‘Explosions heard in Kiev, Russian plane shot down’
Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday night, international news agencies report. The nature of the explosions was not immediately clear, according to AP. The air raid siren sounded in the city.
There are also reports that Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian plane over Kiev in the early hours of Friday. The plane is said to have crashed into an apartment building, causing a fire, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister, reported, according to Reuters.
It was unclear whether it was a manned aircraft or a rocket. At least eight people were injured in the crash, according to municipal authorities. Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said Kiev is the target of a missile attack.
“Abominable Russian missile strikes on Kiev,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “The last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941, when the city was attacked by Nazi Germany.”
DmytroKuleba Dmytro Kuleba Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv. Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Sever all ties. Kick Russia out of everything.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the government has information that “subversive groups” are surrounding the city. The US Secretary of State said he is “convinced” that Kiev is under siege in an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismantle the government and replace it with his own regime.
Zelensky has said he will remain in Kiev as Ukrainian forces try to stem the Russian advance towards the capital.
Rutte impressed by Zelensky’s speech to EU leaders
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed EU leaders Thursday evening at the scheduled summit on Russia’s invasion of his country. According to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the president has made “an enormous impression”, the ANP reports.
“He is an impressive man,” said Rutte about the president, who called in from Kiev “from a kind of bunker” in a green army shirt. “A man who shows leadership, who stands there in very difficult moments and keeps the peace.”
Afterwards, Zelensky said in a televised speech that he was disappointed that Ukraine is on its own. The EU has yet to heed his call to cut Russia off from the international payment system Swift and personally punish President Putin. Yet “he respects what we all do,” Rutte said.
According to Rutte, the EU sanctions will have “absolute effect on Russia, the oligarchs, the people with economic interests at the top of the social ladder.” The sanctions send “a signal that the whole world is united” in resistance to Russian aggression, he said.
Von der Leyen: Putin ‘must and will fail’
The Russian president “must and will fail” in the invasion of Ukraine. EU Commission chair Ursula von der Leyen made this statement on Friday after EU leaders reached agreement on new sanctions. According to them, Putin is returning the continent to the age of empires and confrontations, Reuters reports.
EU leaders agreed in principle on further economic sanctions during an overnight emergency summit, in cooperation with the United States. They want to limit Russian access to technology, freeze Russian assets in the EU, and ban banks from European financial markets.
“This package includes financial sanctions targeting 70 percent of the Russian banking market and key state-owned companies, including defense,” wrote Von der Leyen on Twitter. She says the sanctions will make it more expensive for Russia to borrow money and fuel inflation there.
According to the committee chair, export restrictions will hurt Russia’s oil sector, by denying materials Russia needs from Europe for its oil refineries. In the long run, this will reduce the yields of Russian oil refineries.
In pictures: residents of Kiev take shelter in metro stations
Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kiev take shelter in the city’s underground from the Russian attack. Hundreds of people took refuge on the subway on Thursday, some with luggage. Many expressed frustration at the speed with which the Russian attack was approaching the capital.
Macron: Putin was hypocritical on phone calls
French President Emmanuel Macron called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday to “demand an immediate end” to Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. The Élysée has stated this, AFP reports.
Macron said Thursday night that Putin had been hypocritical in their talks. Earlier this week, before the Russian invasion, the French president announced that he had agreed to meet Putin and Biden at a summit on the Ukraine crisis.
“Yes, there was hypocrisy, there was a deliberate, conscious choice to go to war when we could still hold peace negotiations,” Macron said after an EU summit. He added that France would add its own sanctions to the EU sanctions.
US stocks close with gains after price fall, Asian stocks open higher
US stocks ended the trading day with gains, after sharp losses earlier in the day in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The S&P 500 stock index closed the day with a gain of 1.5 percent, after previously declining 2.6 percent. Tech exchange Nasdaq ended the day more than 3 percent higher.
Investors reacted with relief to US President Joe Biden’s announcement of more sanctions, with the White House refraining from the most drastic sanctions. Biden said the sanctions package is “specially designed to allow energy payments to go through,” he said.
The price of oil, which rose above $100 a barrel on both sides of the Atlantic, the highest level since 2014, largely relinquished those gains. Though Biden called the sanctions harsh, Ukraine had urged Russia to ban access to the international payment system Swift. That hasn’t happened yet.
Stock markets opened higher in Asia; Japan’s Nikkei index rose 1.5 percent after the opening bell. European stocks had a bad day on Thursday in response to the invasion; the German DAX fell 4 percent.
Russian banks downplay sanctions
Three Russian banks, including the country’s largest, Sberbank, on Friday downplayed sanctions imposed on them by the United States in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The financial institutions say they will continue to work normally. Reuters reports that.
The US Treasury Department said Thursday that US banks must cut ties with Sberbank within 30 days. The United Kingdom announced that it would freeze assets of major Russian banks. Russia’s central bank said it would provide support to banks affected by sanctions and said it would be ready with additional resources to ensure their stability and protect customers.
Sberbank said it is studying the implications of the sanctions, but there are no restrictions on withdrawals or deposits of rubles and foreign currencies. Gazprombank issued a similar statement saying that the company is still serving corporate and private customers.
Zelensky: 137 Ukrainians killed, hundreds injured
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has so far killed 137 Ukrainian civilians and soldiers and injured 316 others. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address released Thursday night (local time), AP reports.
Zelensky calls them “heroes” in his message. He says that despite Russia’s claim that it only attacks military targets, civilian targets have also been hit. Zelensky said the dead included all 13 border guards on Ukraine’s Black Sea island of Zmiinyi, which has been captured by Russian military personnel.
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