Anger at the Russian aggression against Ukraine spilled into the United Nations Environment Program Summit in Kenya Monday.  Delegates and leaders from over 100 nations are trying to agree on a treaty to tackle plastic waste.

While addressing participants, European Union representative Virgijus Sinkevicius veered off topic.

He said celebration of a possible deal on plastic waste is “saddened” by Russia’s act of aggression against its neighbor. He added, “In these dark hours, our thoughts are with Ukrainians.”

The commissioner also called on Russia’s leadership to abide by international law and engage in dialogue with its neighbor.

A Russian delegate in the conference responded to the EU official by blaming the Ukraine government for not doing enough to avoid the conflict with his country.

At a news conference, United Nations Environment Assembly President Espen Barth Eide of Norway said it didn’t surprise him that controversy over the Ukraine conflict spilled over into the summit.

“The United Nations and other bodies have the right arena in dealing with peace and security and right now, the Security Council is with this issue. I think that’s the view of many, but I am not surprised this very dramatic situation appeared in statements but apart from that, both the executive director and myself make reference to it, as well as the way we have said just now this should actually strengthen our resolve, to demonstrate that there is something that works in the world and the multilateral system continues to deliver,” he said.

Russia is facing mounting international exclusion because of its invasion of Ukraine. Many western countries have imposed economic sanctions aimed at Russia and its leaders, and the world football governing body said football matches will not be played on Russian soil.
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Many Russian media outlets have been hacked, with anti-war messages being placed on their websites, as Russia continues its massive, unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

Twitter accounts historically associated with Anonymous, the amorphous online activist community that first grabbed global attention about a decade ago, claimed it was behind the hacker attack.

Among the media outlets impacted were websites of such news agencies and newspapers as TASS, Kommersant, Izvestia, Fontanka, Forbes, and RBK.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin forces you to lie and puts you in danger. Why do we need it? So that Putin was added to textbooks? This is not our war, let’s stop him!” one of the messages read.

“This statement will be removed, and some of us will be fired or even jailed. But we cannot stand it anymore,” the statement signed by “Not indifferent journalists” said.

The official website of the Kremlin was down on February 26, following reports of denial-of-service attacks on various other Russian government and state media websites.

Anonymous also claimed it was behind that cyberattack as well.
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A snapshot of war: the young tearfully saying goodbye to parents and grandparents who are too infirm or otherwise unconvinced to leave their homes. Some say they want to remain rooted in these uproarious times
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US intelligence expects Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko to throw in his 48,000-strong army into the war raging in Ukraine in the next few hours or day and to reinforce Russia in its faltering invasion of Ukraine
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Russia hosting the 2018 World Cup, the scandal-plagued 2014 Winter Olympics and Gazprom’s sponsorship of the Champions League were powerful tools for the country’s global image and gained Vladimir Putin prestige amongst the Russian population.

However, the Russian president’s decision to invade Ukraine has resulted in destroying the warm global afterglow and experts believe it could cost him dearly internally.

Saint Petersburg has already been stripped of hosting this year’s Champions League final with Gazprom’s reported 40-million-euro ($45 million) a year sponsorship deal with UEFA also in doubt. 

The Russian Formula One Grand Prix has been cancelled and there are calls for the country’s football team to be expelled from the 2022 World Cup play-offs. 

“Sport has always had a tremendous impact on society,” Michael Payne, former head of marketing at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told AFP. 

“The South African sports boycott over apartheid probably had as much or greater impact than economic sanctions, over forcing regime policy change.”

For Hugh Robertson, Chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA), a blanket sports ban could affect Putin’s standing domestically.  

“Sport is disproportionately important to absolutist regimes,” he told AFP. 

“The potential inability to compete would hit Russia hard.”

Payne, who in nearly two decades at the IOC was widely credited with transforming its brand and finances through sponsorship, said Putin risked his standing with his own people. 

“Putin may not care what the rest of the world thinks of him, but he has to care what the Russian people think of him,” said the Irishman.

“Lose their support and it is game over -– and the actions of the sports community has the potential to be a very important influencer towards the Russian people.”

‘A greater good’ 

Prominent Russian sports stars have not been shy in voicing their disquiet over Putin’s invasion.

Andrey Rublev, who won the Dubai ATP title on Saturday, veteran Russian football international Fedor Smolov, United States-based ice hockey great Alex Ovechkin and cyclist Pavel Sivakov, who rides for the Ineos team have all expressed a desire for peace. 

“Russian athletes speaking out to their national fan base, will only serve to further prompt the local population to question the actions of their leadership, and undermine the local national support for the war,” said Payne. 

However, another former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns, who since leaving the organization has played a key role in five successful Olympic bid city campaigns, has doubts about their impact.

“You are making the assumption that Russian people actually see, read, and hear ‘real news’,” he told AFP. 

“I do not believe that is the case. The Government will portray Russia as a victim of a great global conspiracy led by the USA and the West. 

“It is an old Russian trope they have used quite effectively since the Soviet days.”

Burns says sadly the athletes must also be punished for their government’s aggression.

“I believe that Russia must pay the price for what it has done,” he said.

“Sadly, that has to include her athletes as well. 

“Many people, like me, believed that by helping them host the Olympics and World Cup could somehow open and liberalize the society, creating new paths of progress for Russia’s young people. Again, we were wrong.”

