Defiant Putin warns the west: your sanctions are
akin to an act of war
Ukraine told: your statehood is in doubt as Russian
bombs end ceasefire in Mariupol
Toby
HelmLuke Harding in Lviv, Daniel Boffey in Brussels & Julian Borger in
Washington
Sat 5 Mar
2022 20.02 GMT
Vladimir
Putin delivered a chilling warning to the west over the imposition of sanctions
on Russia on Saturday, warning that measures designed to cripple his country’s
economy were “akin to an act of war”.
In comments
that were both defiant and threatening, the Russian president also told
Ukraine’s leaders that their nation risked being dismantled as an independent
sovereign state if they continued to resist Russia’s invasion.
“The
current leadership needs to understand that if they continue doing what they
are doing, they risk the future of Ukrainian statehood,” Putin said. “If that
happens they will have to be blamed for that.”
His
intervention, in which he hinted the conflict could soon spread beyond Ukraine
unless the west changed course, came as Moscow broke a ceasefire agreement to
allow Ukrainian civilians to flee after 10 days of bombing and devastation.
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Later,
Russia’s foreign ministry followed up Putin’s warning by specifically singling
out the UK for what it called “sanctions hysteria” and its prominent role in
supporting Ukraine. Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, said
Russia would not forget the UK’s cooperation with Kyiv.
“The
sanctions hysteria in which London plays one of the leading, if not the main,
roles, leaves us no choice but to take proportionately tough retaliatory
measures,” she said, adding that Britain’s Russian interests would be
“undermined” by Moscow’s response.
As tensions
rose to new levels, and early hopes that diplomatic progress might be made in
behind-the-scenes negotiations were dashed, the UK Foreign Office advised all
Britons in Russia to leave without delay by any available commercial routes.
The number of UK citizens in the country is estimated at upwards of 6,000.
Increasingly,
European diplomats believe Putin sees the west’s supply of weaponry and other
support to Ukraine as direct intervention of a kind that requires retaliation.
Referring
to Ukraine’s demand for Nato to impose a no-fly zone over the country – which
Nato has rejected – Putin added: “The realisation of that demand would bring
catastrophic results not only to Europe but to the whole world.”
On the
ground, Ukraine claimed on Saturday to have destroyed more of Russia’s
firepower. The armed forces said soldiers had shot down a helicopter and two
warplanes, capturing three pilots. One of them had taken part in Russian
bombing missions in Syria, it alleged.
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Ukrainian
troops launched a successful counter-attack in the Kharkiv region, seizing
equipment and armoured vehicles. The city, Ukraine’s second biggest, has been
under ferocious Russian bombardment.
On
Saturday, in the south of the country residents flooded the main square in the
city of Kherson and protested peacefully against the occupation. They waved
Ukrainian flags and even hijacked a Russian armoured personnel carrier, taking
it for a spin, to loud applause. Similar large-scale anti-Russian
demonstrations took place in Melitopol, where Russian soldiers fired into the
air, and the Azov Sea port of Berdyansk.
As the
ceasefire agreements broke down, both sides blamed each other. The Kremlin
blamed Ukraine for the collapse of a deal to evacuate civilians from the
besieged city of Mariupol and the nearby town of Volnovakha, while Ukrainian
officials said attempts to create a humanitarian corridor in the east for
200,000 trapped civilians failed because of shelling.
Despite the
growing international alarm and the escalation of rhetoric, diplomatic efforts
were underway this weekend to broker a way out of the crisis. It is understood
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, which has so far refused to impose
sanctions on Moscow, is hoping to speak to Putin on Sunday to discuss a
ceasefire. Diplomats believe Erdoğan is eyeing a potential role as
interlocutor.
Meanwhile
EU leaders will meet in Versailles in Paris on Thursday to try to come to a
common position on Ukraine’s request for candidate status. Ukraine’s president,
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is believed to see putting his country on a “fast track”
to joining the EU as crucial to securing its political future, even if Kyiv
needs to offer Putin a guarantee of military neutrality in any talks on ending
the war.
In
Washington, there has been talk of offering Putin a so-called “golden bridge” –
blocking all his avenues of advance while making retreat as attractive as
possible. US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Friday the door to
negotiation was open. “If they show any signs of being willing to engage in
meaningful diplomacy, of course we’ll engage,” he said.
But western
diplomats do not believe Putin is in the mood to backdown or negotiate. Former
UK foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind said, however, that Putin must have been
stung by the huge effects of the sanctions, particularly the blocking of 60% of
Russia’s $600bn of foreign reserves.
US
officials hope the economic pain inflicted on Russia will force Putin to climb
down. But some critics of the Biden administration’s response argue the “golden
bridge” has not been signposted clearly enough.
“If the
goal is to compel, then the sanctioners need to be explicit about what Russia
can do to get the sanctions lifted,” Dan Drezner, a political scientist and
sanctions expert at Tufts University, wrote in the Washington Post. “That lack
of clarity undermines coercive bargaining, because the targeted actor believes
sanctions will stay in place no matter what they do.”
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