A factory and a store burn after having been bombarded in Irpin. (Photo: AP)
As the war in Ukraine enters the eleventh day, here's a look at our coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis:
Eleven days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, India’s evacuation efforts have entered a critical stage with all eyes on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, close to the Russian border, where about 700 Indians, mostly students, are waiting for rescue — the last big group from the country still stranded there. Officials said that a team from the Indian Embassy is stationed in Poltava, a city in central Ukraine, through which they hope to coordinate the safe passage of the students in Sumy to the western border. The students have been told to be ready to leave at short notice, they said.
Germany is one of Russia’s closest partners in Europe and has deep historical, political and economic ties. With Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Germany, which is dependent on Russia for its energy needs, has decided to reverse its seven-decade long policy of not supplying arms to conflict zones. Walter J Lindner talks about the Russian aggression on Ukraine, Germany’s lessons from history, putting pressure on Putin and the role of civil society. He was in conversation with Shubhajit Roy, Deputy Chief of National Bureau, The Indian Express.
The current Russian invasion of Ukraine — unlike previous wars in Iraq and Libya or sanctions against Iran — is having an impact not just on energy prices. The effects of shipping disruptions through the Black and Azov Seas, plus Russian banks being cut off from the international payments system, are extending even to the global agri-commodities markets. The reasons aren’t difficult to see: Russia is not only the world’s third biggest oil (after the US and Saudi Arabia) and the second biggest natural gas (after the US) producer, besides the No. 3 coal exporter (behind Australia and Indonesia). It is also the second largest exporter of wheat. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), in its most recent report on February 9, estimated the country’s shipments for 2021-22 (July-June) at 35 million tonnes (mt), next only to the 37.5 mt of the whole of European Union.
In the midst of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, India abstained from a United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC’s) resolution sponsored by the United States that deplores Russia’s actions in the strongest terms. Explaining its abstention, India’s permanent representative at the UN, T S Tirumurti said, “India is deeply disturbed by the recent turn of events in Ukraine.” “Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however daunting that may appear at the moment. It is a matter of regret that the path of diplomacy was given up. We must return to it. For all these reasons, India has chosen to abstain on this resolution,” said Tirumurti.
India’s abstention is being explained by experts as a balancing act of maintaining friends and partners of both sides. It is also a legacy of the Nehruvian foreign policy of non-alignment and the ways in which the two countries have interacted with each other in the United Nations.
Belarus, the largest landlocked European country bordering the two warring nations, has found itself in a precarious position amid its political proximity with Russia. The country is now at the receiving end of the West’s economic sanctions, meant to deter the Russian assault on Ukraine, despite restrictions already in place after the controversial election of its President, Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian border serves as the site for dialogue between Russia and Ukraine to possibly end the war. However, both the first and second rounds of talks have yielded no significant breakthrough. Historically, Belarus has acted as the site of negotiations between the two nations – two sets of agreements were signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in 2014 and 2015 to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Alexey Kupriyanov, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, while explaining the current situation in a chat with The Indian Express said: “Ukraine is the same as Pakistan for India. And so, we are going to have our peaceful Pakistan, and pro-Indian Pakistan on our border. In Russian political discourse, the thesis about the happenings in Ukraine in 2014 is, that the revolution in Ukraine as portrayed in the Western media, was actually a coup d’etat, and a forcible change of power. And this was supported by far-right groups. And a lot of these groups then fought in Donbass against Russians. So, President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected under the flag of peace. He was supported by those sections who supported the peaceful resolution of [the conflict in] Donbass.”
“But, Zelensky couldn’t find this resolution, and so he instead tried to balance his position between the far right and the more peaceful groups in Ukraine. And just a month and a half ago, he closed the last channel of peace in Ukraine, the pro-peace channel, so that’s why I think Putin called this a Nazi regime or a Nazi-supported regime,” he added.
Underlining that it would be difficult for any country to continue buying military hardware from Russia after US sanctions in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that in the “last few” weeks, “what we’ve seen from India…is the cancellation of MiG-29 orders, Russian helicopter orders and anti-tank weapon orders.” When contacted in New Delhi, a Defence Ministry spokesman declined to comment on Lu’s remarks. Lu, who called India a “really important security partner,” was speaking at the Senate hearing hours after the vote in the UN General Assembly on “Russian aggression”, from which India, along with 34 other countries including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, abstained.
