Russian and Ukrainian negotiators discussed plans to open humanitarian “corridors” in several Ukrainian cities besieged by Russian troops after weekend attempts to lead residents to safety collapsed over aborted ceasefires. Ukraine said Russia had shattered the ceasefires with renewed shelling over three days, but Russia dismissed that notion.
Ukraine flatly rejected as “immoral” a Russian proposal to allow residents of towns — including Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, Sumy in the north, the capital Kyiv and Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv — that would have sent them into the territory of Russia or Belarus, Moscow’s close ally.
Bombardments proceeded in various Ukrainian cities, including the Black Sea port of Odesa and nearby Mykolaiv. The U.N. said some 1.7 million Ukrainians had already fled across borders, mostly to Poland and Moldova.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told his compatriots, in a video shot in his office, that he intended to stay in Ukraine until Ukraine proclaimed victory over the invader.
In Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak suggested Moscow was entitled to switch off gas supplies to Western Europe – ahead of the EU meeting intended to discuss reducing dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
More international companies announced a shutdown of their Russian operations.
City without water heat or power
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators made some progress in three hours of discussions on easing the way for Ukrainians to find their way out of encircled cities – including 200,000 residents of Mariupol without water, heat and electricity for nearly a week.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there had been “some positive results in terms of logistics of humanitarian corridors”. Kremlin negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said he expected corridors to be operating from Tuesday
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian government, pleaded for help on Facebook: “There are no medicines, products, heating, the central water supply system is broken.”
There was no progress on ending the war – Russia demanded Ukraine abandon any notion of joining NATO and enshrine neutrality in its constitution, recognise Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, as Russian territory and acknowledge the two statelets in eastern Ukraine run by Moscow proxies since then. Those demands are flatly rejected by Kyiv.
A new round of talks was scheduled for Tuesday.
Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin launched the invasion, vowing to “demilitarise” and “denazify” Ukraine, which has been seeking NATO membership as a tenet of its constitution and foreign policy. He also complained, after several weeks of troop buildup on Ukraine’s border, that the West had disregarded his demands for security guarantees, including an undertaking that Ukraine would never join the alliance.
In Moscow, Putin marked International Women’s Day, a holiday in ex-Soviet states punctuated by effusive speeches about female beauty and charm, by saying only “professional military mem” and not conscripts were being sent to Ukraine.
“I understand how you worry about your loved ones,” he said in his traditional holiday address. “Our dear women, you make the world better and kinder thanks to your sensitivity, compassion and spiritual generosity. You combine charming tenderness and amazing inner strength.”
The Russian war effort has clearly made slower progress than anticipated against Ukrainian resolve – Ukrainian officials have put Russian losses at 11,000 men, though this is impossible to verify. Russian statements have put the figure at about 500.
The U.N. human rights office has reported 406 confirmed civilian deaths on both sides, but said the number was certain to be considerably higher.
The commander of the Ukrainian military said on Monday that Ukrainian jets and an antiaircraft missile shot down two Russian airplanes over Kyiv and in a nearby area, but this could not be verified.
Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency said Russian Army Major General Vitaly Gerasimov was killed, and other senior Russian Army officers “were also killed or wounded” near Kharkiv. Russia last week reported the death of confirmed the death of another army general, Andrei Sukhovetsky.
Russia could halt gas: Deputy PM Novak
Russian Prime Minister Alexander Novak suggested Moscow could cut gas supplies to western Europe in response to Germany’s decision to suspend certification procedures for the newly-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline –a project previously backed by both Berlin and Moscow. And U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a ban on imported Russian oil was under discussion in Washington.
Novak said Russia had “every right to take a matching decision” and halt the flow of gas through the now functioning Nord Stream 1 pipeline running from Russia to Germany
“A rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market,” Novak said, predicting the price could soar to more than $300 per barrel from about $126 now.
Novak, responsible for energy policy, made his comments as the European Union looked ahead to a meeting this week devoted to plans to diversify its energy supplies and reduce its dependence on Russian oil, gas and coal imports. The bloc currently imports nearly half of its gas and coal, and about a third of its oil, from Russia.
EU leaders will discuss the proposed phase-out later this week at a gathering in Versailles, outside Paris. A draft statement reportedly refers to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a tectonic shift in European history”.
Among the companies newly announcing plans to stop their activities in Russia were computer makers IBM and household goods maker Proctor and Gamble.
But Russia’s stock market reopened after being closed for a week amid widespread financial turmoil.
Discussions continued on a U.S. proposal to provide Ukraine with Soviet-built MiG aircraft based in Poland – while sending new U.S.-built aircraft to Warsaw to replace them.
Blinken says the U.S. would give the go-ahead to the transfer of the planes to Ukraine and is already talking with Poland about replenishing its aircraft inventory. But Poland has expressed reservations.