World

Fighting rages outside Kyiv

United States imposes new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs

REUTERS March 12, 2022

Smoke rises after shelling near Kyiv, Ukraine March 11, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS

LVIV:

Conflict raged northwest of Kyiv on Saturday and other cities were encircled, with Ukrainian officials saying heavy shelling and threats of Russian air attacks were endangering attempted evacuations.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had said the government planned to use agreed humanitarian corridors out of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol as well as towns and villages in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy and some other areas.

But the governor of the Kyiv region said fighting and threats of Russian air attacks were continuing during evacuation attempts and the Donetsk region's governor said constant shelling was complicating bringing aid into Mariupol.

Air raid sirens blared across most Ukrainian cities on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelters, local media reported.

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The bombardment has trapped thousands of people in besieged cities and sent 2.5 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries.

The exhausted-looking governor of Chernihiv, around 150 km northeast of Kyiv, gave a video update in front of the ruins of its Ukraine Hotel, which he said had been hit on Saturday.

"There is no such hotel anymore," Viacheslav Chaus said, wiping tears from his eyes. "But Ukraine itself still exists, and it will prevail."

Russian rocket attacks destroyed a Ukrainian airbase and hit an ammunition depot near the town of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv region on Saturday morning, Interfax Ukraine quoted Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych as saying.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians what it calls a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and unseat leaders it refers to as neo-Nazis. It has not responded to Ukrainian challenges to provide evidence.

Ukraine said it expected a new wave of attacks on the regions around the capital Kyiv, the country's second city Kharkiv and Donbass in the east, where Russian-backed separatists have expanded their control.

Britain's defence ministry said on Friday that Russian forces could launch an offensive on the capital Kyiv in a few days. In an update on Saturday, it said fighting northwest of the capital continued, with the bulk of Russian ground forces 25 km (16 miles) from the centre.

The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remained encircled under heavy Russian shelling, it said.

Sanctions

Efforts to isolate Russia economically have stepped up, with the United States imposing new sanctions on senior Kremlin officials and Russian oligarchs on Friday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would on Saturday suspend Moscow's privileged trade and economic treatment, crack down on its use of crypto-assets, and ban the import of iron and steel goods from Russia, as well as the export of luxury goods in the other direction.

Moscow said on Saturday the European Union would end up paying at least three times more for oil, gas and electricity.

"I believe the European Union would not benefit from this - we have more durable supplies and stronger nerves," Russian foreign ministry official Nikolai Kobrinets told Interfax.

#BayraktarTB2 attacking what appears to be a Russian command post near Kyiv. https://t.co/pxz42Lvjhy
— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) March 11, 2022

As the Russian invasion entered its third week, its forces kept up their bombardment of cities across the country on Friday. Satellite images showed them firing artillery as they advanced on Kyiv.

As hundreds sheltered in metro stations in Kharkiv, Nastya, a young girl lying on a makeshift bed on the floor of a train carriage, said she had been there for over a week, unable to move around much and ill with a virus.

"I'm scared for my home, for the homes of my friends, very scared for the whole country, and scared for myself of course," she said.

COMMENTS (1)

Robert Smith | 2 years ago | Reply US is a selfish country which only looks at its own interests. It talks about war and peace but is the largest arms-selling country in the world.You can judge the true character of America from the fact that today when Putin has warned that Russia may stop its crude oil supplies to the international market US President Joe Biden is considering lifting sanctions on Iran. The US has said it can lift sanctions on Iran so that Iran can sell its crude oil in the international market. The US has also called for the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela so that it can also sell crude oil to other countries. That is at one time the US which put pressure on the whole world to not by crude oil from Iran and Venezuela saying that it would take strong action against them. India was among them but continued to buy crude oil from Iran. But today the same US is talking about considering removing the sanctions from these countries for its own benefit. In fact America is a selfish country which only looks at its own interests. The United States talks about war and peace but it is the largest arms-selling country in the world. It accounts for about 37 percent of the global arms market. The United States calls the nuclear programs of other countries a threat to the peace of the world but it is the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons for the first and last time. Even today the United States is the world s second largest nuclear power. Similarly the US does big things on human rights lecturing countries like India on racial discrimination. But in the same U.S. there is racial discrimination against people of African descent. Apart from this the US also gives big lectures to the world on the restoration of democracy and describes itself as the champion of democracy. But in the Middle East countries it supports governments that are led by radical forces for its own benefit. Today Russia is facing the most economic and other sanctions of any country in the world. In the case of the US no others except for countries like China have imposed any sanctions on it. This is the case when the US has ruined more than 15 countries around the world entrenching them in war by making false accusations. It does this on the basis of five things. The first is the restoration of democracy. The second is a violation of human rights. The third is to scare the world by posing the threat of chemical and biological weapons. The fourth is to describe a country s nuclear program as a threat to world peace. And the fifth is terrorism. Based on these the US has so far destroyed many countries. In countries like Afghanistan and Iraq it has sent its forces and created war-like situations. While the truth is that the pretenses on the basis of which the US started military conflicts in these countries have never been proved right. For example the US said that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had developed chemical weapons that could disrupt world peace. On that basis it invaded Iraq and eventually sentenced Saddam Hussein to death. But to this day it has not been proven that Iraq had chemical weapons. Now the big question is whether any country or international institutions like the United Nations imposed any sanctions on the US for human rights violations. The answer is no country has imposed any sanctions on the US on these issues.

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