(Kyiv) Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on Thursday agreed on ‘humanitarian corridors’ for the evacuation of civilians, as the Russian military steps up strikes on Ukrainian towns, one of which killed 33 in Cherniguiv, in the north of the country.
Updated yesterday at 5:17 p.m.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had met on the border between Poland and Belarus for this second attempt, during which Kyiv hoped to obtain a truce. “Unfortunately, there are not yet the expected results for Ukraine. There is only one solution to organize humanitarian corridors,” Mikhaïlo Podoliak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, wrote on Twitter.
At the same time, in statements broadcast on Russian television, Vladimir Putin had given no hope.
“Neo-Nazis and foreign mercenaries”
“The special military operation is going strictly according to schedule, according to plan,” he said, paying tribute to Russian soldiers and their “valuable fight against neo-Nazis” and “foreign mercenaries” who he says are using civilians as “human shields” in Ukraine.
It is indeed a residential area that the Ukrainian side accuses the Russian army of having targeted Thursday in Cherniguiv, on the road to Kyiv, killing 33 people according to a latest report.
In addition to homes, “Russian aircraft attacked two schools in the Stara Podsoudovka district,” local governor Viatcheslav Tchaous wrote on his Telegram account, posting images of gutted buildings.
Images from the emergency service showed rescuers carrying bodies.
Hours earlier, Mr Putin had dashed French President Emmanuel Macron’s hopes of mediation, telling him over the phone that Russia “intends to continue its fight without compromise against members of nationalist groups who commit war crimes”. , and repeating its demand for demilitarization and a neutral status for Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
“The worst is yet to come”, Mr. Putin wants to “take control” of all of Ukraine, had judged the French president after this call, according to the Elysée.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has become a hero in his country, for his part challenged the master of the Kremlin to meet him. “I have to talk to Putin […]because it is the only way to stop this war,” he said in Kyiv.
“To the Berlin Wall”
He again urged Westerners to increase their support, to “close the skies” of Ukraine to Russian planes, and warned them: “If we disappear, may God protect us, then it will be Latvia, Lithuania, Russia. Estonia, etc. Up to the Berlin Wall, believe me” ..
On the ground, the Russian army seems to have further strengthened its firepower to accelerate the capture of strategic cities.
After the Russian army took control of Kherson, a metropolis of 290,000 inhabitants near the Crimean peninsula, after heavy shelling, the head of the regional administration, Gennady Lagouta, called on Telegram residents to stay at home them: “The occupants are in all areas of the city and very dangerous,” he warned.
“Blockade” of Mariupol
Further east, in Mariupol, the mayor accused Russia of wanting to besiege the city.
“They destroyed the bridges, destroyed the trains to prevent us from taking out our wives, children and old people […] They seek to impose a blockade, as in Leningrad”, the current Saint Petersburg, victim of a dramatic siege by the German army during the Second World War, declared Vadym Boïtchenko on Telegram.
This major Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov, a key site for the advance of Russian forces, is “resisting” for the moment, according to the Ukrainian army.
At the other end of the country, in the northeast near the Russian border, the large city of Kharkiv, hit by deadly bombardments on Tuesday and Wednesday, was shelled throughout the night, according to regional authorities.
200km to the south, the million-strong industrial hub of Dnipro was in turn bracing for a Russian assault, with locals heaping sandbags and preparing Molotov cocktails.
Russian troops were also near Zaporijjia, 200 km south of Dnipro, where the largest Ukrainian nuclear power plant is located.
In Kyiv, where loud explosions were heard overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, residents who did not flee have been preparing for an assault for days. Thousands of women and children sleep in the subway to escape the bombs.
“Hundreds or even thousands” of victims
The United States “will support diplomatic efforts” to obtain a ceasefire with Moscow, even if “it is much more difficult to achieve this when the shots ring out and the tanks advance”, had declared before the new round of negotiations the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken.
“Hundreds or even thousands of civilians have been killed and injured,” he said. No one has so far put forward an estimate for the overall toll of the conflict.
Mr Blinken arrived in Brussels overnight for talks on Friday with NATO and EU officials, after which he is due to travel to Poland, the three Baltic countries and Moldova.
The latter, which fears to be the next target of Moscow, announced Thursday that it has officially submitted its candidacy for entry into the European Union, like Georgia, following the example of Ukraine.
One million refugees
The deadly shelling of Ukrainian cities arouses great emotion in the world, where demonstrations and outbursts of solidarity with the Ukrainians are linked.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday that he had raised $1.5 billion in emergency aid, and the bells of cathedrals in Paris, Berlin, Madrid or Vienna rang at 11 a.m. GMT for the ‘Ukraine.
More than a million people have fled the country, according to the latest figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, especially to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.
European interior ministers agreed in Brussels to grant these refugees “temporary protection” in the EU.
Russia’s isolation became clear on Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly, which voted overwhelmingly for a resolution demanding an end to the Russian offensive. Five out of 193 countries opposed it, 35 abstaining, including China.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Wednesday evening the “immediate opening” of an investigation into the situation in Ukraine, where Russia is accused of perpetrating war crimes, and the OSCE will put in place a mission of independent experts to investigate violations of international law perpetrated by Moscow.
Collapse of the ruble
The economic sanctions imposed by the Western camp on Moscow and those close to Putin are increasingly harsh.
The EU has confirmed that seven Russian banks will, from March 12, be excluded from the Swift messaging system, a key cog in international finance. The World Bank has cut all its aid programs in Russia and Belarus.
Financial rating agencies Fitch, Moody’s and S&P have downgraded Russia to the category of countries at risk of not being able to repay their debt.
After losing more than a third of its value in foreign currencies, the ruble plunged again on Thursday.
The number two in Russian oil, Loukoil said on Thursday that he advocated “a rapid end to the armed conflict” and a diplomatic outcome, while his shares on the stock market, like those of other groups, have collapsed in recent days.
The United States and the United Kingdom also blacklisted new oligarchs close to the Kremlin on Thursday. US President Joe Biden called it the “strongest and most united economic pressure campaign in history”.
On the European side, an 86-meter yacht identified as belonging via a company to the boss of Igor Setchin, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, like him from the Soviet KGB and placed at the head of the oil giant Rosneft, was seized on Thursday in the south of France.
Moscow is stepping up measures to defend its economy, but also to stifle any voice opposed to the war: the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, had to close on Thursday after being banned from the air, and the opposition internet television channel Dojd , also prohibited, has announced that it will suspend its work.
As a result of Russia’s economic isolation, the prices of hydrocarbons and aluminium, of which Moscow is a major exporter, continue to soar. The barrel of WTI oil exceeded 115 dollars, a record since 2008.
Russia is also now virtually banned from the world of sport and culture. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced Thursday to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Games which start Friday in Beijing.