Putin sticks to his demands, kills 11 in attack
on Kharkiv
Putin not only demands that Ukraine disarm and stay
out of NATO, but also insists on formal recognition of Crimea as Russian.
BY ZOYA
SHEFTALOVICH
February
28, 2022 12:19 pm
Russian
President Vladimir Putin refused to give an inch in his demands from the West
on Monday and instead responded to Ukrainian resistance and Western sanctions
with a vicious bombardment of civilians in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
The attack
on Ukraine’s second-biggest city appeared to mark an alarming escalation in the
willingness of Russian troops to fire missiles into residential areas. The
assault killed 11 people and wounded dozens, local authorities said. “What is
happening now in Kharkiv is a war crime,” Oleg Sinegubov, a senior regional
official, wrote on his Facebook page.
Independently
verified footage showed rockets smashing into a residential area at around noon
local time. Subsequent video posts carried by Ukrainian media showed one dead
man in a car and several bodies strewn on a street.
The attack
on Kharkiv came on a day when there had been early hopes — albeit fragile —
that some kind of diplomatic breakthrough could secure a cease-fire. Talks
between Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the Belarus border seemed to make
only slender progress, however. According to Ukrainian television, Ukrainian
presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the parties would meet again in a
second round but first needed to return to their capitals with potential
grounds for compromise.
Putin himself
gave no hints of any impending peace deal. After a long call with French
President Emmanuel Macron, Russian media reported Putin had not only repeated
his long-standing security demands over Ukraine — that the country should
disarm and stay neutral outside NATO — but also insisted upon the formal
recognition of Crimea as Russian, an ultimatum he had not previously stated so
bluntly to Western allies.
A more
upbeat read-out from the Élysée reported some willingness from Putin’s side to
commit to a cease-fire on civilian facilities. Problematically, however, Putin
denies in the version of events given to Russian media that there are any
attacks on civilians to stop, blaming such strikes on Ukrainian nationalists —
a baseless assertion.
The danger
of an expansion of the conflict also grew on Monday with the prospect that
Belarusian forces could cross the border. U.S. intelligence expects Belarusian
leader Alexander Lukashenko to throw in his 48,000-strong army in the next few
hours or days to reinforce Russia in its faltering invasion of Ukraine.
Russian
ground forces have taken control of the town of Berdyansk on the Black Sea
coast between the Crimean peninsula and the Russian-backed breakaway regions
within Donbas, defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Monday
morning. Video posted by Ukrainian media later showed a crowd of locals
chanting at Russian soldiers to “go home.”
Russian-backed
forces in the eastern breakaway regions have also advanced. But Ukraine’s armed
forces on Monday said they continued to hold Kyiv, along with other major
cities.
In a new
video posted on Telegram on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 16
Ukrainian children had been killed and 45 wounded as a result of Russia’s
offensive.
“When I ran
for the presidency, I said each of us is the president,” Zelenskyy said. “And
now, each of us is a warrior.”
Zelenskyy
also announced he would release prisoners with combat experience if they wished
to fight for Ukraine, to “compensate their guilt.”
Separately,
the Ukrainian president called for the EU to immediately allow his country to
join. “We ask the European Union for Ukraine’s immediate accession under a new
special procedure,” he said.
On Sunday,
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc wants the
country to join, noting in an interview that: “They are one of us and we want
them in.” However, the decision to add new countries to the EU lies with
existing member countries, which don’t always agree with the Commission’s
views. Ukraine is still not an official candidate for EU accession talks.
Zelenskyy
also had a message for the Russian invaders.
“Why did
you all come here?” he asked the Russian forces in Ukrainian, before appealing
directly to them in Russian: “Drop your weapons and leave. Don’t trust your
commanders. Don’t trust your propagandists. Just save your lives. Leave.”
Russia,
meanwhile, is feeling the pinch from retaliatory sanctions imposed by the West.
The Russian
central bank was forced to ban sales of local securities by foreigners on
Monday, and more than double its key interest rate to 20 percent from 9.5
percent following what it called a “cardinal change in external conditions.”
The Russian finance ministry also announced it would require exporters to sell
80 percent of hard currency proceeds for rubles, in a bid to stave off a
collapse of the Russian currency.
Additionally,
Russia is facing significant losses on the battlefield.
As of
Monday morning, Ukraine’s armed forces estimated Russia had lost 29 planes, 29
helicopters, 191 tanks, 816 armored personnel carriers, 74 artillery pieces, 60
tanks and two ships, among other equipment. Ukraine also said it estimated
Russia had suffered about 5,300 casualties, with Zelenskyy saying in his Monday
video that “four and a half thousand” Russians had been killed.
Russia has
not issued estimates of its losses in the war, but on Monday claimed to have
struck 1,114 objects of Ukrainian military infrastructure since launching its
offensive. In addition, the defense ministry’s Konashenkov claimed Russia had
destroyed 314 Ukrainian tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 57 multiple
rocket launchers, 121 field artillery and mortars and 274 special military
vehicles.
Meanwhile,
European defense ministers met on Monday to flesh out a plan announced over the
weekend to increase the EU’s defensive capabilities and send lethal weapons to
Kyiv.
European
Council President Charles Michel said Monday that, “this weekend, the Europe of
defense has become a very tangible reality.” He added: “At the moment, there
are about 20 European states which, in addition to the means decided within the
EU, on a bilateral level, are going to dedicate military means, rockets,
ammunition, anti-tank weapons, anti-missile weapons, air defense, in order to
support the Ukrainians who are a sort of bulwark, a bulwark that we must
support and protect.”
Reznikov,
the Ukrainian defense minister, welcomed Europe’s help. In a Facebook post in
the early hours of Monday morning, he said: “Half of Europe is already
collecting, packing, and carrying weapons and armor” for Ukraine. “The circle
of states that provide real help has increased significantly. The scale has
increased.”
And while
EU interior ministers met on Sunday to discuss the worsening humanitarian
situation on the bloc’s border, Reznikov noted that “Europe has already
provided a temporary shelter to tens of thousands of those we want to save the
most — our little ones and their mothers. Without any formalities.” He added:
“We really don’t have a border in the west now.”
Those stuck
in the hardest-hit cities in Ukraine reported terrifying scenes on the ground.
In Kharkiv,
three doctors sheltering at the clinic where they work said they “live in
hell.” In an email, Professor Marina Petrushko, Dr. Vladimir Pinyaev and Dr.
Taisiya Yurchuk said: “Our lives have narrowed to the limits of basements.”
Their clinic, “where life was born, has become a shelter … Thank God — the
house has thick walls and a solid basement.”
They added:
“The Russians are destroying everything: residential neighborhoods,
kindergartens, hospitals, even a blood transfusion station. Without the support
of the whole world, we will not be able to cope with the Russian invasion. Please,
help.”
Douglas Busvine and Camille Gijs contributed reporting.
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