Russian Forces Press On With Attacks As Ceasefire Talks Hold

Russian Forces Press On With Attacks As Ceasefire Talks Hold

Talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials began on the Belarusian border yesterday, Moscow said.

This is as Russia’s diplomatic and economic isolation deepens four days after invading Ukraine.

The invasion of Ukraine has become the biggest assault on a European state since World War II.

Russian forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear power plant, the Interfax news agency said yesterday, but ran into stiff resistance elsewhere.

Talks began with the aim of an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces, the Ukrainian president’s office said, after a Russian advance that has gone more slowly than some expected.

Russia has been cautious, with the Kremlin declining to comment on Moscow’s aim in negotiations.

Read Also How Russia-Ukraine Conflict Exposes Black Africans’ Hypocrisy

It was not clear whether any progress could be achieved after President Vladimir Putin on Thursday launched the assault and put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday.

The talks are being held on the border with strong Russian ally Belarus, where a referendum on Sunday approved a new constitution, ditching the country’s non-nuclear status at a time the former Soviet republic has become a launchpad for Russian troops invading Ukraine.

Blasts were heard before dawn yesterday in the capital of Kyiv and in the major eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian authorities said.

But Russian ground forces’ attempts to capture major urban centres had been repelled, they added.

Russia’s defence ministry, however, said 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, Interfax reported.

The ministry added, however, that the plant’s operations continued normally.

Ukraine denied that the nuclear plant had fallen into Russian hands, according to the news agency.

There was fighting around the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol throughout the night, Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said on television yesterday.

Read Also Parents Of Nigerian Students In Ukraine Protest At Russian Embassy

He did not say whether Russian forces had gained or lost any ground or provide any casualty figures.

At least 102 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since Thursday, with a further 304 wounded, but the real figure is feared to be “considerably higher”, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday. More than half a million people have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

A senior U.S. defence official said Russia had fired more than 350 missiles at Ukrainian targets since Thursday, some hitting civilian infrastructure.

Partners in the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) defence alliance were providing Ukraine with air-defence missiles and anti-tank weapons, Chief Jens Stoltenberg said in a tweet yesterday.

The Kremlin accused the European Union (EU) of hostile behaviour, saying weapons supplies to Ukraine were destabilising and proved that Russia was right in its efforts to demilitarise its neighbour.

It declined to comment on whether there was a risk of confrontation between Russia and NATO.

Russia has demanded that NATO never admit Ukraine.

Read Also FIFA Expels Russia From World Cup, Bans Clubs From Competitions

Ukraine has filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanding immediate action against Russia and has invoked the convention against genocide.

Ukraine said Russia had “falsely claimed” that genocide was being committed in the breakaway republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in order to justify an invasion.

Russia’s rouble plummeted nearly 30 per cent against the dollar yesterday, after Western nations had unveiled sweeping sanctions on Saturday including blocking some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.

Russia’s central bank scrambled to manage the broadening fallout, saying it would resume buying gold on the domestic market, launch a repurchase auction with no limits and ease restrictions on banks’ open foreign currency positions.

It also ordered brokers to block attempts by foreigners to sell Russian securities.

Never Miss Any News, Join Our WhatsApp Group With This Link Below

https://chat.whatsapp.com/DdBOorlQD6wE9BhmOAon3c