Russia’s nuclear forces on ‘special alert’
With no major Russian military victory so far, Vladimir Putin on Sunday took another step in threatening to widen the conflict, which many fear will become the most serious in Europe since 1945.
He said he put in “special state of alert” the nuclear forces of Russiathe power with the largest number of nuclear warheads, in the face of “belligerent declarations by NATO” and the “illegitimate” sanctions imposed on its country.
The United States, however, said on Monday that it had detected no “concrete” change in Russia’s nuclear posture.
Sanctioned oligarchs
On Monday, the master of the Kremlin ordered shock measures to support the ruble, which fell to historic lows against the dollar and the euro after the announcement of new European and American economic sanctions.
Many Russians were beginning to withdraw their savings from banks and residents of Russia will no longer be able to transfer currency outside its borders as of Tuesday. Russian exporters will have to convert 80% of their income earned in foreign currencies since January 1 into rubles.
Previously, the Central Bank of Russia had announced to raise its key rate to 20%, in the face of new sanctions announced by Westerners who in particular warned that a certain number of Russian establishments would be excluded from the Swift international interbank system.
Not intending to stop there, the Europeans and their allies are ready to take additional sanctions against Russia, Paris said after a videoconference which brought together French, American, British, Canadian, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Romanian, as well as representatives of the EU and NATO.
In this regard, Canada will ban “all imports of Russian crude oil”, “an industry from which President Putin and his oligarchs have greatly benefited”.
Another strong gesture, Russia was excluded from the Football World Cup by its organizer, Fifa, which suspended national selections and Russian clubs “until further notice”.
500,000 refugees
The conflict has thrown ever-increasing numbers of Ukrainians onto the roads. Since the start of the Russian offensive on Thursday, more than 500,000 of them have fled to neighboring countries, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday. The EU said it expected more than seven million displaced people.
Most of it goes to Poland. But Romania, Slovakia and Hungary – all members of NATO – are also concerned.
The human toll of five days of conflict remains uncertain. The UN spoke on Monday of 102 civilians killed and 304 injured, but stressed that the actual figures were “significantly” higher. Ukraine on Monday reported 352 civilians killed and 2,040 injured since Thursday and said thousands of Russian soldiers have died. The Russians, meanwhile, did not provide any figures.