Rising risks of nuke war

MOSCOW/NEW YORK/LONDON – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused Western politicians of fixating on nuclear war, one week after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

“It is clear that World War Three can only be nuclear,” Lavrov said in an online interview with Russian and foreign media.

“I would like to point out that it’s in the heads of Western politicians that the idea of a nuclear war is spinning constantly, and not in the heads of Russians,” he said.

“Therefore I assure you that we will not allow any provocations to throw us off balance,” Lavrov added.

Moscow has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and a huge cache of ballistic missiles which form the backbone of the country’s deterrence forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces be put on high alert, accusing the West of taking “unfriendly” steps against his country, according to earlier reports.

War update

Since the week of Ukraine’s onslaught, Russian forces take the Black Sea port of Kherson in southern Ukraine. They also pound and encircle the strategic port city of Mariupol, which is without water or electricity. There are reports that forces still aim for taking Kyiv as Russia still holds the overwhelming combat power advantages that will eventually grind down Ukrainian forces as the war continues.

For the first time, the Russian Defence Ministry has confirmed a substantial number of casualties in Ukraine, announcing that 498 Russian troops have died and 1,597 more have been injured. In latest release on casualties, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that among Ukrainian troops, 2,870 have been killed, around 3,700 injured and 572 captured, according to agencies report on Wednesday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday promised Ukrainians that damage to infrastructure inflicted by invading Russian forces would be repaired and that Moscow would foot the bill.

“We will restore every house, every street, every city and we say to Russia: learn the word of reparations and contributions. You will reimburse us for everything you did against our state, against every Ukrainian in full,” Zelensky said in a video statement.

Russian troops seized Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to fall in a war that has drawn global outrage and driven one million civilians from their homes, ahead of ceasefire talks Thursday.

With the diplomatic and economic costs mounting for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky extolled his own people’s “heroic” resistance.

He said that around 9,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the invasion began eight days ago. Announcing its own toll for the first time, Moscow said it had lost 498 troops.

“We are a nation that broke the enemy’s plans in a week,” President Zelensky said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging service.

“Plans written for years: sneaky, full of hatred for our country, our people.”

However, after a three-day siege that left Kherson short of food and medicine, Ukrainian officials conceded the loss of the Black Sea city of 290,000 people.

While a huge military column is stalled north of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Russian troops have been advancing on the southern front, and are besieging the important port city of Mariupol east of Kherson.

Ceasefire talks

Russia floats the possibility of a ceasefire with talks with Ukraine due to restart on the Belarus-Poland border.

Kyiv is sending a delegation to Thursday’s ceasefire talks, at an undisclosed location on the Belarus-Poland border but has warned it will not accept “ultimatums”.

A first round of talks on Monday, also in Belarus, yielded no breakthrough.

Putin’s long-telegraphed invasion has frequently appeared hamstrung by poor logistics, tactical blunders and fierce resistance from Ukraine’s underpowered and outgunned military — and from ever-swelling ranks of volunteer fighters.

Scores of images have emerged of burned-out Russian tanks, the charred remains of transporters and of unarmed Ukrainians confronting bewildered occupying forces.

US officials say the massive column of Russian military vehicles amassed north of Kyiv has “stalled” due to fuel and food shortages.

Russian authorities have imposed a media blackout on what the Kremlin euphemistically calls a “special military operation”.

The Ekho Moskvy radio station — a symbol of new-found media freedom in post-Soviet Russia — said it would shut down after being taken off air over its coverage of the invasion.

But Russians have still turned out for large anti-war protests across the country, in a direct challenge to Putin’s 20-year rule.

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators have been detained, including several dozen in rallies in Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Wednesday.

One million flee

More than one million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded, the UN’s refugee agency says, with the number rising rapidly.

“In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi tweeted.

“Unless there is an immediate end to the conflict, millions more are likely to be forced to flee Ukraine,” Grandi warned.

According to frequently updated UNHCR data, 1,002,860 have now fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion on February 24.

Grandi said the numbers were rising with incredible speed. The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor says a probe into possible war crimes in Ukraine “will immediately proceed” after his office received the backing of 39 countries.

The UN General Assembly voted 141-5 to demand that Russia “immediately” withdraw from Ukraine. Only four countries supported Russia — Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria — while China abstained.

Sanctions and suspension

In the latest ratcheting up of the Western-coordinated sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, now in its seventh day, top Dutch bank ING said Wednesday it will freeze any new business deals with Russian companies, as the European Union moved to cut Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.

The Amsterdam-based ING also said it would abide by international sanctions and “have processes in place to respond to sanctions in a timely way across our network.”

ING had some 4.7 billion euros ($5.2 billion) in loans in Russia by the end of last year.

Also, the European Union on Wednesday cut seven Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system and banned Kremlin-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik from broadcasting into the bloc.

The cumulative punishment over the past week, also targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, ministers and oligarchs supporting his rule as well as Russia’s central bank, has already caused Russia’s economy to buckle.

Wednesday’s latest sanctions, signalled since the weekend, exclude listed banks from the global SWIFT interbank messaging network which allows for quick and secure transactions.

The list comprised Russia’s second-biggest lender VTB Bank as well as Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank, Sovcombank and VEB (Vnesheconombank), all of which were deemed to have direct financing links to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The list did not name Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank or another significant one, Gazprombank, in order to allow EU countries to pay for Russian gas and oil deliveries.

Ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s slash Russia’s credit rating to “junk” status, signifying it risks not being able to repay its debts.

—With input from AFP