© KEYSTONE / EPA / Zsolt Czegledi
ICC investigation, exclusion from the Football World Cup, new financial sanctions: pressure increased further on Monday on Russia, which set its conditions for ending the war in Ukraine while its forces bombarded Kharkiv.
“I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine” since 2014, said International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan, wishing to initiate “as soon as possible” investigations on this subject.
Moscow is also on the dock at the UN General Assembly meeting in “emergency extraordinary session”. “The fighting in Ukraine must stop,” insisted Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations. “Enough is enough. The soldiers must return to their barracks”.
At the same time, twelve members of the Russian mission to the UN have been ordered by the United States, which accuses them of spying, to leave their territory before March 7. A “hostile approach”, reacted Russia.
In this context, Turkey on Monday evening banned the passage of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to all warships belonging to states “whether or not they border the Black Sea”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday called for Russia to be banned from “all ports” and “airports in the world”.
Russian demands, negotiations
Recognition of Crimea as Russian territory, demilitarization and “denazification” of Ukraine: Vladimir Putin for his part laid down his conditions on Monday for stopping the invasion during an exchange with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron , the current President of the European Union.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations, which met for the first time in Belarus since the start of the invasion on Thursday, returned for “consultations in their respective capitals”, after agreeing to want a “second round” of talks.
A settlement “is only possible if Russia’s legitimate security interests are taken into account without conditions”, repeated the Kremlin, adding that it hoped that the negotiations “would lead to the desired results”.
The Ukrainian presidency had stressed, before their opening, that it would demand “an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of (Russian) troops from Ukrainian territory”. Mr. Zelensky underlined on Tuesday that these talks were “taking place against a backdrop of shelling and shooting aimed at our territory (…). The synchronization of the shooting with the process of negotiations was obvious”.
According to him, Ukraine “did not have the result that it would like to have” at the end of the first round of discussion, but it evoked its “counter-proposals” to those of the Russians “to put an end to the war”.
Intense fighting in Kharkiv
The start of the talks coincided with intense fighting for Kharkiv (north-east), close to the Russian border. Several residential buildings were targeted there on Monday by Russian missiles, as well as in other cities of the country, causing injuries, the Interfax-Ukraine agency said on Monday evening citing local authorities.
At least 11 people were killed in Russian shelling of residential areas, according to the regional governor, who said he feared there were “tens of deaths”. An AFP photographer saw the lifeless bodies of two Russian soldiers in front of a school in ruins, not far from the center of this city of 1.4 million inhabitants.
At the same time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Russian forces were near the largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia (East), the largest in Ukraine.
Barricades in Kyiv
In the capital Kiev, the situation seemed calmer on Monday, after a weekend under curfew. But many were preparing for a new Russian assault. The city bristled with makeshift barricades and public electronic signs warned the Russians that they would be greeted “by bullets”.
According to Ukrainian army chief Valery Zaluzhny, the Russian army has launched 113 tactical missiles against Ukrainian towns and villages since the start of the invasion.
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 had put the nuclear forces of Russia, the power with the largest number of nuclear warheads, on “special alert” in the face of “bellicose declarations by NATO” and the “illegitimate” sanctions imposed to his country. The United States, however, said on Monday that it had detected no “concrete” change in Russia’s nuclear posture.
Support the ruble
On Monday, the master of the Kremlin also 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 bank savings and residents of Russia will no longer be able, as of Tuesday, to transfer currency outside its borders. Russian exporters will have to convert into rubles 80% of the income earned in foreign currencies since January 1.
Previously, the Central Bank of Russia had announced to raise its key rate to 20% in the face of new sanctions. Westerners in particular warned that Russian institutions would be excluded from the Swift international interbank system.
The United States implemented Monday an unprecedentedly severe sanction against the Russian central bank, which has the effect of “immobilizing all the assets” that it “holds in the United States or which would be held anywhere or by American persons”. The day before, the European Ministers of Foreign Affairs had also agreed to block the transactions of this institution.
New sanctions
Continuing its momentum, the European Union has added Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson and several oligarchs to its blacklist of personalities concerned by a freezing of their assets and a travel ban. The Europeans and their allies are ready to take additional sanctions, Paris said, after a videoconference bringing together French, American, British, Canadian, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Romanian leaders, 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”. Switzerland also toughened up on Monday. It resumes European sanctions against Russia and will freeze the assets of Vladimir Putin and several of his ministers.
All stock markets plunged again on Monday, fearing that the conflict could fuel soaring energy prices and the resumption of inflation, while the price of wheat reached a new all-time high on the European market.
After numerous demonstrations against the Russian invasion around the world this weekend, a new rally took place in Germany on Monday: some 250,000 people marched in Cologne, transforming the traditional Carnival parade into a mobilization against the war.
Another strong gesture, Russia was excluded from the Football World Cup by its organizer, Fifa, which announced the suspension of national selections and Russian clubs “until further notice”.
Exile
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.
Western departures from Russia should also accelerate. The United States recommended Monday to their nationals to immediately leave this country, after Italy and Belgium.
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 says several thousand Russian soldiers have died. The Russians, meanwhile, did not provide any figures.