it is a beautiful country. “Sometimes in the trams, people don’t want to sit next to you and they stare, but in general, Ukrainians are nice people,” she said.
A Florida a man has been arrested for murder for shooting his girlfriend in the head at a shooting range as part of a failed suicide contract.
Alec Almanzar, 23, had put his head next to Ayadalis Chalas and pulled the trigger in hopes that the bullet would kill them both, police said.
But the bullet that killed 21-year-old Chalas wounded only Almanzar, who was taken to hospital. He has since been arrested, said Holly Hill Police Lt. Chris Yates Daytona Beach News-Jurnal.
The couple visited the Hot Shot shooting range in Holly Hill on October 7 and rented a 9mm Glock pistol.
“Basically, they just put their heads together and he shot her in the head,” Yates said Thursday. The bullet went through her head into his head.
Pictured: 21-year-old Ayadalis Chalas was fatally shot dead, allegedly by her boyfriend Alec Almanzar, while the two visited a shooting range in Florida in October
Pictured: Hot Shot Shooting Range in Holly Hill, Florida, the site of an alleged failed suicide deal between Almanzar and Chalas
A safety sign has been put up at the shooting range as police investigate the fatal shooting of Ayadalis Chalas, 21
Almanzar was hospitalized at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach until December 15. After being discharged, he left for New York with his family.
He was extradited back to Florida last week and returned to Volusia County, Yates said.
Almanzar was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm in the death of his Chalas.
He was detained without bail in the Volusia County Jail on Thursday.
“They (Almanzar and his family) knew the charges were falling,” Yates said.
Chalas, pictured, was found dead on arrival, with her back to the floor, when authorities arrived at the shooting range on October 7.
Chalas, pictured, can be seen in surveillance footage paying with his credit card before the two head to Alley 7, where the shooting reportedly took place.
“He is now in our custody again and will face charges.”
The reason for the alleged suicide contract was not given immediately, as no death note was found at the crime scene.
A video of surveillance from the shooting range, obtained by requesting an order that day, shows the couple as they requested two targets and received ear and eye protection, along with a box of ammunition, before heading for the designated arrows.
Chalas can be seen paying with his credit card before the two head to Alley 7, where the shooting reportedly took place.
The video shows Almanzar talking to Chalas as he loaded the firearm and then fired at the targets one by one, according to the report.
Pictured: The location of Holly Hill, Florida, where a man was arrested for murder in connection with the shooting of his girlfriend months after an alleged failed suicide contract
Police investigate Holly Hill shooting range crime scene in October
Almanzar initially placed his head so that the right side of his face touched the left side of Chalas’s head before pulling the trigger, but the gun did not fire.
He was reportedly seen on video to watch the gun and watch Chalas before firing three shots at the target.
A moment later, Almanzar shot Chalas in the head with his head next to hers, Yates added.
Chalas was found dead on arrival, with his back to the floor when authorities arrived shortly after, while Almanzar was found sitting in a chair holding a compress on his head, according to investigators.
