Live Updates: Putin Places Nuclear Forces on Alert as Ukraine Agrees to Talks With Russia
Feb. 27, 2022, 9:10 a.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 9:10 a.m. ETKYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces bore down on Ukraine’s capital and officials put the toll of civilian dead at more than 350 since the invasion began, the two countries agreed Sunday to sit down for talks “without preconditions,” but hopes were not high for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Even as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, agreed to send a delegation to meet with Russian officials near the border with Belarus, he made it clear that he expected little to come of it. He declined to agree to any conditions or concessions before the talks, making it clear that he would not grant Russia the upper hand after its unprovoked attacks.
Even with prospect of the talks, satellite imagery showed a miles-long convoy of hundreds of Russian military vehicles bearing down on Kyiv.
Mr. Zelensky, who was not planning to attend the talks, tried to keep expectations in check.
“I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting,” he said, “but let them try to make sure that no citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as a president, have not tried to stop the war.”
As world leaders moved to isolate Moscow and inflict heavy economic pain over the invasion, Russia showed little apparent interest in de-escalating.
Get a Year of CocaCola along With a Fridge!
Enter your mobile number now for a chance to win.
Click Hare
President Vladimir V. Putin, denouncing the West’s “aggressive” actions, said he had told his defense minister and his top military commander to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert. Not only are Western countries imposing “illegitimate sanctions” against Russia, Mr. Putin said, “but senior officials of leading NATO countries are allowing themselves to make aggressive statements directed at our country.”
The United Nations Security Council responded by voting to convene a rare special session of the General Assembly — only the 11th time it has done so since 1950. Eleven of the Security Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the resolution.
In Ukraine, Russian forces were on the move in the south, threatening a major port, and in the north, where they were continuing their drive toward Kyiv.
But Ukrainian officials took some obvious satisfaction in Russia’s call for talks, which came as its forces met far more resistance than expected, failing to quickly seize the capital, Kyiv.
“The enemy expected an easy walk, but got real hell,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. Russia’s leadership, he said, “does not understand that it is at war not only with the armed forces of Ukraine, but with the entire Ukrainian people.”
But international military experts cautioned that the war is young.
Sehen Sie sich jetzt Ihren Lieblingssport an!
Geben Sie jetzt Ihre Informationen ein, um loszulegen
Click Hare
They noted that Ukrainian forces are spread thin, with only limited ammunition, and that thousands of better-trained Russian soldiers have not yet been thrown into the fight. The worry is that Mr. Putin may move to harsher tactics, including the shelling of cities, if his forces get bogged down.
The request for talks also came as the European Union moved to impose tough new economic sanctions on Russia, and announced a total closure of E.U. airspace to Russian aircraft.
The measure will exclude not just Russian airlines but also Russian-chartered private jets from all 27 member states’ airspaces, practically banning Russians from European skies.
In the center of Ukraine, Russia appears to be trying to cut off the main Ukrainian military forces, which have been defending the former line of contact with the Donetsk and Luhansk enclaves, to prevent them from moving toward the capital and getting supplies sent by Western allies overland through Poland.
Russian troops, at least for a time, also drew closer to the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to videos and photographs analyzed by The New York Times. The footage showed Ukrainians firing rockets toward Russian troops, as well as some Russian military vehicles burning and others being ransacked by Ukrainian forces.
Show more
Feb. 28, 2022, 12:11 a.m. ET
Feb. 28, 2022, 12:11 a.m. ETShares in Asia were mostly down in early trading on Monday, and oil prices climbed sharply, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the potential impact of sanctions continued to roil international markets.
U.S. West Texas intermediate crude futures climbed by 6.4 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell by 1.4 percent, while the Nikkei 225 in Japan was down 0.3 percent. In mainland China, the Shanghai composite was down 0.1 percent, while the Shenzhen component dropped 0.3 percent. The Kospi composite index in South Korea was up by less than 0.1 percent.
