Russian forces closed in on Ukraine’s capital and its embattled leadership on Friday as President Vladimir Putin shrugged off a barrage of sanctions imposed by the US and Europe and pressed deeper with his invasion.
Ukrainian forces fought off Russian troops in the streets of Kyiv as President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of targeting civilians and called for more international sanctions.
As combat intensified, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a call with Putin in which he urged Russia and Ukraine to enter negotiations.
Putin is willing to take up Zelensky’s proposal “to discuss neutrality” of Ukraine, starting with ministerial-level discussions proposed for Minsk, the capital of Belarus, said Putin aide Dmitry Peskov.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow won’t talk to Kyiv until Ukraine’s army surrenders. “We’re ready for negotiations at any time, as soon as the Ukrainian armed forces respond to our president’s call, stop resistance and lay down their weapons,” Lavrov said in Moscow.
With the war in its second day, sirens warned residents of Kyiv to take shelter from early in the morning. Ukraine’s armed forces said their units were engaging Russian armour to the north, while Zelensky said Russian aircraft were attacking residential areas of the capital.
Zelensky said that his intelligence services had identified him as Russia’s top target, but that he is staying in Kyiv and his family will remain in the country. “They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” he said.
Putin has said that he wants to replace Ukraine’s leadership, calling it a “junta”.
Russia continued to defend its invasion and brushed off the sanctions announced so far, vowing to retaliate. Senate speaker Valentina Matvienko, a Putin ally, said Moscow had prepared counter-sanctions to hit at “weak” spots of the West.
'Severe cost' to Russia
US President Joe Biden has promised to inflict a “severe cost on the Russian economy” that will hamper its ability to do business in foreign currencies. The 27-nation EU backed a broad sanctions package to limit Russian access to Europe’s financial sector and restrict key technologies. The measures were to be formally adopted in a meeting of EU foreign ministers later on Friday.
Among the US and EU penalties are export controls designed to cut Russia off from semiconductors and other advanced technology crucial to the military, biotechnology and aerospace industries. US allies including the UK, Canada, Taiwan and Japan also announced fresh sanctions.
Chinese state media, meanwhile, left the invasion off their front pages. Putin has previously received diplomatic support from China, which has criticised Western sanctions against Russia and said it understands Moscow’s “reasonable” security concerns.
Still, the world’s second-largest economy has also called for the territorial integrity of nations to be respected, hinting at some degree of discomfort in Beijing with the offensive. (Story continues below)
A man clears debris at a damaged residential building reportedly struck by a military shell in a suburb of Kyiv. (AFP Photo)
Trail of damage
In Kyiv, meanwhile, an advance party of the Russian invasion force left a trail of damage in its wake as clashes erupted inside the capital for the first time, amid rising fears the city is about to be stormed or come under siege.
Pedestrians ran for safety as small arms fire and explosions erupted in the Obolonsky district in the city’s north.
The larger blasts could be heard in the city centre, where residents endured a first tense night under curfew and the sounds of bombing.
Eyewitnesses said they saw corpses of what looked to be two dead Russian soldiers near the truck, but the Ukrainian military, who were inspecting the wrecked car, did not allow AFP reporters to come closer.
Russian forces first arrived on the outskirts of Kyiv on Thursday when waves of helicopter-borne troops assaulted the Gostomel airfield, close to Obolonsky.
The Ukrainian military claims to have repulsed the attack on the airbase, but Russian ground forces have also been pushing down the west bank of the Dnieper river from Belarus.
As the reconnaissance party arrived in Obolonsky, the Ministry of Defence called on civilians to resist.
“We urge citizens to inform us of troop movements, to make Molotov cocktails, and neutralise the enemy,” it said in an online posting.
The fighting on the broad highways and in between the densely inhabited multi-storey apartment blocks of northern Kyiv may be an omen of what is to come if Russian forces assault the city of some 3 million people.
Sanctions shrugged off
The Kremlin said on Friday that Western sanctions imposed on Russia would cause problems for Moscow, but not insurmountable ones, with Russia set to widen its trade and economic ties with Asian countries.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on possible punitive measures against Putin himself. European Union envoys decided on Friday freeze assets held in Europe by Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, sources said.
Peskov said Russia had deliberately reduced its dependence on foreign imports to protect itself against sanctions.
“The main goal … was to ensure complete self-sufficiency and complete import substitution if necessary,” said Peskov. “To a large extent this goal has been achieved.”
The economy ministry said Russia had lived with sanctions for a long time and said it would be stepping up trade and economic ties with Asia to counter the threat from the West.
In other developments:
- Zelensky expressed frustration with the West, saying it appeared in no hurry to help his country. “How are you going to defend yourself when you are so slowly helping us in Ukraine?” he said in a statement released by his office. “State institutions in Europe are not in a hurry with really strong decisions.”
- British Airways and the Spanish carrier Iberia are re-routing aircraft to avoid flying over Russian airspace, according to IAG, the holding company that owns the two carriers. Moscow on Friday banned all UK-linked planes, including transit flights, from its airspace, a day after the UK banned the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot from flying over Britain.
- A UN refugee agency spokesperson said at least 100,000 people had been uprooted in Ukraine after fleeing their homes, while several thousand have already crossed into neighbouring countries including Moldova, Romania and Poland. A total of 10,624 Ukrainians entered Romania through its six border checkpoints on Thursday, Romanian Interior Minister Lucian Bode said. Bode said 3,660 of them passed through Romania on their way to Bulgaria and Hungary. Of the roughly 7,000 who are currently in Romania, only 11 have requested political asylum. The others can legally stay for up to 90 days without having to do so.
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called President Putin on Friday and praised the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it was a “correction of history”. “President Assad stressed that what is happening today is a correction of history and a restoration of balance in the global order after the fall of the Soviet Union,” said a statement from the Syrian presidency.
- A Ukrainian volunteer group that provides equipment to the country’s army has received over $4 million in bitcoin donations since Russia launched its invasion on Thursday, according to the blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.
- The Russian Grand Prix scheduled for Sept 25 has been cancelled in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sport’s owners Formula One announced on Friday.