Robertson too says allowing Russians to compete when Ukrainians are unable to due to the conflict is “morally inconceivable.” 

Payne says individual sports have to look at a bigger moral picture than their own potential losses over cutting Russian sponsorship contracts. 

“The sports world risks losing far more by not reacting, than the loss of one or two Russian sponsors.” 

Former British lawmaker Robertson, who as Minister for Sport and the Olympics delivered the highly successful 2012 London Games, agrees. 

“The sporting world may have to wean itself off Russian money,” said the 59-year-old.

“Over the past few days, it has become apparent that political, economic and trade sanctions will hurt the West as well as Russia, but this is a price that we will have to pay to achieve a greater good.”

For Robertson sport could not stand idly by in response to Russia’s invasion. 

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine will impact sport but the consequences of inaction, or prevarication, will be far more serious.” 
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Belarusians voted Monday to allow the country to host nuclear weapons and Russian forces permanently, results showed, part of a package of constitutional reforms that also extended the rule of leader Alexander Lukashenko.

The referendum was held Sunday as the ex-Soviet country’s neighbor Ukraine is under attack from Russian troops and delegations from Moscow and Kyiv are expected to meet for talks on the Belarusian border.

Central Election Commission head Igor Karpenko said 65.16% of referendum participants voted in favor of the amendments and 10.07% voted against, Russian news agencies reported.

According to Karpenko, voter turnout stood at 78.63%. 

To come into force, the amendments need to receive at least 50% of the vote with a turnout of over half the electorate.

Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, promised the referendum in the wake of historic protests against his disputed re-election in 2020.

By amending the constitution Lukashenko, 67, follows in the footsteps of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in 2020 oversaw a vote on constitutional changes that made it possible for him to remain in power until 2036.

The constitutional changes also grant immunity to former leaders for crimes committed during their term in office.

Russia is a key ally of Belarus and last week Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine from the north. 

Belarus inherited a number of Soviet nuclear warheads following the break-up of the USSR in 1991, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative think tank, which it then transferred to Russia.

Lukashenko first floated possible changes after a presidential vote in August 2020 sparked unprecedented demonstrations that were met with a brutal crackdown.

He claimed a sixth term in the vote and imprisoned leading opposition figures, while his main rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was forced to seek refuge in neighboring Lithuania.

The amendments would reinstate presidential term limits — previously ditched by Lukashenko — to two five-year terms, but they would only apply to the next elected president.

Were Lukashenko to put himself forward as a candidate for re-election in 2025, he could remain in power for an additional 10 years.

Tikhanovskaya’s office in Lithuania has hit out at the vote, saying that a sweeping crackdown on any dissenting voices since the 2020 election made any real discussion of the proposals impossible.
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FIFA drew a swift backlash from European nations for not immediately expelling Russia from World Cup qualifying Sunday and only ordering the country to play without its flag and anthem at neutral venues under the name of its federation — the Football Union of Russia.

Protesting against FIFA’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland said it would still refuse to play the country in a World Cup playoff semifinal, which is scheduled for March 24.

“Today’s FIFA decision is totally unacceptable,” Polish football federation president Cezary Kulesza tweeted. “We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances. Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is.”

The unanimous ruling by the FIFA Bureau, featuring the six regional football confederation presidents, said the Russian flag and anthem can’t be associated with the team playing as “Football Union of Russia (RFU).”

“FIFA will continue its ongoing dialogue with the IOC, UEFA and other sport organizations to determine any additional measures or sanctions,” FIFA said in a statement, “including a potential exclusion from competitions, that shall be applied in the near future should the situation not be improving rapidly.”

The decision adopts the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling before the invasion of Ukraine, punishing Russia’s cover-up of the investigation into state-sponsored doping. It meant the Russians had to compete at the last two Olympics as the ROC team. FIFA had stalled implementing the ban on Russia competing under the country’s name until a potential qualification for the World Cup.

The winner of the Russia-Poland playoff is due to host Sweden or the Czech Republic on March 29 to decide who advances to the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 World Cup in Qatar.

Swedish federation president Karl-Erik Nilsson, the senior UEFA vice president, told the website Fotbollskanalen that he was not satisfied with the FIFA decision with a “sharper stance” expected. The Czechs said the FIFA compromise did not change their decision not to play Russia.

FIFA said it had engaged with the three associations and would remain in “close contact to seek to find appropriate and acceptable solutions together.”

Separately, the English Football Association announced that its national teams would refuse to play Russia for the “foreseeable future.” Russia has qualified for the Women’s European Championship which is being hosted by England in June.

The English FA said the decision was taken “out of solidarity with the Ukraine and to wholeheartedly condemn the atrocities being committed by the Russian leadership.”

The RFU’s president is Aleksandr Dyukov, who is chief executive of a subsidiary of state-owned energy giant Gazprom and also sits on the UEFA executive committee.

In France, the football federation president Noël Le Graët told the Le Parisien daily Sunday that he was leaning toward excluding Russia from the World Cup.

“The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral,” said Le Graët, who sits on the ruling FIFA Council and has recently been a close ally of the governing body’s president, Gianni Infantino.

A strict reading of FIFA’s World Cup regulations would even make the Polish, Swedish and Czech federations liable to disciplinary action and having to pay fines and compensation if they wouldn’t play Russia.

In 1992, however, FIFA and UEFA removed Yugoslavia from its competitions following United Nations sanctions imposed when war broke out in the Balkans.  