Feb. 28, 2022, 12:04 a.m. ET
Feb. 28, 2022, 12:04 a.m. ETYu Young Jin
Reporting from SeoulAs of Monday, South Korea is banning export of some strategic materials to Russia as part of its sanctions against the country. It has also joined in excluding Russia from SWIFT. Meanwhile, the government said it has began drawing up its plans for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Feb. 28, 2022, 12:00 a.m. ET
Feb. 28, 2022, 12:00 a.m. ET Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The company said it had discovered and shut down influence and hacking operations targeting its users in Ukraine.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesMeta, the parent company of Facebook, said Sunday night that it had shut down influence and hacking campaigns targeting its users in Ukraine. The efforts were tied to people in Russia and Ukraine, as well as to a hacking group thought to be affiliated with Belarus, Meta executives said.
One operation spread links to misleading news articles that claimed Ukraine was a “failed state,” and included messages of support for the Russian government. Meta said it found evidence the effort was linked to another operation the company had disclosed in 2020 that included two publishers, News Front and South Front. The publishers operate out of Crimea and have long been used to spread propaganda targeting enemies of the Kremlin.
The influence network engaged in what Facebook calls “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” or groups of Facebook accounts and pages that operate under false names and fake profile photos to spread targeted messages across the platform.
The campaign received fewer than 5,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram before being taken offline, Meta officials said.
Meta said the disinformation campaign was active on other social media platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, the European social network VK, the Russian social platform Odnoklassniki and the chat app Telegram.
A Twitter spokeswoman said the company had removed more than a dozen accounts that participated in the campaign and blocked several links from being shared on Twitter. “The accounts and links originated in Russia and were attempting to disrupt the public conversation around the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” the Twitter spokeswoman said.
Meta said it had also detected a hacking operation that targeted military leaders and politicians in Ukraine, as well as at least one journalist. The effort, which Meta said was linked to the hacking group Ghostwriter, attempted to take over these high-profile accounts and then use them to spread disinformation.
Ghostwriter has targeted politicians in Eastern Europe for several years, often pushing narratives that oppose NATO and the United States. The hacking group was long thought to be affiliated with Russia. But in November, the threat intelligence firm Mandiant discovered that the group was linked to Belarus.
“Ghostwriter has previously targeted the NATO alliance, seeking to erode support for the organization,” Ben Read, a director at Mandiant, said in a statement. “I wouldn’t be surprised if similar operations were seen in the near future.”
A small number of high-profile individuals were targeted, and several Facebook accounts were compromised, Meta executives said. Some posts on those accounts attempted to portray the Ukrainian military surrendering, sharing videos of soldiers walking out of a forest waving a white flag. Facebook was able, in some cases, to block the hackers from posting.
“Historically, what we’ve seen from Ghostwriter is targeting of military, public figures, journalists and politicians across Europe,” said David Agranovich, a director of threat disruption at Meta. “Since the invasion, we’ve seen a pivot in Ghostwriter’s focus to people in Ukraine.”
Meta is among a number of Silicon Valley social media companies under pressure as Russian operatives attempt to spread digital propaganda campaigns across the internet in tandem with President Vladimir V. Putin’s siege of Ukraine.
Meta has focused on taking action against entities that violate the company’s policies regulating behavior on its platforms. Meta, YouTube and Twitter have also blocked Russian state media outlets from monetizing their pages on the platforms.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 11:41 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 11:41 p.m. ETThe value of Russia’s currency plunged on Monday, falling by more than 30 percent against the dollar after the United States, Europe and other nations took steps to exclude some Russian banks from international transactions by removing them from the SWIFT financial messaging system.
The fall of the ruble is likely to exacerbate inflation in Russia and has heightened fears of bank runs. Russia’s central bank said that it would support Russian financial institutions that have been sanctioned and that banks would continue to be able to carry out transactions in rubles and foreign currencies.
Credit...Anatoly Maltsev/EPA, via ShutterstockFeb. 27, 2022, 11:37 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 11:37 p.m. ETTransport Canada said on Sunday night that a Russian commercial airplane, Aeroflot Flight 111, which operates between Miami and Moscow, had “violated the prohibition put in place earlier today on Russian flights using Canadian airspace.” In a tweet, the agency added that “We are launching a review of the conduct of Aeroflot and the independent air navigation service provider, NAVCAN, leading up to this violation. We will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action and other measures to prevent future violations.”
Feb. 27, 2022, 11:21 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 11:21 p.m. ETPrime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia said in a statement released Monday that his government would contribute $3 million toward the supply of nonlethal military equipment and medical supplies to Ukraine through a fund set up by NATO for the country.