A militia man stands at a checkpoint set up on a road heading to the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. (AP)
“Happy to inform that we have been able to move out all Indian students from Sumy,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
Russia is directly targeting Ukraine's nuclear facilities in a strategy to undermine Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion but the tactic carries grave risks, observers say. (AFP)
Several Indian students stranded in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy heaved a sigh of relief as their evacuation process started on Tuesday and hoped that they would be in a safe zone soon.
"The evacuation from Sumy has started. There was finally some good news on Tuesday. All Indian students will be evacuated from Sumy on Tuesday itself. They will be taken to a safe location from where they will be brought to India," said Anshad Ali, a student coordinator.
A medical student at the Sumy university, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed that buses have arrived and students have started boarding the buses. "We have been told that we will go to Poltava. I am praying that we reach a safe zone and this misery is over," he told PTI from Sumy.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters here that 694 Indian students, who were stranded in Sumy, left for Poltava in buses on Tuesday. "Last night, I checked with the control room, 694 Indian students were remaining in Sumy. Today, they have all left in buses for Poltava," he said. (PTI)
Ukraine has requested the ethically and socially responsible global businesses to stop or suspend operations with or in Russia.
A convoy consisting of 12 buses left from Sumy, Ukraine earlier today. All Indians there have been evacuated. (ANI)
At least 21 civilians, including two children, were killed in a Russian air strike on a residential street in Ukraine's northeastern city of Sumy late on Monday, the regional prosecutor's office said in a statement on Tuesday. The bodies were recovered by emergency services early on Tuesday in searches that are ongoing, it said. (Reuters)
Energy giant Shell says it will stop buying Russian oil, natural gas and shut service stations in Russia, reports AP.
The Ukrainian government on Tuesday said that the first stage of evacuation from Sumy has begun. “The Ukrainian city of Sumy was given a green corridor, the first stage of evacuation began,” the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine tweeted.
The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine reached 2 million on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, the fastest exodus Europe has seen since World War II.
“Today the outflow of refugees from Ukraine reaches two million people. Two million,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on Twitter.
The update came as a new effort to evacuate civilians along safe corridors finally got underway Tuesday. The route out of the eastern city of Sumy was one of five promised by the Russians to offer civilians a way to escape the Russian onslaught.
Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, is pressing for all civilians trapped by fighting in Ukraine to be allowed to leave safely. She said Tuesday she is “deeply concerned about civilians trapped in active hostilities in numerous areas.”
Bachelet also told the U.N. Human Rights Council that her office has received reports of pro-Ukrainian activists being arbitrarily detained in areas of eastern Ukraine that have recently come “under the control of armed groups.” She said there have been reports of beatings of people considered pro-Russian in government-controlled areas. (AP)
To a watching world, his message is this, in both his words and his resolute, sometimes haggard appearance: He stands as a mirror to the suffering and spirit of his people.
It appears to be getting through. Just days into the war engulfing his nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is drawing historical comparisons as an effective and stirring wartime communicator — yet with a distinctly modern touch inflected by the sensibilities of live television and the personal feel of social media.
His baby-faced complexion is now usually puffy and pasty, with a faint growth of beard. Suits and dress shirts have been replaced by olive military-style garb. His raspy voice betrays exhaustion. Read more
British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Tuesday Britain would support Poland if it decided to provide Ukraine with fighter jets, but warned that doing so might have direct consequences for Poland.
'I would support the Poles and whatever choice they make,' Wallace told Sky News, adding that the United Kingdom could not offer aircraft that the Ukrainians would be able to use.
'We would protect Poland, we'll help them with anything that they need,' he said. 'Poland will understand that the choices they make will not only directly help Ukraine, which is a good thing, but also may bring them into direct line of fire from countries such as Russia or Belarus.' (Reuters)
Ukrainians boarded buses to flee the besieged eastern city of Sumy on Tuesday, the first evacuation from a Ukrainian city through a humanitarian corridor agreed with Russia after several failed attempts in recent days.