The FIFA Bureau, which is chaired by Infantino, includes UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine entered a fourth day on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin temporarily lost his most senior official position in world sports. The International Judo Federation cited “the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine” for suspending Putin’s honorary president status.

The Russian president is a keen judoka and attended the sport at the 2012 London Olympics.

There was an abrupt resignation Sunday from the Russian who is president of the European Judo Union, with Sergey Soloveychik referencing the “heartache that we see the people in brotherly countries die” but backing his country.

“No one doubts that my heart belongs to judo,” he said. “But it is equally true that it belongs to my homeland, Russia. We, judoka, must always be loyal to our principles.”

In Putin’s other favorite sport, ice hockey, Latvian club Dinamo Riga withdrew Sunday from the Russian-owned and run Kontinental Hockey League citing the “military and humanitarian crisis.”
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The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Sunday for a rare emergency special session against the backdrop of Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine. The vote underscores White House claims of international unity in support of Ukraine and comes ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more
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Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the European Union will close its airspace to Russian airlines and private jets due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ban was decided on Sunday by the bloc’s foreign ministers. The decision is among several actions announced by the foreign ministers after their meeting in Brussels.

“We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians. We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian registered, or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off, or overfly the territory of the EU,” von der Leyen told a news conference.

Many European countries had already announced they would close their airspace to Russian planes.

Finland and Belgium were among the most recent to take the step, saying earlier they would join other European countries in ramping up sanctions against Moscow, officials said.

Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, “is preparing to close its airspace to Russian air traffic,” Transport Minister Timo Harakka said on Twitter on February 26.

He did not state when the measure would take effect.

Belgian Prime Minster Alexander De Croo said on February 27 that the country “has decided to close its airspace to all Russian airlines.”

De Croo said on Twitter that “our European skies are open skies. They’re open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress.”

Several other countries, including Germany, France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Britain, Romania, and Poland, had already closed their airspace to Russian flights, forcing westbound Russian planes to make enormous diversions.

“France is shutting its airspace to all Russian aircraft and airlines from this evening on,” French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on Twitter.

Air France-KLM said it is suspending flights to and from Russia as well as the overflight of Russian airspace until further notice as of February 27.

Canada also said on February 27 it had shut its airspace to Russian aircraft effective immediately, Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra said on Twitter.

Germany’s Transport Ministry said it would close its airspace to Russian planes and airlines for three months from February 27, with the exception of humanitarian aid flights.

Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are also closing their airspace to Russian airliners.

Moscow, for its part, has also banned planes from those countries from flying over its territory.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters.
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From Moscow to Siberia, Russian anti-war activists took to the streets again Sunday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the arrests of hundreds of protesters each day by police.

Demonstrators held pickets and marched in city centers, chanting “No to war!” as President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent to be put on high alert, upping the ante in the Kremlin’s standoff with the West and stoking fears of a nuclear war.

“I have two sons and I don’t want to give them to that bloody monster. War is a tragedy for all of us,” 48-year-old Dmitry Maltsev, who joined the rally in St. Petersburg, told The Associated Press.

Protests against the invasion started Thursday in Russia and have continued daily ever since, even as Russian police have moved swiftly to crack down on the rallies and detain protesters. The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much broader share of Russians support the assault on Ukraine.

In St. Petersburg, where several hundred gathered in the city center, police in full riot gear were grabbing one protester after another and dragging some into police vans, even though the demonstration was peaceful. Footage from Moscow showed police throwing several female protesters on the ground before dragging them away.

According to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests, by Sunday evening police detained at least 1,474 Russians in 45 cities over anti-war demonstrations that day.

Four days into the the fighting that has killed scores, Putin raised the stakes dramatically on Sunday, ordering the military Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, citing Western countries “taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere” and “top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country.”

The day before, the U.S. and its European allies have warned that the coming round of sanctions could include freezing hard currency reserves of Russia’s Central Bank and cutting Russia off SWIFT international payment system. The unprecedented move could quickly plunge the Russian economy into chaos.

Ordinary Russians fear that stiff sanctions will deliver a crippling blow to the country’s economy. Since Thursday, Russians have been flocking to banks and ATMs to withdraw cash, creating long lines and reporting on social media about ATM machines running out of bills.

According to Russia’s Central Bank, on Thursday alone Russians withdrew 111 billion rubles (about $1.3 billion) in cash.

The anti-war protests on Sunday appeared smaller and more scattered than the ones that took place on the first day of Russia’s attack in Ukraine, when thousands of people rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but their true scale was hard to assess and they seemed to pick up speed as the day went on.

“It is a crime both against Ukraine and Russia. I think it is killing both Ukraine and Russia. I am outraged, I haven’t slept for three nights, and I think we must now declare very loudly that we don’t want to be killed and don’t want Ukraine to be killed,” said Olga Mikheeva, who protested in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
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People around the world rally in solidarity with Ukraine and protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are arriving in Eastern Europe, fleeing the Russian invasion of their homeland. Experts predict between 1 million and 5 million could enter the European Union in coming weeks. This time, countries such as Poland are opening doors that were previously closed to others seeking asylum.

Grabbing any form of transportation they can, many Ukrainians are crossing their borders in search of safety. This group of refugees is arriving in Poland by train.

