Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 #2

[PommyMommy]

30m ago 23:16

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: US condemns Putin’s nuclear deterrence order; rouble crashes as markets open – live updates | World news | The Guardian

Reports claim Belarus is preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion.

The Washington Post spoke to an unnamed US administration official on Sunday evening who said the deployment could begin as soon as Monday.

It’s very clear Minsk is now an extension of the Kremlin,” they said.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the claim.

 

[whitelilac]

When Ukrainian football player Roman Yaremchuk came on to the pitch for Portuguese Primeira Liga club SL Benefica, he was met with thunderous applause from the crowd who held signs in support of the player’s homeland.

Watch the video below of the moment Yaremchuk was brought to tears when he entered the pitch.


Ukrainian football player emotional on pitch after support from fans – video at link
Zelenskiy backing hits 90% among Ukrainians in poll since invasion – as it happened

 

[whitelilac]

3m ago23:39

Summary
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as we unpack all the latest developments on the unfolding crisis in Ukraine.

As dawn breaks in Kyiv and Ukrainians across the country wake for the fifth day since their Russian neighbour invaded, here is where the situation currently stands:

For any tips and feedback please contact me through Twitter or at [email protected]

• Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his military command to put nuclear deterrence forces on high alert, in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by Nato countries. The US condemned the order and said Putin was “manufacturing threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression”.
• The rouble plunged nearly 30% to an all-time low versus the US dollar on Monday as markets opened for trading on the first day after western nations announced punishing economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The European Central Bank said on Monday morning that Sberbank Europe, a fully owned subsidiary of Sberbank Russia, which in turn is majority owned by the Russian state, is failing or likely to fail.
• Belarus reportedly approved in a referendum a new constitution renouncing the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the country has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies report. The move could theoretically allow Russia to place nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union. The package of constitutional reforms also extended the rule of leader Alexander Lukashenko.
• Ukraine’s interior ministry says 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children. It says an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded. The ministry did not give any information on casualties among Ukraine’s armed forces. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, claimed Russian forces had lost about 4,300 servicemen, a figure it was not possible to verify independently.
• Satellite imagery taken on Sunday showed a large deployment of Russian ground forces including tanks moving in the direction of the capital Kyiv from approximately 40 miles (64 km) away. The city remains in Ukrainian hands. The images released by Maxar Technologies showed a deployment comprising hundreds of military vehicles and extending more than 3.25 miles (5km), the company said. The convoy contained fuel, logistics and armoured vehicles including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery, it said.
• Ukraine has agreed to peace talks with Russia “without preconditions”, the office of Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian president said he was not confident that any progress would be made, but “let’s try, so that no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war when there was even a chance”.
• British prime minister Boris Johnson said he called the Ukrainian president who said he believed the next 24 hours was a “crucial period” for Ukraine. Johnson said he would do all he could to help ensure defensive aid from the UK and allies reached Ukraine.
• The EU will buy weapons for Ukraine. Multiple European countries are offering military aid to Ukraine, including Sweden, which hasn’t sent weapons to a country in armed conflict since the Soviet Union’s invasion of Finland in 1939.
• The EU plans to close its airspace to Russian aircraft, including the private jets of Russian oligarchs. The bloc will also ban Russian-state backed television channels RT and Sputnik.
• A rare emergency special session of the UN general assembly is due to be held on Monday in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, marking the first time in 40 years the security council has made such a request.
• The UN refugee agency has said more than 368,000 people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries. Up to 4 million people could become refugees if the situation continues to worsen, the UN said.
• The World Health Organization warned that thousands of lives are at risk from falling Ukrainian oxygen supplies.
• Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska have spoken out against Putin’s invasion. Fridman said: “I am deeply attached to Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.” Deripaska called for peace talks to begin “as fast as possible”.
• Pope Francis said he was “heartbroken” by the war and appeared to take direct aim at Putin by condemning people who “trust in the diabolic and perverse logic of weapons”.
• The UK will send an additional £40m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, while the USsaid it is sending nearly $54m (£40m) in new humanitarian aid
• Russian police detained more than 1,400 people at anti-war protests on Sunday, an independent monitoring organisation said, lifting the tally for crackdown arrests to over 4,000. Russia-Ukraine war latest news: rouble crashes as markets open; US condemns Putin’s nuclear deterrence order – live updates

 

[PommyMommy]

A post from an hour ago by Ukraine's Minister of Defence

Дорогі українці! 96 годин спротиву. 4... - Резніков Олексій | Facebook

 

[PommyMommy]

Ukraine FM slams 'traitors to humanity' for leaving Russia SWIFT loopholes: 'Money soaked in our blood' | Fox Business

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Sunday condemned the move by western countries to allow Russian energy transactions to continue on the international SWIFT banking system, even as they issued harsh sanctions on other transactions.