The announcement followed news on Sunday that Australia planned to send lethal weapons to the Ukrainian government as it tries to hold off the Russian advance. Details of that arrangement, Mr. Morrison said on Monday, would be announced shortly.
The Australian government has imposed sanctions on more than 350 Russians and 13 Belarussians, said Mr. Morrison. Included on that list is Viktor Khrenin, the Belarusian minister of defense. Mr. Morrison said the official had “aided and abetted Putin’s aggression” by allowing Russia to launch attacks from Belarus.
“The Australian Government is deeply concerned at Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, which is a gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter,” said Mr. Morrison, adding that targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against Putin and the remaining permanent members of Russia’s Security Council had come into effect.
Australia has also promised to prioritize visas for people fleeing Ukraine, but has not specified how many will be granted.
Show more
Feb. 27, 2022, 11:02 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 11:02 p.m. ETIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a late-night meeting with his top officials on the plight of the country’s citizens stranded in Ukraine, as videos emerged of students stuck at jammed border crossings in cold weather and falling snow.
About 4,000 Indian citizens left Ukraine before Russia’s invasion began, but about 15,000 remain stranded in the country, India’s foreign secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, told reporters late Sunday. So far, the Indian government has managed to evacuate about 2,000 of them through border crossings with Ukraine’s neighboring countries.
Credit...Wojtek Radwanski/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 27, 2022, 10:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 10:00 p.m. ETGoogle has disabled some live traffic data for Ukraine in its Google Maps service, a company spokesperson confirmed on Monday, saying the decision was made in consultation with people on the ground for the safety of the local community.
The data that is suspended includes live traffic volumes and information about crowds in public places. Some researchers found last week that it also showed the movement of Russian convoys, which were displayed as heavy traffic.
Feb. 27, 2022, 10:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 10:00 p.m. ET President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Moscow on Friday.Credit...Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik, via Associated PressWhen Western governments announced on Friday their intention to freeze assets belonging to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as punishment for invading Ukraine, there was no indication they knew of significant holdings that could be tied to him.
In fact, very little is known about what Mr. Putin owns and where it could be. Despite years of speculation and rumor, the extent of his wealth remains maddeningly opaque, even as billions of dollars have sluiced through the accounts of his close friends and luxury properties have been connected to family members.
Officially, Mr. Putin earns about $140,000 a year and owns a small apartment, according to his public financial disclosures.
But that would not account for “Putin’s Palace,” a vast estate on the Black Sea estimated to have cost more than $1 billion, with a Byzantine ownership history that does not include the Russian president but has been linked to his government in various ways. Nor would the disclosures account for “Putin’s Yacht,” a $100 million luxury vessel long tied to him in speculative news reports. (The yacht, Graceful, was tracked leaving Germany for Russia just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine.)
There is also the $4.1 million apartment in Monaco, purchased through an offshore company by a woman reported to be Mr. Putin’s lover. And there is the expensive villa in the South of France linked to his ex-wife.
The problem for the United States and its allies is that none of these assets can be directly connected to the Russian president.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 9:30 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 9:30 p.m. ET The blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag were dominant colors at rallies across the United States. Photographs by Adriana Zehbrauskas and Shuran Huang for The New York TimesBearing blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, singing patriotic songs and shouting chants against Russia’s president, thousands of protesters gathered at rallies across the country on Sunday in a show of support for Ukraine.
In Washington, Chicago, Boston and other cities, the crowds varied in size, but the number of gatherings, which followed several on Saturday and came days after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered troops to invade Ukraine, spoke to the level of concern in communities throughout the nation.
Many attendees expressed their love for their Ukrainian homeland. Some argued for more U.S. involvement in the conflict. Some vented their anger and called for harsher penalties against Mr. Putin. Other protesters wanted to make sure that the public’s awareness of the war didn’t fade.
Irene Griffin, a 47-year-old Ukrainian-American who drove to a rally in Washington from Lorton, Va., with her husband and two children, stood in front of the White House fence holding small American and Ukrainian flags. Her grandparents fled Ukraine in 1945 during World War II before arriving in the United States three years later.
