(Kyiv) The Russian army continued its all-out offensive in Ukraine on Monday, bombarding the country’s second city Kharkiv and trying to encircle the capital Kyiv, while a third round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations was scheduled for the day, without great hope of success.
Posted at 7:26
Updated at 9:30 p.m.
The aggravation of the conflict led Monday morning to a surge of fever on the international markets, with vertiginous rises in oil and gold and a heavy fall in the stock markets in Asia.
Intense aerial bombardments hit Kharkiv in the north-east of Ukraine overnight from Sunday to Monday, targeting in particular a sports complex of a local university and civilian buildings, according to an AFP journalist.
According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russian forces are concentrating their efforts on Kharkiv, Cherniguiv (north), Sumy (northeast) and Mykolayev (south) and “accumulating their resources to launch an assault” on Kyiv.
Intense fighting took place all day Sunday on the outskirts of the capital, according to the Ukrainian regional administration, in particular around the road leading to Zhytomyr (150 km west of Kyiv), as well as in Cherniguiv (150 km north of the capital).
In the western suburbs of Kyiv, in Irpin, “from morning to evening, all the neighboring buildings were hit, a tank entered. It was scary, we were scared. Before that, we didn’t think we were going to leave,” testified Tetiana Vozniuchenko, 52.
The Russian army also continued its siege of the strategic port of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in the south-east of the country, where a second attempt at humanitarian evacuation failed on Sunday. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of preparing to bomb the port of Odessa on the Black Sea.
PHOTO DIEGO HERRERA CARCEDO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The corpses of people killed by Russian shelling lie on the street in the city of Irpin, Ukraine.
A third round of negotiations between Russians and Ukrainians was scheduled for Monday. But hopes of success are slim, Russian President Vladimir Putin having set as a precondition for any dialogue Kyiv’s acceptance of all of Moscow’s demands, including the demilitarization of Ukraine and a neutral status for the country.
PHOTO EVGENIY MALOLETKA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fires were started by Russian strikes in Mariupol on March 3.
The two previous sessions of talks, on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and then on the Polish-Belarusian border, had however resulted in an agreement on the establishment of “humanitarian corridors” for the evacuation of civilians.
Nuclear center
Sunday evening, during a telephone interview with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Putin affirmed that he “would achieve his objectives” in Ukraine “either through negotiation or through war”, according to the Elysee.
However, he assured that it “was not his intention to carry out attacks on nuclear power plants” and said he was “ready to respect the standards of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for the protection of power stations,” the French presidency told the press.
PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Ukrainian soldier stands next to an anti-tank barrier set up in central Kyiv on March 6.
After the bombing – denied by Moscow – on March 4 of the nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye (south), the largest in Ukraine and Europe, which raised fears of a disaster, the IAEA was informed by Kyiv that the management of the plant was now under the orders of the Russian forces.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, only communications by mobile phone are still possible there, but of poor quality, and the head of the IAEA Rafael Grossi said he was “deeply concerned” by “the deterioration of the situation regarding communications vital links between the regulatory authority and the plant”.
The Russian army, for its part, accused the Ukrainians of seeking to provoke a radioactive leak in Kharkiv and then blamed Moscow for it.
In a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, the Russian Ministry of Defense attributed to the Ukrainian secret service and the nationalists of the “Azov battalion” the intention to blow up a nuclear reactor used for scientific experiments in the Institute of physical sciences in Kharkiv, “and to accuse the Russian armed forces of having launched a missile”.
PHOTO SERGEY BOBOK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The burnt remains of a building destroyed by Russian army shelling in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv.
During his interview with Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin also again “denied that his army is targeting civilians” and reaffirmed that “the responsibility lies with the Ukrainians to let the population of the surrounded cities leave”, according to the French presidency. .
The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the situation in Ukraine, the World Health Organization has reported attacks on sanitation facilities, and Washington has reported “very credible” reports that Russia has committed war crimes since the start of the invasion on February 24.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the war in Ukraine had triggered “Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II”.
“More than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed [la frontière] to neighboring countries in 10 days,” Grandi said on Sunday.
Oil surge, stock market crash
The escalation of the conflict and the near total halt to Russian exports continue to drive up oil prices. The barrel of Brent from the North Sea came close to 140 dollars on Monday morning, close to the absolute record.
In the process, the Tokyo and Hong Kong stock markets fell by more than 3% and 4% respectively on Monday in the first exchanges. And gold, a traditional safe haven in times of crisis, has exceeded 2,000 dollars an ounce.
PHOTO CARLOS BARRIA, REUTERS
A man helps a woman to shelter after shelling in Irpin, near Kyiv, on March 6.
US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States and the European Union were “very actively” discussing the possibility of banning imports of Russian oil.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, however, declared herself opposed to an embargo on Russian gas, oil and coal, believing that the sanctions should be able to “hold over time”.
“It is useless if in three weeks we discover that we only have a few days of electricity left in Germany and that we must therefore reverse these sanctions”, declared Mr.me Baerbock at the ZDF chain.
PHOTO LOUISA GOULIAMAKI, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
Ukrainian refugees rest at the guard in Krakow, March 6.
“We are ready to pay a very, very high economic price” but “if tomorrow, in Germany or in Europe, the lights go out, that won’t stop the tanks,” she added.
Germany imports from Russia 55% of its gas, 42% of its oil as well as coal, a dependency for which Berlin has been self-critical since the invasion of Ukraine but which will take years to reduce.
Even if oil is exempted for the moment from sanctions, Russian exports no longer find takers. The British Shell is one of the only oil groups to have ventured there last week by buying 100,000 tons of crude, arousing the wrath of the Ukrainian government.