"I will not be diplomatic. Some countries are trying to leave loopholes, exclude a number of banks so they can apply some measures with their left hands and continue to trade with Russia with their right hands," Kuleba said.

"Stop doing this now. Stop trading with the blood of Ukrainian men women and children. This is not a metaphor but the reality of what you are doing," Kuleba continued. "History will judge you and your names will forever remain in history books as names of traitors to humanity. There are examples of such names in the 20th century. I am confident you do not want to add your names."

[...]

"It is critically important that Russia is disconnected from SWIFT on the fullest possible extent. All possible banks. Don't play political games and stop earning money soaked in our blood," he said.

Kuleba also demanded that the international community embargo all oil and gas purchases.

"These oil and gas now also contain Ukrainian blood. Anyone buying it has to be ashamed of doing so," he said.

 

[PommyMommy]

10m ago 00:15

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: rouble crashes as markets open; US condemns Putin’s nuclear deterrence order – live updates | World news | The Guardian

“We will not give up the capital, Ukraine is already winning,” are the remarks Ukraine’s minister of defence has given this morning in response Russia’s attempt to break into the capital overnight.

Oleksii Reznikov said it has so far been “96 hours of resistance” and “4 days of dedication, courage and faith” for the Ukrainian people, vowing his country will win the war.

In an statement given late last night which has seen been published on the Ukrainian ministry of defence website, Reznikov said: “The enemy who came to our land will go in a known direction. Therefore, we advise the occupiers to go home. It’s not too late.

“It is useless to intimidate Ukrainians. It will not be possible to break our defenders.”

 

[PommyMommy]

9m ago 00:18

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: rouble crashes as markets open; US condemns Putin’s nuclear deterrence order – live updates | World news | The Guardian

Amid the mounting tensions, western nations have said they will tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft.

The US stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine, announcing on Sunday it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the White House.

Germany also plans to send 500 Stingers and other military supplies.

However, the Biden administration has said the US will not “put boots on the ground” and US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield reiterated this stance in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

*** W H E N ???

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
️Russian forces carried out missile strikes across Ukraine overnight, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the President's Office said.
Air strikes occurred in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv and air raid sirens went off in many others.

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
️Air raid alerts in Cherkasy, Dnipro, and Kharkiv.
Residents should go to the nearest shelter.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
️The situation in Kyiv is under Ukrainian control, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

“All Russian efforts to occupy it have failed,” their statement reads.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
️Air raid sirens also in the Luhansk region and Zhytomyr.
Residents should go to the nearest shelter.

 

[PommyMommy]

44m ago 00:28

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: rouble crashes as markets open; US condemns Putin’s nuclear deterrence order – live updates | World news | The Guardian

Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, said a hacking group used Facebook to target a handful of public figures in Ukraine, including prominent military officials, politicians and a journalist, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.

Meta said in the last 48 hours it had also separately removed a network of about 40 fake accounts, groups and pages across Facebook and Instagram that operated from Russia and Ukraine targeting people in Ukraine, for violating its rules against coordinated inauthentic behaviour, Reuters reports.

A Twitter spokesperson said it had also suspended more than a dozen accounts and blocked the sharing of several links for violating its rules against platform manipulation and spam.

It said its ongoing investigation indicated the accounts originated in Russia and were attempting to disrupt the public conversation around the conflict in Ukraine.

In a blog post on Monday, Meta attributed the hacking efforts to a group known as Ghostwriter, which it said successfully gained access to the targets’ social media accounts.

Meta said the hackers attempted to post YouTube videos from the accounts portraying Ukrainian troops as weakened, including one video which claimed to show Ukrainian soldiers coming out of a forest and flying a white flag of surrender.

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter
️Russia used Iskander missile systems to attack Zhytomyr Airport.
The air strikes were conducted from Belarus, using Russian ballistic missile launchers.

Earlier, Belarus said it wouldn’t allow air strikes from its territory amid Ukraine’s upcoming peace talks with Russia.

Belarus MFA on Twitter
In Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive

 

[whitelilac]

In Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive

https://twitter.com/BelarusMFA/status/1498171698658648064?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1498171698658648064|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/28/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-update-conflict-belarus-putin-nuclear-deterrence-order-kyiv-russian-invasion-live-updates

 

[PommyMommy]

The phone has become the Ukrainian president’s most effective weapon | Volodymyr Zelenskiy | The Guardian

In a string of phone calls from a besieged Kyiv, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has persuaded the west to agree to a set of sanctions against Russia that were inconceivable a week ago.