“I’m very hopeful,” Ms. Griffin said. “Ukrainian people don’t give up hope.”
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 9:00 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 9:00 p.m. ET Credit...Tyler Hicks, Laetitia Vancon and Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesFor weeks, a Russian invasion had been expected by some Ukrainians and merely sequestered in the mind’s recesses by others. But once the sweeping attacks began on Thursday, hitting seemingly every corner of the country, the war became unavoidably tangible for Ukrainians — a hovering cloud of darkness that once seemed unimaginable in the post-Cold War era. These images are a visual documentation of a populace coping with the initial stages of a national military invasion, struggling with newfound uncertainty and fear.
Feb. 27, 2022, 8:42 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 8:42 p.m. ETChoe Sang-Hun
Reporting from SeoulUkrainians in South Korea, regardless of their visa status, will be allowed to stay until the situation in their home country stabilizes, South Korea’s Ministry of Justice said on Monday. As of January, there were 3,843 Ukrainians in South Korea, including 538 whose visas were scheduled to expire by June.
Feb. 27, 2022, 7:18 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 7:18 p.m. ET The Metropolitan Opera said on Sunday that it would no longer engage with performers or other institutions that have voiced support for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Credit...Vincent Tullo for The New York TimesThe Metropolitan Opera said on Sunday that it would no longer engage with performers or other institutions that have voiced support for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, becoming the latest cultural organization to seek to distance itself from some Russian artists amid Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said that the Met, which has long employed Russians as top singers and has a producing partnership with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, had an obligation to show support for the people of Ukraine.
“While we believe strongly in the warm friendship and cultural exchange that has long existed between the artists and artistic institutions of Russia and the United States,” Mr. Gelb said in a video statement, “we can no longer engage with artists or institutions that support Putin or are supported by him.”
Mr. Gelb added that the policy would be in effect “until the invasion and killing has been stopped, order has been restored, and restitutions have been made.”
The Met’s decision could affect artists like the superstar soprano Anna Netrebko, who has ties to Mr. Putin and was once pictured holding a flag used by some Russian-backed separatist groups in Ukraine. Ms. Netrebko is scheduled to appear at the Met in Puccini’s “Turandot” beginning on April 30.
Ms. Netrebko has tried to distance herself from the invasion, posting a statement on Saturday on Instagram saying she was “opposed to this war.” She added a note of defiance, writing that “forcing artists, or any public figure, to voice their political opinions in public and to denounce their homeland is not right.”
It was unclear if her statement would satisfy the Met’s new test.
The company’s decision will also likely mean the end of its collaboration with the Bolshoi, including on a new production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” that is scheduled for next season. The Met was relying on the Bolshoi for the staging’s sets and costumes, but now it might have to change course.
“We’re scrambling, but I think we’ll have no choice but to physically build our own sets and costumes,” Mr. Gelb said in an interview on Sunday evening.
He added that he was saddened that the Bolshoi partnership, which began five years ago, would likely come to an end — at least for the moment.
“It’s terrible that artistic relationships, at least temporarily, are the collateral damage of these actions by Putin,” he said.
The Met’s decision comes as performing arts institutions grapple with the ongoing fallout from Mr. Putin’s invasion. In recent days Russian artists, long ubiquitous in classical music, have come under pressure to condemn Mr. Putin’s actions or face the prospect of canceled engagements.
Carnegie Hall and the Vienna Philharmonic last week dropped two Russian artists, the conductor Valery Gergiev and the pianist Denis Matsuev, from a series of planned concerts because of the two men’s ties to Mr. Putin. Mr. Gergiev is also in peril of losing several key posts, including as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic and as honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
On Sunday, Mr. Gergiev’s manager announced he was ending his relationship with his client.
“It has become impossible for us, and clearly unwelcome, to defend the interests of Maestro Gergiev, one of the greatest conductors of all time, a visionary artist loved and admired by many of us, who will not, or cannot, publicly end his long-expressed support for a regime that has come to commit such crimes,” the manager, Marcus Felsner, who is based in Munich, said in a statement.