Others wait for hours to cross by car or walk kilometers to reach border points with Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave, they are supposed to be defending their homeland.

“We have, with all the frontline member states, explicit contingency plans to welcome and host immediately those refugees from Ukraine,” she said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has outlined European Union plans to support Ukrainian refugees and those internally displaced by the conflict through its humanitarian aid office, known as ECHO.

“And [as far as] internally displaced people are concerned we have a lot of support through ECHO humanitarian aid — shelter and all the necessities people who are internally displaced immediately need,” she said.

While the EU hopes there will be as few Ukrainians seeking asylum as possible, she said, Europe is prepared to welcome them.

The United Nations fears that up to 5 million Ukrainians could seek refuge in neighboring countries, including up to 3 million in Poland.

That is far more than there were during the 2015 migrant crisis, when 1.3 million Syrian, Afghan and other asylum seekers from conflict-torn countries flooded into Europe, the most in a single year since World War II. Germany granted asylum to many of them.

Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary, though, were reluctant to take them in. Hungary even built a border fence. Earlier this year, Poland also began building a border wall to prevent a new wave of Middle Eastern asylum seekers from entering from Belarus.

Today’s welcome is different. Poland is opening reception centers along its over 500-kilometer border with Ukraine. Poland’s interior minister says Warsaw will take in all the Ukrainians who arrive.

Here in France, far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also affirmed her support for taking in Ukrainian refugees — even as her party earlier petitioned against a massive influx of refugees from Afghanistan.

Refugee rights groups welcome today’s open doors but they are concerned about discriminatory treatment of asylum seekers.

“Absolutely this kind of difference in treatment is something that we fear and that we see. With Ukraine, countries might be more inclined to keep their borders open. But we will see how this develops,” said Ole Solvang of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Still others fear that if the conflict in Ukraine drags on, Europe’s welcome mat may be less welcoming than it is today.
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Fears are mounting that Russian forces will turn more to targeting critical civilian infrastructure and mount indiscriminate shelling as the defenders of Kyiv maintain their resistance and hold ground despite redoubled Kremlin efforts to subjugate Ukraine’s capital.

Some critical civilian infrastructure has already been hit and the Ukrainian military said it intercepted a missile heading for a nearby dam, which if breached could have caused major flooding of low-lying districts near the Dnieper River.

Russian forces also targeted a radioactive waste disposal site in Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities say.

“I think today we’ve seen a shift in Russian targeting towards critical civilian infrastructure, greater use of MLRS [multiple rocket launchers], and artillery in suburban areas,” tweeted Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at CNA, an American defense research organization.

“Unfortunately, my concern that this was going to get a lot more ugly and affect civilians is starting to materialize,” he added.

In the dam incident, the Ukrainian military said it managed to shoot down a Russian missile heading toward the Kyiv Reservoir dam Saturday.

“If the dam is destroyed, the flood will lead to catastrophic casualties and damage, including flooding of residential areas in Kyiv and the suburbs,” the Infrastructure Ministry said on Telegram.

Water experts say if the dam north of the city is breached, it could trigger a cascade effect, causing other key dams to fail. There are even concerns that a nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhya, about 550 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, could be affected.

Russian forces Saturday targeted an oil depot southwest of the city at Vasylkiv as Ukrainian forces repulsed a Russian assault on the capital.

Local authorities say Ukrainian forces are battling saboteurs and Russian special operations forces units who have infiltrated the capital. The Ukrainian government has reported 198 civilian deaths, including children, since the Russia’s invasion, but they caution the numbers could be higher. Ukrainian authorities say at least 1,200 civilians have been injured.

Six people, including a 7-year-old girl, were killed in Russian shelling in Okhtyrka, in Sumy Oblast in northeastern Ukraine, Governor Dmitry Zhivitsky said Sunday. And in the south of the country the Russian military launched drones strikes in Odessa, according to Serhiy Bratchuk, head of the regional administration.

The Ukrainian military says it has inflicted heavy losses on Russia, saying its forces have managed to destroy 16 warplanes, 18 helicopters, 102 tanks, 504 armored vehicles and a Buk-1 missile system. They estimate they have killed 3,000 Russian soldiers and captured 200. VOA is unable to vouch for the accuracy of the claims.

Sunday morning the Ukrainians blew up a bridge on the northwest of Kyiv to try to hinder Russian forces.

Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told reporters that while a Russian delegation had arrived in Gomel in Belarus for peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a Russian offer of talks in Belarus on Sunday. Podolyak said Zelenskyy is open to negotiations elsewhere — the Ukrainians have suggested Warsaw, which is being refused by the Russians.

Zelenskyy described the fighting overnight in Kyiv and across the country as “brutal” in a statement Sunday. He said Russian occupying forces are “attacking civilian areas” where there is no military infrastructure. He said Russia is now “attacking everything,” including ambulances.

As worries mounted in Kyiv of a shift in Russian targeting from mainly military infrastructure, locals Sunday reported fierce street fighting in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, where overnight shelling of residential districts preceded the entry of Russian ground forces.

Despite the Russian breach of Kharkiv, local Ukrainian commanders say they will continue to resist.

“There has been a breakthrough in light equipment including in the central part of the city,” Oleg Sinegubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, announced, urging local residents to stay in shelters. He said Russian troops were still being blocked amid heavy fighting.

