Update at 11:00.
- EU expands sanctions against Moscow and Minsk
The 27 decided to expand their sanctions against Moscow and Minsk after the invasion of Ukraine, in particular by disconnecting three Belarusian banks from the international financial platform Swift, the French Presidency of the EU Council said.
At the meeting in Brussels, member state representatives also adopted new sanctions targeting the maritime sector and cryptocurrencies and added Russian leaders and oligarchs to their blacklist, she said, measures meant to end three rounds of sanctions imposed by the EU over the past two weeks. .
- Evacuation corridors for the civilian population
The Russians and Ukrainians agreed on Wednesday morning to observe a ceasefire around a number of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk confirmed that an agreement had been reached with the Russians on the creation of six humanitarian corridors around the areas affected by hostilities in recent days, forcing civilians sometimes to hide in cellars for days on end.
Corridors have been identified, in particular, for the evacuation of civilians from Energodar to Zaporozhye, from Izyum to Lozova, and from Sumy to Poltava, where on Tuesday the corridor already allowed the evacuation of thousands of civilians.
It is also necessary to create several corridors for the evacuation of civilians to Kyiv from several heavily bombed cities to the west of the capital, including Bucha, Irpen and Gostomel.
- Skirmishes in Severodonetsk and Malin
At least 10 people died on Tuesday as a result of a Russian fire in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, the head of the Luhansk administrative region said on Wednesday. According to him, the Russian army “opened fire”, in particular, on residential buildings.
On Tuesday evening, the Russian army also shelled the small town of Malin, west of Kyiv, where Ukrainian aid said five people, including two babies, had died after destroying seven houses.
- The problem of Polish MiG-29s
Washington on Tuesday turned down an offer from Poland to lend its MiG-29 jets to the United States to fly them to Ukraine to help it deal with the Russian invasion.
“The prospect of fighter jets “in the possession of the US government” taking off from a US/NATO base in Germany and flying into disputed airspace over Ukraine with Russia is of great concern to all of NATO,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. in a statement.
Remote monitoring systems for nuclear materials at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have stopped transmitting data to the International Atomic Energy Agency (AEIA), the report said. The United States also said it feared Russian forces could “take control” of “biological research” structures in Ukraine and confiscate classified materials.
US President Joe Biden announced an embargo on US imports of Russian oil and gas. The decision was made “in close coordination” with US allies, he said. Meanwhile, the UK will stop importing Russian crude oil and oil products by the end of 2022, the government has announced.
The sale of foreign currency in Russia will be suspended until September 9, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation said on Wednesday. Ratings agency Fitch has again downgraded Russia’s debt rating, which means that the risk of sovereign default, in its opinion, is “imminent”.
Russian pharmacies are already running out of insulin and other foreign-made diabetes medications, the Russian daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing a shortage of raw materials for drug production.