The Royal Opera House in London said on Friday it would cancel a residency by the Bolshoi Ballet planned for this summer.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 7:05 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 7:05 p.m. ET Demonstrators rallied in support of Ukraine outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Sunday.Credit...Jeenah Moon/Associated PressThe United Nations Security Council voted Sunday to convene a rare special session of the General Assembly to address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move came as President Vladimir V. Putin declared that he had placed Russia’s nuclear defense system on high alert.
The General Assembly has held a special session only 10 times since 1950, and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador, said the vote to do so showed that “this is no ordinary moment.”
“Just this morning, President Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, even though he is invading a country with no nuclear weapons and is under no threat from NATO,” she said, calling it “another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all.”
Eleven of the Security Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the resolution on Sunday. Russia voted against it but could not veto the move, as it was a procedural vote. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained, as they had for a resolution last week condemning the invasion.
When the General Assembly session is convened — probably Wednesday, the French ambassador said — a vote on a resolution criticizing Russia and calling for an end to the war is expected. It would not be legally binding but would carry political weight as part of a larger effort to isolate and shame Russia on the world stage.
Other diplomatic actions are also planned at the United Nations this week.
The Security Council will meet Monday, at the request of President Emmanuel Macron of France, to discuss the dire humanitarian situation unfolding in Ukraine. The United Nations’ top refugee and emergency aid officials will brief the Council the same day.
On Tuesday, the Council plans to vote on a resolution put forth by France and Mexico that calls for hostilities to end immediately, civilians to be protected and humanitarian aid to have unconditional safe passage to Ukraine, said the French ambassador, Nicolas de Rivière.
“We all want negotiations to take place,” he told reporters at the United Nations on Sunday. “The crisis is very deep, and we need to provide support to Ukraine.”
Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the West of scheming and pressuring countries to “push through” actions against Russia rather than finding common ground, saying they “disregard our legitimate concerns.”
Mr. Nebenzia dismissed as “lies, deceits and fakes” reports that Russia’s military had shelled and attacked civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said that his country had always “hoped for peace talks” and that a delegation was trying to find a safe route to the Belarus border for negotiations.
He told the Council that Mr. Putin “has resorted to open nuclear blackmail” and that the world must heed this “very threatening” act.
Show more
Feb. 27, 2022, 7:02 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 7:02 p.m. ET High prices at a gas station in West Hollywood, Calif., on Friday. California’s prices are averaging $4.80 a gallon.Credit...Damian Dovarganes/Associated PressOil prices jumped Sunday night, as President Vladimir V. Putin’s saber-rattling order to put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert overshadowed hopes for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
The announcement by President Volodymyr Zelensky that a Ukrainian delegation would meet with a Russian delegation near the Ukraine-Belarus border for talks “without preconditions” was viewed skeptically by oil traders and most political analysts and Western officials.
Traders had not driven up prices in recent days because Western sanctions against Russia have so far not impeded the export of oil and natural gas to Western Europe. But the Brent oil benchmark soared by more than 5 percent at the opening of trading on Sunday to $103 a barrel while the American West Texas Intermediate benchmark climbed even higher, by almost 6 percent, to $97 a barrel. Prices, which have been fluctuating for weeks, eased later Sunday night.
American gasoline prices have risen about a penny a gallon every day over the last week, according to surveys by the AAA motor club. At $3.60 a gallon for regular gasoline, the national average is nearly a dollar higher than it was a year ago.
Risks of rising energy prices remain high as the Russians press on with their invasion of Ukraine. In the early days, the Russian offensive bogged down in the face of strong resistance from the Ukrainian armed forces and Ukrainian citizens.
Bombing and rockets could damage vital pipelines that run through Ukraine, though that has not happened yet. Some Republican leaders and members of Congress of both parties are pressing for tougher sanctions on energy transactions. Western oil companies may decide that doing business with Russia is not worth the risks, especially if Western technology and oil services are either hit with sanctions or because financial sanctions will impede Russian payments.
“Perhaps the greatest uncertainty will be the Russian response,” according to a report released by RBC Capital Markets on Sunday. “The central bank sanctions will sharply reduce Russia’s access to its foreign exchange reserve war chest and proceeds from oil sales in overseas accounts.”
The West’s tough economic stance against Russia is already having an effect. BP said on Sunday that it would “exit” its nearly 20 percent stake in Rosneft, the giant Russian company, and that it would remove its two representatives from the Rosneft board. It was a climactic retreat from the British-based company after three decades of doing business in Russia.