As in Kharkiv and Kyiv, so too elsewhere in the country defiance remains high — with resistance symbolized for many by a video posted on social media showing a Ukrainian civilian in Bakhmach in northern Ukraine attempting to stop a Russian tank by pushing against it.

In the video, the man first climbs on to the tank before jumping down and attempting to push it back, after that he kneels in front in a desperate bid to stop its advance. VOA cannot confirm the authenticity of the video, nonetheless it is one of many posted that Ukrainians point to as inspirational.

Ukrainian forces have notched up some significant successes. Zelenskyy aides confirmed that a convoy of Chechen special operations forces was intercepted near Hostomel and wiped out. Ukrainian forces have downed a cruise missile fired by a Russian Tu-22 strategic bomber from the territory of Belarus, Valery Zaluzhny, chief commander of the armed forces, said Sunday.

For civilians in cities and towns under siege — and even in towns unaffected directly by the fighting — getting basic goods and staples is becoming increasingly difficult. Many stores have closed, and supplies are difficult for owners to maintain. Village stores seem better supplied, being able to stock up with local produce, as witnessed by this VOA correspondent.

Seventy-two hours since the Russian invasion, Western experts estimate 80% of the country is still in Ukrainian hands, with around half of the forces Russian leader Vladimir Putin deployed along Ukraine’s borders now in action.

Franz-Stefan Gady, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank in London, says the Russians are having to throw in more second-echelon units because “Ukrainian forces by and large are fighting orderly delaying actions; morale remains very high; air-defenses still operational; air force remains active.”

He says Ukraine’s mechanized forces are managing to mount counterattacks and that a race is on for Ukrainian forces to beat an orderly retreat from the East, where the bulk of Ukrainian forces have been deployed, to cross the Dnieper River and establish fresh defensive positions where possible. The Russian tactic seems to be to avoid losing contact with major Ukrainian units and to encircle major cities, as they are trying to do with Kyiv, and probe for weaknesses.

He, too, worries about the likelihood of mounting civilian casualties.

“Expect very heavy fighting and a noticeable increase in Russian ground-based mass fires to break Ukrainian resistance. This will be absolutely devastating for the civilian population, if caught in crossfires,” he tweeted.

The U.N. Refugee Agency said Sunday that more than 200,000 Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries. Tens of thousands more are waiting on Poland’s borders to enter, with many more trying to make it across the country, as witnessed by this VOA correspondent during a journey from Kyiv to Lviv that took two days.

As blasts and explosions echoed around Kyiv, Zelenskyy, wearing olive green military-style clothing, assured residents of the capital that he remains with them.

“I am here. We will not lay down any weapons. We will defend our state, because our weapons are our truth,” he said. “Our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children and we will protect all of this,” he added.

The country’s 44-year-old leader also said the country’s steadfast resistance has “derailed” a Russian plan to establish a puppet state in Ukraine. 
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China refused to join its close friend, Russia, in vetoing a U.S.-backed resolution in the U.N. Security Council deploring Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

China abstained on the motion but also made statements that could be extremely disappointing to Moscow. Zhang Jun, China’s U.N. ambassador, called for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as it was being violated by Russia.

“Ukraine should become a bridge between the East and the West, not an outpost for confrontation between major powers,” Zhang said. However, he also called for understanding Russia’s fears about NATO attempts to expand and include Ukraine as a member.

China has been using this argument about sovereignty and territorial integrity in rejecting foreign comments and opinions about trouble spots such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. It has also used this argument to oppose the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“Russian annexation of portions of Ukraine, or invasion and seizure of Kiev, violate China’s position that sovereignty is sacrosanct,” John Culver, a former U.S. intelligence officer said on Twitter.

Cold feet

China’s decision to take a neutral stance on the invasion of Ukraine raises several questions. Did Beijing develop cold feet at the last moment, or did Russia go much further in its military aggression in Ukraine than China had expected?

“The unity and strong resolve of Western countries to isolate Russia is a matter of surprise. China needs to feel the pebbles and carefully walk through the stream,” a senior journalist with state-run Chinese media said while requesting not to be named.

Just a few days ago, Chinese experts had said there was no way Europe would back U.S. proposals against Russia because it was heavily dependent on Russian gas.

Europe’s ability to shun Russia “depends on the extent to which the US is able to replace Russia’s natural gas exports,” Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the state-owned Global Times.

Now that Europe has overcome any hesitation and moved to stop further aggression from Russia, Beijing will be concerned about the more stringent financial sanctions imposed on Moscow, such as the ban on the international operations of the Russian central bank and the cutting Russia out of the SWIFT international fund transfer system.

As the world’s biggest trader, China has strong reasons to worry about being bracketed with Russia, particularly because many Chinese banks have close dealings with Russian financial companies. The stakes are also high for Chinese companies, as 254 of them are listed on U.S. stock exchanges.

For years, China has been trying to take advantage of differences between Washington and Europe. For instance, it has pushed for wider investment opportunities in Europe after the U.S. made it difficult for Chinese companies to buy corporate assets in areas related to security and high technology.

As the biggest importer of crude oil, it is China that will pay a heavy price due to the rise in oil prices, which have touched $100 per barrel. Russia is the second-largest source of oil for China, after Saudi Arabia.

China could face serious difficulties in buying Russian crude after Russia’s ouster from the international payments system, although Russia and China have been working on a payments process that does not require access to SWIFT for bilateral trade.

