A Ukrainian delegation has begun talks with Russian representatives as Moscow faces the impact of harsher Western economic sanctions over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine four days ago.
In the photo above, members of delegations from Ukraine and Russia, including Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky (second left), Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak (second right), and Ukrainian lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia (third right), hold talks in Belarus on February 28.
The Ukrainian delegation includes Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak among others, the president’s office said on February 28.
The meeting, which is being held at the Ukraine-Belarus border, comes amid reports that the cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv had come under intensive Russian bombardment and Russian claims that its forces had taken over the towns of Berdyansk and Enerhodar in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhya region as well as the area around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
In a fresh address on February 28, Zelenskiy issued an appeal to invading Russian soldiers to lay down their arms.
“Abandon your equipment. Get out of here. Don’t believe your commanders. Don’t believe your propagandists. Just save your lives,” Zelenskiy said in the address, adding that more than 4,500 Russian soldiers had already lost their lives during the Kremlin’s assault.
There have been no independent confirmed numbers of casualties Russia’s army on February 27 admitted for the first time that some of its soldiers had been “killed and injured,” but did not give any figures or further details.
Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said dozens of people were killed in rocket strikes by Russian forces on Kharkiv on February 28.
“Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by grads (rockets). Dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded,” he said in a post on Facebook that showed a series of explosions in the town.
Elsewhere, witnesses said a rocket blast set a building ablaze in the early morning hours of February 28 in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus. Locals blamed the Russian military for the attack.
According to Ukraine’s emergency services, one woman sustained minor injuries.
With fighting on the ground escalating, Western allies have ramped up efforts to punish Russia by closing airspace to Russian aircraft, shutting out some banks from the SWIFT financial network, and limiting Moscow’s ability to deploy its $630 billion foreign reserves, all measures that are expected to hammer the economy.
To keep up the diplomatic pressure, U.S. President Joe Biden will host a call with allies and partners on February 28 to further coordinate a united response, the White House said.
Zelenskiy on February 28 also called on the European Union to grant Ukraine membership under a special procedure immediately.
“Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I’m sure that’s fair. I am sure we deserve it,” he said in a video speech shared on social media.
“Europeans are witnessing how our soldiers are fighting not only for our country, but for all of Europe, for peace, for peace for all, for all the countries of the European Union,” Zelenskiy said. “Ukrainians have shown to the world who we are, while Russia has showed what it has turned into…. Every crime, every shelling by the occupier only unites us more.”
Ukrainians have volunteered in huge numbers to defend their country, taking guns distributed by authorities and preparing firebombs.
Pentagon officials said Russian troops were being slowed by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, and that Ukraine’s air-defense systems, while weakened, were still operating.
After another night of air assaults by Russian artillery and missiles, a strict 39-hour curfew that had kept people off the streets of Kyiv was lifted on February 28, offering residents the chance to visit shops to buy food.
People in the Ukrainian capital have been hunkering down in homes, underground garages, and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.
Zelenskiy’s office said that during the peace talks, which were set to start at noon local time, Kyiv would press for “an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.”
The number of Ukrainians fleeing Europe’s largest armed conflict since World War II had grown to 422,000, mostly women and children, the head of the United Nations’ refugee agency said on February 28.
The head of the United Nations said the intensification of Russia’s invasion had led to an increase in human rights violations.
“The escalation of military operations by the Russian Federation in Ukraine is leading to escalating human rights violations,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a taped speech at the opening of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 28.
“We must show all people in Ukraine that we stand by them in their time of need,” he added.
Meanwhile, Putin on February 27 ordered Russian nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch, sparking even greater fears.
He said NATO had made “aggressive statements” toward Russia and cited the stiff economic sanctions imposed on Russia.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN that Putin’s invocation of Russia’s nuclear arsenal was “dangerous rhetoric.”
The practical meaning of Putin’s order was not immediately clear.
The effect of the new economic and financial sanctions hit the Russian national currency hard, with the ruble plummeting by almost a quarter to a record low.
The ruble was trading at 114 to the U.S. dollar in mid-morning trading on February 28, from 83.7 at the end of last week, according to Bloomberg data.
Following punishing economic sanctions, the European Union agreed to close its airspace to Russia’s airlines and spend hundreds of millions of euros on weapons to send to Ukraine as well as target pro-Kremlin media outlets that are spreading disinformation about the invasion.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the commission wanted “for the first time ever” to finance the purchase and delivery of weapons to a third county under attack.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers on February 27 had approved the unprecedented support for Ukraine and that those actions would take effect within hours.
Japan joined the U.S. and European states in cutting top Russian banks off from the SWIFT international financial-messaging system. Japan will also send $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
And petroleum giant BP said on February 27 that it was cutting ties with Rosneft, a state-owned Russian oil and gas company. That means BP exiting its stake in Rosneft and BP officials resigning positions on the Russian company’s board.