Ukraine’s gas pipeline operators said on Sunday that natural gas transmission that goes through the country to much of the rest of Europe was normal.
Another wild card will be Russia’s stance at a meeting on Wednesday of OPEC Plus, in which it is a partner with Saudi Arabia and other major producers. The group is meeting to discuss how much to increase production levels to ease global price increases. Washington so far has had little success in pressing the group to raise production.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 6:43 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 6:43 p.m. ETBrendan Hoffman and Maria Varenikova
Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesMuch of the attention in the first days of the war has been on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other large cities. But in the villages of the Vinnytsya region in the country’s center, a grass-roots movement was taking shape as civilians — farmers, shop owners, day laborers, taxi drivers — took up arms to join a battle that has abruptly upended their lives.
In Hushchyntsi on Sunday, about 50 people assembled Molotov cocktails and piled logs and sandbags into makeshift bunkers, as children ran about and women carried out homemade meals.
“Step away, you might get hurt, that’s the job for grown-ups,” one man told the children hoping to participate.
Feb. 27, 2022, 6:35 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 6:35 p.m. ETMadrid’s opera house on Sunday closed Richard Wagner’s four-part "Ring" cycle by draping the corpse of Wagner’s tragic hero, Siegfried, in the flag of Ukraine. The opera said it wanted its final performance to pay “homage to the victims of war.”
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:58 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:58 p.m. ET Donated boots at the Ukrainian Social Club in London, part of an effort to gather supplies for fighters in Ukraine.Credit...Megan Specia/The New York TimesLONDON — Rows of boots, helmets and rucksacks lined the sidewalk in north London in front of the Ukrainian Social Club. Dozens of volunteers hustled in and out of the building, their arms heavy with donations.
On Sunday night, they were busy packing boxes with everything from first aid kits and tourniquets to diapers and painkillers, all destined for Ukraine.
“Everyone in Ukraine is writing to say they don’t have the supplies for first aid,” said Iryna Estevez, one of the volunteers.
The social club in north London has long been at the heart of the city’s Ukrainian community. But since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, it has turned into a makeshift staging site for the supplies pouring in from expatriates to be sent back home.
Men and women wearing the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag gathered around tables to share food and drinks, and to talk about what comes next. Nearly everyone here had a family member or loved one impacted by the war.
A room off the basement bar and lounge that advertised the club’s famed borscht and potato dumplings had become a logistics hub. In a community hall at the back of the building that normally hosts parties or fund-raisers, the floor was covered in bags of donations.
Oleksander Bakhur, 34, who was born in Ukraine but has lived in Britain for 17 years, was sorting vests to be shipped to the border. He said that his mother still lived in Ukraine and that he was worried about her safety.
“It’s horrifying, it’s scary,” he said, adding, “For everyone here, it’s personal.”
Many of the people gathered here had taken part in a protest at Trafalgar Square earlier in the day that drew thousands.
Gathering Sunday at the Ukrainian Social Club in north London after protesting in Trafalgar Square. “For everyone here, it’s personal,” one said.Credit...Megan Specia/The New York TimesMost were glued to their phones, fielding frantic messages from friends and relatives back home or scrolling social media for the latest updates. One woman waved over another to look at a photo of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain attending a Mass on Sunday evening in a Ukrainian church in London.
Some who had come said they were considering traveling to Ukraine to take up arms, including Dima Chuprynyuk, 28.
“I’m torn if I should be here or be there to help,” he said, but he said he was leaning toward returning to fight.
Show more
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:42 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:42 p.m. ETPatricia Cohen
Reporting from LondonThe full impact of the sanctions imposed on Russia’s central bank by the United States and the European Commission remains unclear, but their threat is already looming over markets. “Regardless of the actual details and material impact, it could unleash the mother of all financial panics in Moscow on Monday,” said Adam Tooze, director of the European Institute at Columbia University.