Domestic opinion

Within China, almost no one would accept the idea that Chinese authorities, known for taking a long-term view of situations, could have miscalculated or developed cold feet.

But there are signs that Putin did not reveal the full extent of his planned actions to Xi.

The New York Times reported that American intelligence had shared information about Russian preparedness to invade Ukraine with Chinese officials but the latter had rejected the possibility. U.S. officials calculated that China had a lot to lose in a Russian war on Ukraine and hoped Beijing might use its influence on Moscow to stop a direct invasion.
…

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST:

12:41 a.m.: Oil tanks burn after a massive explosion near Kyiv. CNN has video.

12:05 a.m.: A BBC reporter talks to women making Molotov cocktails in a park in Ukraine.

12:01 a.m.: Protests continue in Australia.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

The United Nations Security Council is due to vote Sunday to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which would be held on Monday, diplomats said.

The vote by the 15-member council is procedural so none of the five permanent council members – Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States – can wield their vetoes. The move needs nine votes in favor and is likely to pass, diplomats said.

Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950. The request for a session on Ukraine comes after Russia vetoed on Friday a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would have deplored Moscow’s invasion. China, India and UAE abstained, while the remaining 11 members voted in favor.

The General Assembly is expected to vote on a similar resolution following several days of statements by countries in the emergency special session, diplomats said. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but carry political weight.

The United States and allies are seeking as much support as possible to show Russia is internationally isolated.

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in March 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. The resolution, which declared invalid a referendum on the status of Crimea, received 100 yes votes and 11 against. Two dozen countries didn’t vote and 58 abstained.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, telling him the world body plans to “enhance humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine,” a U.N. spokesperson said.

“He informed the President that the United Nations would launch on Tuesday an appeal to fund our humanitarian operations in Ukraine,” the U.N. spokesperson said in a statement.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said Friday that more than $1 billion will be needed for aid operations in Ukraine over the next three months as hundreds of thousands of people are on the move after Russia invaded its neighbor.
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Heather Murdock reports from Ukraine
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The U.S. is revisiting cutting Russia from the global bank-to-bank payment system known as SWIFT, as the next step in a series of escalating sanctions punishing Moscow for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden initially held back on this crucial step that would isolate Russia on the world stage and have a serious impact on its economy, due to the concerns of European allies. But those concerns appeared to be eroding Saturday as Russian forces moved to encircle the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Ukraine has lobbied for a SWIFT ban on Russia, urging Europe to act more forcefully in imposing sanctions against Moscow. However, some European nations, including Germany, are hesitant to take that step.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Friday for nations to cut off Russia from the SWIFT international bank transfer system “to inflict maximum pain.”

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said “the debate about SWIFT is not off the table, it will continue.”

Putin, Lavrov sanctioned

The United States announced Friday that it would freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following similar steps taken by the European Union and Britain, as nations around the world sought to tighten sanctions against Russia’s government over its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the action Friday after EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels unanimously agreed to freeze the property and bank accounts of the top Russian officials.

Britain’s government took the same action Friday, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss writing on Twitter, “We will not stop inflicting economic pain on the Kremlin until Ukrainian sovereignty is restored.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the move by the U.S., the European Union and Britain sends “a clear message about the strength of the opposition to the actions” by Putin.

Juan González, the National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told VOA, the sanctions were designed to apply global pressure on Russia.

“If you see the sanctions on 13 financial institutions, among the largest in Russia, that will have an impact with any government or business that has agreements with these institutions. But also, a lot of this money laundering and governments that operate outside the financial system international will feel the squeeze,” Gonzalez said.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the sanctions against Putin and Lavrov reflect the West’s “absolute impotence” when it comes to foreign policy, according to the RIA news agency.

World leaders are rarely the target of direct sanctions. The only other leaders currently under EU sanctions are Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Agence France-Presse.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said the move is “a unique step in history” toward a country that has a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council but said it shows how united EU countries are in countering Russia’s actions.

The EU sanctions against Putin and Lavrov are part of a broader sanctions package that targets Russian banks, oil refineries and Russia’s defense industry.

EU leaders agreed, however, it was premature to impose a travel ban on Putin and Lavrov because negotiating channels need to be kept open.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday the package of banking sanctions the EU has passed would hit Putin’s government harder than excluding Russia from the SWIFT payments system.

“The sword that looks hardest isn’t always the cleverest one,” she said, adding, “the sharper sword at the moment is listing [the] banks.”

In response to the sanctions, Russia has taken its own measures, including banning British flights over its territory, after Britain imposed a similar ban on Aeroflot flights.  

The United States and several allies had imposed a first tranche of sanctions Tuesday, after Putin declared the disputed eastern Ukraine regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, much as he appropriated Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

President Biden added another round of sanctions on Russia Thursday, hours after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, declaring at the White House after meeting virtually with leaders of the G-7 nations and NATO that “Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.”

Biden said the new U.S. sanctions, which target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors and include export controls, will “squeeze Russia’s access to finance and technology for strategic sectors of its economy and degrade its industrial capacity for years to come.”

NATO allies, including Britain and the European Union, also imposed more sanctions Thursday, and the effects were felt almost immediately when global security prices plunged and commodity prices surged. Biden acknowledged that Americans would see higher gasoline prices.

Also Friday, an International Criminal Court prosecutor warned that the court may investigate whether Russia has committed any possible war crimes, following its invasion of Ukraine.

