War in Ukraine | Fighting continues in Kyiv, West steps up pressure on Moscow

(Kiev) The battle for control of Kiev continues on Sunday, as the West further increases the pressure on Moscow, excluding Russian banks from the Swift interbank platform and preparing to deliver more weapons to Ukraine .

On the fourth day of Vladimir Putin’s offensive, anti-aircraft sirens sounded in Kiev overnight from Saturday to Sunday, the official Special Communications Service said, calling on residents to take refuge in shelters. of the capital. Russian forces “continue their offensive to lock Kiev” after having “completed their regrouping” on the northern front, the Ukrainian army said on Saturday evening.

Strikes also hit an oil depot in Vassylkiv, about thirty kilometers southwest of Kiev, causing a huge fire, as well as a gas pipeline in Kharkiv (east), detailed the official Special Communications Service.

The Russian army had been ordered on Saturday afternoon to expand its offensive on Ukraine, saying Kiev had refused negotiations. “All units have been ordered to expand the offensive in all directions, in accordance with the offensive plan,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

“Outcast”

The violence of the Russian intervention pushed the West on Saturday to adopt a new set of tougher sanctions: they decided in particular to exclude many Russian banks from the Swift interbank platform, an essential cog in global finance, announced the German government, which chairs the G7 forum.

An action that “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.

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 M^me 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’ rouble, 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.

“Signs of Resistance”

Breaking with its traditional policy of refusing to export lethal weapons in conflict zones, Germany announced on Saturday the supply to Kiev of a thousand anti-tank rocket launchers and 500 surface-to-air missiles.

Washington, for its part, announced on Saturday the sending of new military aid to Ukraine, in the amount of 350 million dollars, while a senior Pentagon official told AFP that he saw “signs of a viable Ukrainian resistance”.

“We think 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 in turn declared on Saturday evening that it had “decided to deliver additional defense equipment to the Ukrainian authorities”.

“Sabotage Units”

At least 198 civilians, including three children, have been killed and 1,115 people injured since Thursday, according to Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko.

“Our army controls Kiev and key cities around the capital,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Facebook on Saturday, 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 the capital, deserted by its inhabitants, fighting opposed Russian and Ukrainian forces on Saturday. The curfew has been extended until 8 a.m. Monday and anyone in the street will be treated as an enemy, the mayor, ex-boxer 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.

A 30-storey residential building was hit head-on on Saturday by a missile which caused significant damage, without the authorities reporting any immediate casualties.

Moscow “sabotage units” are in the city, but not yet regular formations of the Russian army, said the mayor of the capital.

Moscow does not give an assessment

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 Borodianki (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. .

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.

Poland says 115,000 Ukrainians have crossed the border since Thursday, when the invasion of Ukraine began. Nine reception centers have been set up.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had previously estimated that more than 116,000 refugees had fled to neighboring countries.