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:36 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:36 p.m. ET Several hundred people who fled Ukraine huddled in small groups on Sunday at the train station in Zahony, Hungary, trying to figure out their next move. Photographs by Laetitia Vancon for The New York TimesZAHONY, Hungary — A dusty town with a train station in northeastern Hungary, near the border with Slovakia and Ukraine, has become a transit point for people fleeing Russia’s war against Ukraine. It also has thrown a wrench into the political calculations of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary’s illiberal, Russia-friendly, anti-immigrant strongman.
Nearly 80,000 people have crossed into Hungary, at Zahony and other towns along the 84-mile border with Ukraine, since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered his forces into Ukraine last Thursday in the biggest military action to convulse Europe since World War II.
In other circumstances, Mr. Orban’s hard-line refugee policy would have made it impossible for so many people entering the country to get international protection.
But Russia’s growing isolation and the enormous outcry against its invasion of Ukraine have forced Mr. Orban onto a political tightrope. Just a few weeks before Russia invaded, Mr. Orban visited Mr. Putin in Moscow for an amiable meeting, describing Russia’s security demands as reasonable and denouncing Western sanctions as counterproductive.
Now, Mr. Orban is treading a fine line in trying not to antagonize his friend Mr. Putin, anger Hungary’s partners in the NATO alliance and the European Union, or alienate voters just as an election is approaching.
Polls suggest his party has a slight lead over a six-party opposition alliance.
“The Orban regime wants to solve this situation by sending all possible messages to everyone, from the hard-core pro-Atlanticists to the hard-core Russia supporters,” said Peter Kreko, director of Political Capital, a research organization in Budapest. “Everyone can cherry-pick a narrative.”
While Mr. Orban appeared to have softened his anti-immigrant position over the past few days, his government is not bending over backward to help evacuees from Ukraine fleeing to Hungary for protection. Most of the aid given to them has been organized by charities and nongovernmental groups.
Correction:Feb. 27, 2022
An earlier version of this report misstated the leader of Hungary’s title. He is the prime minister, not the president.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 5:03 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 5:03 p.m. ET Ukrainians protesting Friday in The Hague against the Russian invasion.Credit...Bart Maat/ANP, via AFP-Getty ImagesUkraine has filed a lawsuit against Russia in the United Nations’ top court, accusing it of planning a genocide of Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote Sunday on Twitter: “Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression. We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now.”
Ukraine asked the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, to order Moscow provisionally to halt its military operations in Ukraine, in order to prevent “irreparable prejudice to the rights of Ukraine and its people” and to avoid “aggravating” the dispute between the two countries, both parties to the Genocide Conventions.
It also disputed Russia’s claims of genocide organized by Ukraine in the Luhansk and Donetsk separatist regions, which the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, used as a justification for the invasion.
Ukraine “emphatically denies” that any such genocide has occurred and asked the court “to establish that Russia has no lawful basis to take action in and against Ukraine for the purpose of preventing and punishing any purported genocide.”
The International Court of Justice rules on disputes among United Nations member nations over questions of international law, and although its orders are legally binding, governments do not always comply with them.
Ukraine sued Russia in 2017 in the court, accusing it of supplying funds, weapons and training to illegal armed groups in the eastern Donbass region and of discriminating against the Crimean Tatar and ethnic Ukrainian communities in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. That case is continuing, and the final judgment could take several years, but the court granted some provisional measures to Ukraine in 2019, including that the Ukrainian language be used in education.
Show more
Feb. 27, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 4:22 p.m. ETNorway’s sovereign wealth fund is freezing its assets in Russia and plans to divest from the Russian market, a spokeswoman for the fund said Sunday.
The $1.3 trillion fund — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — held 27 billion kroner, equivalent to roughly $3 billion, in assets in Russia at the end of 2021. Its Russian investments equaled 0.2 percent of the fund.
The operator of the fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, will neither buy nor sell shares in Russian assets, according to Line Aaltvedt, the fund’s spokeswoman. The fund will work with the Ministry of Finance to prepare a plan to divest from the Russian market. No timeline for the divestment was given.
