by Swift
ADDS statements Ursula von der Leyer, US official, sanctions against oligarchs
KIEV (awp/afp) – Russia warned on Saturday that it would widen its offensive against Ukraine and the West responded by announcing the exclusion of Russian banks from the Swift interbank platform and new arms deliveries to Kiev , in particular by Germany.
In the immediate future, “the night will again be difficult. The (Russian) soldiers are still trying to enter Kiev”, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitaly Klitschko, wrote on his Telegram account on Saturday after Russia announced to strengthen its attack. “All units have been ordered to expand the offensive in all directions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
But the violence of the Russian intervention on Saturday decided the West to adopt a new set of sanctions, aimed in particular at excluding many Russian banks from the Swift interbank platform, an essential cog in global finance, announced the German government, which chairs the G7 forum.
This action “will prevent banks from carrying out most of their global financial transactions, and therefore Russian exports and imports will be blocked”, underlined the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
The measure, which has yet to be approved at EU level by member states, will also be taken by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
In addition, the Western partners have decided to further restrict the access of the Russian central bank to the capital markets, and to “paralyze the assets of the Russian central bank” in order to prevent Moscow from resorting to it to finance the conflict in Ukraine, in the words of Mrs von der Leyen.
The new sanctions will finally go after the Russian oligarchs and their families to prevent them from obtaining the citizenship of Western countries.
Russia is now a ‘global economic and financial pariah’, facing a ‘freefall’ ruble, and a task force will ‘hunt down’ the ‘yachts, jets, luxury cars and luxury homes’ of Russian oligarchs, summarized a senior American official on Saturday evening.
The West had already taken a step on Friday by imposing personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.
Germany, whose Lufthansa company announced to suspend its flights to Russia for 7 days, indicated on Saturday that it was considering closing its airspace to Russian companies.
It also announced on Saturday the supply to Kiev of a thousand anti-tank rocket launchers and 500 surface-to-air missiles, breaking with its traditional policy of refusing to export lethal weapons in conflict zones.
“A vain war”
On the third day of the intervention launched by Vladimir Putin, fighting took place on Saturday, in addition to the capital, in many Ukrainian cities, and at least 198 civilians, including three children, have been killed and 1,115 people injured since Thursday, according to the Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko.
“Our army controls Kiev and key cities around the capital,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Facebook, claiming to have “broken the plan” of Moscow. The Ukrainian president called on the population to take up arms and vowed to stay in Kiev.
In Moscow, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov reaffirmed that the Russian army was not carrying out strikes on residential areas. AFP reporters, however, saw several homes hit by gunfire across the country.
For his part, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, addressed himself directly on Twitter on Saturday “to the Russian people”, in Russian: “You do not deserve a vain war with your neighbors, your friends and families in Ukraine” , he wrote in particular.
Washington announced on Saturday the sending of new military aid to Ukraine, amounting to 350 million dollars, while a senior Pentagon official told AFP that he saw “signs of Ukrainian resistance viable”.
“We think the Russians are growing increasingly frustrated with their loss of momentum over the past 24 hours, especially in northern Ukraine,” he added.
The Netherlands announced to deliver 200 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, the Czech Republic said to send weapons worth 7.6 million euros, and Belgium said to supply Kiev with 2,000 machine guns and 3,800 tons of fuel.
And France announced in turn Saturday evening, at the end of a Defense Council, to have “decided the additional delivery of defense equipment to the Ukrainian authorities”.
“Totally isolate” Moscow
Pope Francis spoke by telephone with President Zelensky and expressed his “deep sorrow for the tragic events” in Ukraine, announced the Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See.
Volodymyr Zelensky also met on Saturday with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and asked him to deprive Russia, an “aggressor country”, of its right to vote in the Security Council.
He and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed in a phone call on Saturday “the need to completely isolate Russia diplomatically and financially”, Downing Street announced.
On the diplomatic side again, the presidency of Belarus announced on Saturday that President Alexander Lukashenko, in recent months very dependent on the support of the Kremlin, had met with his French counterpart.
Emmanuel Macron asked that Belarus “demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from its soil as soon as possible”, and who are engaged in the invasion of Ukraine, then explained the Elysée. With this call, Emmanuel Macron put President Lukashenko “under pressure by reminding him of what Belarus had in common with Ukraine and with Europe”, according to the Elysée.
Greece for its part demanded that Russia cease its air attacks against civilians in Ukraine, accusing it of the “murder” of at least ten Ukrainians of Greek origin.
Clashes in Kyiv
In Kiev, a ghost town deserted by its inhabitants, fighting opposed Russian and Ukrainian forces on Saturday. The curfew has been extended until 8 a.m. Monday and anyone on the street will be treated as an enemy, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced.
Ukrainian soldiers on patrol assured AFP that Russian forces were in a firing position a few kilometers away. Under blue skies, the wreckage of a military truck blown up by a missile still smoked amidst the debris, while detonations were heard in the distance.
The Kiev metro is at a standstill and serves as an air-raid shelter for the population.
A 30-storey residential building was hit head-on on Saturday morning by a missile which caused significant damage, without the authorities reporting any immediate casualties.
Moscow’s “sabotage units” are in the city, but not yet regular Russian army formations, the city’s mayor said.
The Ukrainian army claims to have destroyed a column of five military vehicles, including a tank, on Victory Avenue.
Exodus to the West
So far, the Russian Ministry of Defense has not mentioned an offensive on Kiev, citing only the firing of cruise missiles on military infrastructure, advances in the East – where the army is supporting the separatists in the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk – and in southern Ukraine, where Russian forces entered Thursday from the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Russian units have been identified in Borodyanki (70 km northwest of Kiev), Butcha, in the northwestern suburbs of the capital, and Vyshgorod, in its northern suburbs, the Ukrainian army said on Facebook. .
Russian forces “continue their attack to block Kiev from the northeast (of the country), but they have been stopped by the Ukrainian armed forces”, she said again.
Across the country, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives in the fighting, according to the Ukrainian army, which also claims to inflict heavy losses on the Russian army. Moscow does not give any information about its balance sheet.
On the road between Kramatorsk and Dnipro, two cities in eastern Ukraine, AFP journalists noted the presence of a large number of Ukrainian military convoys. Checkpoints have been set up at the entrances and exits of each major city in this area.
Poland says 115,000 Ukrainians have crossed the border since Thursday. Nine reception centers have been set up.
Censorship in Russia
“We left our house very, very quickly because we were afraid of a massive attack,” Dania told AFP, among the refugees.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had previously estimated that more than 116,000 refugees had fled to neighboring countries, such as Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania.
Vladimir Putin seems determined to continue his offensive, until dislodging from power in Kiev those he describes as “drug addicts” and “neo-Nazis”. He also called on the Ukrainian army to take power. According to Moscow, it is a military “peacekeeping” operation.
The Russian media regulator on Saturday ordered national media to remove any reference to civilians killed by the Russian army in Ukraine as well as the terms “invasion”, “offensive” or “declaration of war”.
All over the world, athletes, especially footballers, expressed their solidarity with Ukraine and their opposition to the Russian offensive before the start of matches.
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