[...]

One leader’s office said: “We are in awe of him. He may not eventually be able to save Ukraine, or change Russia, but he is changing Europe.”

Take Saturday’s diplomacy. Zelensky said he opened another day on the diplomatic frontline with a phone call to Emmanuel Macron, followed as the day progressed with calls to the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, the president of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis, the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the Pope, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, the Polish prime minister, Andrzej Duda, and finally a virtual nightcap with the British prime minister.

The day before, the number of calls was similar, all focused on requests for arms and tougher sanctions. Quite how Zelenskiy managed to make these calls, rally the home front, direct his army and sleep is hard to fathom. One who has heard him in action says: “He is very direct, very passionate and very practical.” But the calls have produced golden rewards for Zelenskiy and helped turn the tide.

[...]

Images source: 1,000+ Free Ukraine & Kiev Images (pixabay.com)

 

[airportwoman]

Beware of propaganda.

And beware of phony "charities" that may pop up. If you're going to donate, give to a long-established organization.

 

[Bit of hope]

Shame if something were to happen to his pretty little Italian villas.....

Prominent Putin propagandist rages on live TV about losing Italian villas because of sanctions | Daily Mail Online

What a pathetic man......he fumed about the war is affecting his quality of life.......oh dear.....how terrible for him.....pffff

 

[Fika]

And beware of phony "charities" that may pop up. If you're going to donate, give to a long-established organization.

Yes there will be many scam charities.
If one wants to donate money or anything else is best to do it with charity that has been established long ago and is well known. There also might be fake websites pretending to be legit big charity’s sites always check link adress.

 

[whitelilac]

South Korea to join SWIFT sanctions against Russia, send humanitarian aid to Ukraine

From CNN’s Gawon Bae in Seoul, South Korea

South Korea will ban exports of strategic materials to Russia and join the international effort to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT global payments system, the country's Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The ministry did not disclose which key strategic materials would be subject to export bans but said it had notified the United States of its decision via a diplomatic channel.

The decision on whether to also ban exports of non-strategic materials, including semiconductors and electronics, will be made “as soon as possible,” the ministry added.

The ministry also confirmed that South Korea will push for an additional release of strategic oil reserves to stabilize the international energy market, before further reviewing other measures, such as reselling liquefied natural gas to Europe.

South Korea will increase its humanitarian support to Ukraine by cooperating with the international community and sending non-lethal military equipment, the ministry said.

 

[whitelilac]

10m ago07:27

Logistical failures and Ukrainian resistance stall Russian offence: British defence ministry
Recent British intelligence appears to corroborate with a recent report from Ukraine’s military that Russia had “slowed down” its offensive.

Britain’s defence ministry has said Russia’s advance on Kyiv has been slowed by logistical failures and fierce Ukrainian resistance.

The ministry said on Monday:

Heavy fighting continues around Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the defence ministry said in an intelligence update posted on Twitter. Both cities remain under Ukrainian control, it said.
Russia-Ukraine war latest news: rouble crashes as markets open; US condemns Vladimir Putin’s nuclear deterrence order – live updates

 

[whitelilac]

7 min ago
Singapore to impose "appropriate sanctions and restrictions" on Russia

From CNN's Lizzy Yee

Singapore will impose “appropriate sanctions and restrictions” on Russia, the country’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in the country's Parliament on Monday.

He called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “unprovoked” and a “clear and gross violation of the international norms," adding that Singapore intended to “act in concert” with other countries to take a strong stance.

“We will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons in Ukraine to inflict harm, or to subjugate the Ukrainians. We will also block certain Russian banks and financial transactions, connected to Russia,” he said, adding that the specific measures are still being worked out.

Live updates: Russia invades Ukraine

 

[Charlot123]

What a pathetic man......he fumed about the war is affecting his quality of life.......oh dear.....how terrible for him.....pffff

The Russians won’t feel sorry for him. When Xenia Sobchak, the socialite and a TV person, posted photos of her clothes on Instagram, subscribers, women who have to work hard, decimated her for lavishness. So this guy won’t be understood, either.

 

[Fika]

“
The Foreign Ministry of Belarus is preparing for the meeting between Ukraine and Russia.

On their twitter , they write that they are waiting for the delegates, and have shared a picture on the negotiating table.

”

I’m nervous and hope that Ukrainian delegates will not touch that water ! MOO


Liverapportering: Ryska invasionen av Ukraina