As missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities, thousands of Ukrainian civilians, mainly women and children, fled the Russian assault into neighboring countries. The capital, Kiev, was still in the hands of the Ukrainian government and President Volodymyr Zelensky encouraged his people despite the Russian bombing of civilian infrastructure.
Putin, who has described the invasion as a “special military operation,” brought an alarming new element into play yesterday when he ordered Russia’s deterrent forces – a reference to units that include nuclear weapons – to be on 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 very well – but also the senior officials of the main NATO countries they allow us to make aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said on state television.
Putin previously referred to his nuclear arsenal in a speech ahead of the start of the invasion on Thursday, saying that Russia’s response to any country that tries to hinder the operation would be immediate and would have “consequences that they have never encountered in their history.”
The French foreign minister replied on the same day that, in making such threats, Putin should remember that NATO is also a nuclear alliance.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Putin’s deterrence order was an attempt to put pressure on Kiev during the talks, but he would not be intimidated. If Putin uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine it would be a catastrophe for the world, he added.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CBS: “President Putin continues to escalate this war in a totally unacceptable way and we need to continue to rein in his actions as forcefully as possible.”
In other developments, Russian troops blew up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkiv before dawn, a Ukrainian state agency said, raising a fiery cloud into the night sky.
Both the Ukrainian gas pipeline operator and the Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom said the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, vital to Europe’s energy needs, was not affected.
Ukraine’s Western allies stepped up their response to the Russian invasion by land, sea and air with a near blanket ban on Russian airlines using European airspace.
In the toughest economic sanctions imposed on Moscow, the United States and Europe said on Saturday they would kick Russia’s big banks out of the world’s main payment system and announced other measures aimed at limiting Moscow’s use of $630 billion of central bank reserves.
Battle
Meanwhile, Russian soldiers and armored vehicles entered Kharkiv, located in northwestern Ukraine and the country’s second-largest city, on Sunday, with witnesses reporting gunshots and explosions. But city authorities said Ukrainian fighters had repelled the attack.
“The control of Kharkov is completely ours! The armed forces, the police and the defense forces are working, and the city is being completely purged of the enemy,” said regional governor Oleh Sinegubov. Ukrainian forces were also holding back the advance of Russian troops on Kiev. “We have resisted and are successfully repelling the enemy’s attacks. The fight continues,” Zelensky said in a video message from the streets of Kiev.
Zelensky has refused to leave the city and has been leading fighters and civilians, with many non-combatants seeking refuge in subway stations.
A UN aid agency said more than 368,000 refugees have crossed into neighboring countries, clogging railways, roads and borders.
At least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed in the invasion, the head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Health said.
A United Nations agency reported the deaths of 64 civilians and a Ukrainian presidential adviser said some 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. Western officials have said intelligence services showed Russia was suffering higher than expected casualties, but Russia has not released casualty figures.
Putin has said he must eliminate what he sees as a grave threat to his country from his smaller neighbor, accusing it of genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine, something Kiev and its Western allies reject as a lie.
Ukraine, a democratic nation of 44 million people, gained independence from Moscow in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union and has pushed to join the Western military alliance NATO and the EU, goals Russia opposes. On Saturday, the US and its allies blocked some Russian banks’ access to the international payments system SWIFT, making it difficult for Russia to trade and conduct business for its companies.
Source: Ambito
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