The announcement on Sunday was part of a fleet of measures by the Norwegian government in support of Ukraine, including joining European Union sanctions and allocating up to 2 billion kroner for humanitarian aid. On Sunday, the E.U. also announced that it would finance the provision of weapons to Ukraine and ban Russian aircraft from E.U. airspace.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund was created in the 1990s to invest the country’s oil and gas revenue abroad. Since 2004, it has operated under ethical guidelines including bans on investing in companies that sell certain weapons.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 4:19 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 4:19 p.m. ET European Union officials warned of a humanitarian crisis and estimated that more than seven million people would be displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.CreditCredit...Laetitia Vancon for The New York TimesMore than 300,000 Ukrainians have fled to the European Union since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on Thursday, and the bloc is bracing itself for the arrival of up to four million Ukrainian refugees, E.U. officials said on Sunday.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, will ask member nations next week to grant temporary asylum to all Ukrainians coming to the bloc for up to three years, the bloc’s commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, told reporters on Sunday. Member nations will have to agree, but Ms. Johansson said after a meeting of interior ministers on Sunday that “an overwhelming majority” was in favor.
Seven million Ukrainians are expected to be displaced as a consequence of the Russian invasion.
Ukrainians can stay visa-free in the European Union for up to 90 days, and they can move freely between member nations. According to the commission, many have already left the first country they arrived in and headed to countries with big Ukrainian diasporas, mainly the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
So far, a limited number of Ukrainians have applied for asylum, Ms. Johansson said, with most joining their relatives who already live in the European Union. “But things will change, and we need to be prepared for much higher number of people trying to come,” she added.
Ukrainian refugees were met with “impressive solidarity” from citizens and governments of the member nations bordering Ukraine — Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary — according to Ms. Johansson.
In Poland, a massive grass-roots mobilization of citizens is helping Ukrainian refugees — taking them into their homes, transporting them through the border, feeding them and clothing them. On the government level, Poland has prepared a train to transport wounded Ukrainians from the city of Mosciska to Warsaw, Poland’s capital, where they will be dispatched to different hospitals.
Poland, which already is home to millions of Ukrainians, has been the main destination for those fleeing the Russian invasion. Polish authorities said that so far 213,000 Ukrainians have crossed into the country. The country has opened its border with Ukraine to all, regardless of their legal status.
“Anyone fleeing from bombs, from Russian rifles, can count on the support of the Polish state,” the Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, told reporters on Thursday.
Slovakia announced that all Ukrainians coming to the country will get a temporary residency, with free health care and permission to work. And the government of the hard-line Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban passed a special decree last week, granting all Ukrainians temporary protection.
This stands in stark contrast to the earlier attitude of the nationalist Eastern European governments, which for years resisted taking in their share of the more than one million asylum seekers, mainly from Syria, who came to the bloc during the 2015 refugee crisis.
Polish authorities are currently building a wall at its border with Belarus, after thousands of Middle Eastern refugees and migrants tried to reach the country last year, with the vast majority being pushed back into Belarus by army and border guards. An unknown number of migrants remain stranded at the border, and aid organizations reported last week that a 26-year-old man from Yemen froze to death.
Show moreFeb. 27, 2022, 4:17 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 4:17 p.m. ETUkraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, distributed leaflets at the Security Council with a hotline number and a website for Russians to inquire about soldiers killed or taken prisoner in Ukraine. He said Russia had already blocked the website. Mr. Kyslytsya said a delegation from his country was currently moving toward the border on a dangerous road for peace talks with Russia.
Feb. 27, 2022, 4:17 p.m. ET
Feb. 27, 2022, 4:17 p.m. ETBRUSSELS — European officials were poised to approve a new sanctions list naming some 25 oligarchs, including some of the people closest to President Vladimir V. Putin, in another attempt to isolate him and his government as Russian troops met fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine.
The draft list of names, which was first reported by Bloomberg, includes Igor Sechin and Nikolay Tokarev, the chief executives of Rosneft and Transneft, major oil companies; Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, the owners of the Alfa Group financial-services conglomerate; Alisher Usmanovm, a copper tycoon; and Alexei Mordashov, a steel tycoon.
The list could still change at the final approval stage.
Earlier Sunday, the European Union announced that it was set to approve the closure of its airspace to Russian aircraft, ban transactions with the Russian Central Bank and block the state-funded RT and Sputnik from broadcasting in the European Union.
Another key part of the measures against Russia announced Sunday was the purchase and shipment of weapons by the European Union to help Ukraine fight Russia, the first time the bloc has ever taken such a step in its history.
Post a Comment