“I remind all sides conducting hostilities on the territory of Ukraine that my office may exercise its jurisdiction and investigate any act of genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed within Ukraine,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Friday in a statement.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Russia’s communications regulator accused 10 local media outlets on Saturday of falsely depicting what Russia calls a special military operation in Ukraine and distributing false information about events there.

Among those sent warning letters were Echo Moskvy, a popular radio station, and Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper critical of the government whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded a Nobel Peace prize last year.

Roskomnadzor, the regulator, ordered the media to delete the offending information or face restricted access to their websites and media resources.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last week, saying it needed to demilitarize its neighbor.
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UNICEF, the U.N. Children’s Fund, is scaling up programs for millions of children in Ukraine threatened by Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, is under attack. Russian forces have entered the country from multiple directions.  Deaths and injuries reportedly are growing. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of the country Thursday, the dangers to civilians have risen exponentially.

UNICEF regional director for Europe and Central Asia Afshan Khan warns the war is posing an immediate threat to Ukraine’s 7.5 million children.

“As we speak, there have been major attacks in Kyiv that have created great fear and panic among the population, with families really scared, moving alongside their children into subways and shelters.  And this is clearly a terrifying moment for children across the country,” Khan said.

UNICEF has been providing humanitarian assistance to millions of children and families in Ukraine for eight years.

The agency has been particularly active in the Russian-backed searatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, where it has been trucking safe water to areas affected by conflict.

UNICEF has placed health, hygiene, and emergency education supplies in areas near the contact line. That is the 500-kilometer zone separating Russian-backed territories from the rest of Ukraine. The agency also has provided psychosocial support for traumatized children living in the volatile area.

Khan says needs are increasing with the escalating crisis.  She says fuel is in short supply, as is the cash needed to buy emergency supplies of medicines, hygiene kits and other essential relief for people in the Donbas region and across the country.

“Obviously, Kyiv and the West have not suffered the same consequences.  And now, as a result of the critical situation families and children are finding themselves in, we see an increased risk of fear, trauma, the need for shelter, the need for cash. And we will see an increasing need for additional supplies,” Khan said.  

UNICEF says the needs of children and families are escalating in line with the conflict. The agency is seeking $66.4 million to increase access to basic services for up to 7.5 million children inside Ukraine.  

It says the appeal will provide water and sanitation, immunization and health care, schooling, and learning.  The agency says it aims to expand the number of mobile teams currently moving around the country providing psychosocial support to traumatized children. Boosting this service, it says, will allow it to keep pace with a fast-rising number of requests for psychological support, and care for children.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Refugee Agency warns that up to 4 million people may flee to other countries in Europe if the crisis escalates. Given this reality, Khan says UNICEF, with the refugee agency, and other U.N. agencies will issue a flash appeal in the coming days to support an influx of refugees in surrounding countries.

According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, more than 150,000 Ukrainians have already crossed into neighboring countries.
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French sea police seized a ship on Saturday that authorities suspect belongs to a Russian company targeted by European Union sanctions over the war in Ukraine, a government official told Reuters.

The cargo vessel transporting cars, which was headed for St. Petersburg, is “strongly suspected of being linked to Russian interests targeted by the sanctions,” said Captain Veronique Magnin of the French Maritime Prefecture.

The ship was diverted to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. (0200-0300 GMT), Magnin said, adding ongoing checks were being carried out by customs officials and the ship’s crew was “being cooperative.”

The Russian Embassy in France is seeking an explanation from authorities over the seizure, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted the embassy as saying.

French newspaper La Voix Du Nord, which first reported the news, said the vessel was the Baltic Leader, which, according to website marinetraffic.com, sails under a Russian flag.

The company that owns the ship belongs to a Russian businessman who is on the EU’s list of sanctioned people, Magnin said.

EU states on Friday agreed to freeze European assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister to punish Russia for the attack on Ukraine. A wider list of sanctioned people was put in place earlier this month.
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Explosions and gunfire could be heard Saturday in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as Russian and Ukrainian forces battled for control of the city.

Ukrainian officials are urging the country’s citizens to help defend Kyiv against the Russian forces. An army base in the capital was attacked, but Ukraine’s military said that attack was repelled.

A high-rise apartment building in the capital was hit early Saturday. Ukraine’s foreign minister said the building was struck by a Russian missile. There were no reports of casualties.  Video images of the building showed extensive damage on upper floors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had predicted the attacks on Kyiv would become more intense Saturday.

“Kyiv requires special attention,” he said.  “We cannot lose the capital.”

Zelenskyy said Saturday on Twitter that he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron.  “Weapons and equipment from our partners are on the way to Ukraine.  The anti-war coalition is working,” he posted.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that Russian troops have captured the southeastern Ukraine city of Melitopol. 

Russian forces advancing on Kyiv and other key cities as part of a plan to “decapitate” Ukraine’s government appear to have lost some momentum, U.S. and Western officials said Friday, as they and Moscow ramped up information operations to keep up with fighting on the ground.

Explosions and gunfire Friday continued to rock areas near Kharkiv in the north and Kherson in the south, as Russian forces continued a slow march farther into Ukraine.

A senior U.S. defense official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence, said the Russian forces had unleashed a barrage of more than 200 ballistic and cruise missiles since the invasion began, most of them targeting the Ukrainian military.