Sumy governor Dmitro Zhivitskiy said in a video statement that the first buses had already departed Sumy for the city of Poltava, further west. He said priority would be given to the disabled, pregnant women and children in orphanages.
A short video clip released by presidential advisor Kyrolo Tymoshenko showed a red bus with some civilians on board.
"It has been agreed that the first convoy will start at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) from the city of Sumy. The convoy will be followed by the local population in personal vehicles," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a televised statement.
Residents were also leaving the town of Irpin, a frontline Kyiv suburb where Reuters journalists had filmed families fleeing for their lives under fierce bombardment on Sunday. Residents ran with their young children in strollers or cradling babies in arms, while others carried pets and plastic bags of belongings. (Reuters)
Street battles and hand-to-hand combat. Ukrainian servicemen and fleeing residents described ferocious fighting on Kyiv's northwestern edge Monday that could soon spread to the besieged capital.
"There is real street fighting now," a Ukrainian paratrooper lieutenant who agreed to be identified as Stas told AFP in the flashpoint town of Irpin.
Bursts of automatic gunfire and blasts of exploding shells rang out as he spoke on the 12th day of the Russian invasion.
"In some places, there is hand-to-hand combat," said Stas.
"There is a huge column -- 200 men, 50 light armoured vehicles, several tanks," he said of the Russian threat. "We are trying to push them out, but I don't know if we'll be fully able to do it. The situation is very unstable." (AFP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address British lawmakers via video link in the House of Commons Tuesday, the first time a president of another country has addressed the main Westminster chamber.
Zelensky, who has spoken to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on several occasions since Russia invaded his country, has made a number of impassioned speeches to Western leaders in the last week, asking for supplies and military support.
He will address the chamber at 1700 GMT (10.30 pm IST) when formal parliamentary business will be suspended. (Reuters)
Ukraine began evacuating civilians from the northeastern city of Sumy and from the town of Irpin near the capital Kyiv Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.
"As of 09.30 (0730 GMT), more than 150 people have been evacuated and (evacuation) activities are underway," said Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region. (Reuters)
At an animal shelter in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Natalia Horobets bid an emotional farewell to her beloved pet cat Charly on Monday. Horobets and her husband had fled their home in the eastern city of Kramatorsk as Ukrainian troops fought Russian invaders.
But after a difficult journey west on a packed train they finally decided to let their pet go, concluding that setting up a new life hundreds of miles from home would be hard enough without a hyperactive cat to care for.
“Our trip by train lasted for 40 hours,” Natalia Horobets said in Lviv, which along with the rest of Ukraine’s west has so far been largely untouched by the conflict. “There were many people and we were afraid that he would be trampled.” (Read more)
After the first wave of refugees from Ukraine there is likely to be a second wave consisting of more vulnerable refugees, the head of the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.
"If the war continues we will start seeing people that have no resources and no connections," UNHCR head Filippo Grandi told a news conference. "That will be a more complex situation to manage for European countries going forward, and there will need to be even more solidarity by everybody in Europe and beyond," he said. (Reuters)
The humanitarian corridior agreed between Ukraine and Russia is in progress.
Civilians will start leaving the besieged Ukrainian city of Sumy Tuesday under an agreement with Russia on the establishment of a "humanitarian corridor", Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
"It has been agreed that the first convoy will start at 10 am (1.30 pm IST) from the city of Sumy. The convoy will be followed by the local population in personal vehicles," she said in a televised statement. (Reuters)
Almost two weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the response from other parts of the world is being called into question. Last Wednesday, nine of the 11 Southeast Asian states voted for a UN General Assembly resolution reprimanding Moscow for its invasion and calling for peace. Vietnam and Laos, two historic partners of Russia, abstained.
Aside from the casting of diplomatic votes, however, the response from Southeast Asian governments has been diverse — and, some say, muted. Singapore made the rare decision to impose sanctions on Russia, and Indonesia quickly criticised the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Philippines, a US treaty ally, flip-flopped and described itself as neutral. Meanwhile, Thailand and Malaysia have remained quiet.