But the official said intelligence indicated the operation is not going as smoothly as Russian commanders might have hoped.

“The Russians have lost a little bit of their momentum,” the official said. “They are not advancing as far or as fast as we believe they expected they would.”

The Russian advance on Kyiv, in particular, seems to have gotten bogged down.

“They’re meeting more resistance than they expected,” the U.S. official said, adding that Russian forces had yet to establish air superiority despite a numerical advantage and efforts to eliminate Ukrainian air defenses.

Ukraine’s command and control “is intact,” the official added.

In Kyiv, Zelenskyy sought to rally the nation, rejecting rumors that he had fled the city and insisting he and other government officials “are all here, defending our independence, our state.”

Russian claims

Russian officials countered Friday that their forces had made solid progress in what they described as an effort to eliminate a terrorist threat.

In one social media post, Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov said his country’s forces had disabled more than 200 Ukrainian military facilities and dozens of air defense batteries and radar stations, while destroying a handful of Ukrainian combat planes, helicopters and military vehicles.

Russia’s military also said Friday it took control of the strategic Hostomel airport northwest of Kyiv.

Russia’s claim was not immediately confirmed, but Ukrainian authorities reported heavy fighting there.

On the ground in Ukraine

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, meanwhile, denounced what he called “horrific rocket strikes” on the city, some of which hit civilian areas.

Separately, Kyiv’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, said the city has gone into a defensive phase and warned that Russian saboteurs were on the loose.

Western officials, despite praising Ukrainian forces, cautioned the situation was fluid, and noted that things could change rapidly, especially given that about two-thirds of the 190,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border had yet to take part in the fighting.

They also warned of Russian attempts to use disinformation to cloud the situation on the ground and scare Ukraine’s forces into submission.

“Our information indicates Russia is creating a disinformation campaign by publicizing false reports about the widespread surrender of Ukrainian troops,” a U.S. official said Friday.

“Our information also indicates that Russia plans to threaten killing the family members of Ukrainian soldiers if they do not surrender,” the official added.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby praised the Ukrainian forces Friday, even as Russian troops move deeper into the country from the north and the south.

“We see clear indications that Ukrainian armed forces are fighting back and bravely,” he told reporters. “[The Russians] have experienced some setbacks.”

Kirby also said the United States was continuing to find ways to help Ukraine defend itself “both from a lethal and nonlethal perspective.”

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the State Department to release $350 million in military aid to Ukraine.

NATO response

The Pentagon voiced support for NATO’s decision to activate the NATO Response Force Friday, citing Russia’s aggression.

“It’s not entirely clear if Mr. Putin has designs beyond Ukraine, and it’s because that’s not perfectly clear that we continue to look for ways to bolster our NATO capabilities and to reassure our allies,” Kirby said.

NATO on Friday vowed to continue to support Ukraine’s government and military and warned it had taken unprecedented action to ensure the security of alliance members.

“We are deploying elements of the NATO Response Force on land, at sea, and in the air to further strengthen our posture and to respond quickly to any contingency,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels following a virtual meeting of alliance heads of state.

“There must be no space for miscalculation or misunderstanding,” he said of NATO activating the 40,000-strong force for the first time. “We will do what it takes to protect and defend every ally and every inch of NATO territory.”

Opening for talks

After meeting Friday with foreign ministry officials from the separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that Russia was “ready for talks at any moment” once Ukrainian forces “stop their resistance and lay down their arms.”

Ukraine’s Office of the President said earlier it is ready to open negotiations with Russia to agree on “neutral status,” but it wanted security guarantees in return. “We should stop this war,” an adviser to the president said.

In response to Ukraine’s offer, the Kremlin said Friday that Russia is ready to send a delegation to Belarus for talks with Ukrainian officials. Ukraine countered that it wanted to hold the talks in Poland.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Friday that Russia’s offer for talks with Ukraine was an attempt to conduct diplomacy “at the barrel of a gun.” He said if Russia is serious about diplomacy, it must stop bombing Ukraine.

The United Nations Refugee Agency warned Friday the two-day assault by Russian forces already has forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes.

U.S. officials said many have been trying to make their way to the Polish border, estimating tens of thousands of Ukrainians are on the move.

At the United Nations, Security Council members voted Friday on a resolution condemning Russia for invading Ukraine and reaffirming the country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. Russia, a Security Council member, vetoed the measure, as expected.

The vote was 11-1, with China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. The draft measure is expected to be taken up next by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.

White House correspondent Anita Powell, U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, VOA refugee correspondent Heather Murdock in Slovyansk and Jamie Dettmer in Kyiv contributed to this report.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, all times EST:

12:39 a.m.: The BBC reports that missiles are being launched at Ukraine from the Black Sea.

12:26 a.m.: The Associated Press reports that street fighting is under way.

12:05 a.m.: Russia blocked a move Friday in the U.N. Security Council to condemn and halt its invasion of Ukraine, but several nations said they would seek accountability from the full U.N. membership in the General Assembly. VOA’s Margaret Besheer has the story.

12:01 a.m.: Agence France-Presse has a timeline of major events in the conflict:

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Russia blocked a move Friday in the U.N. Security Council to condemn and halt its invasion of Ukraine, but several nations said they would seek accountability from the full U.N. membership in the General Assembly.

“Let me put it plainly: Vote yes if you believe in upholding the U.N. Charter. Vote yes if you support Ukraine’s — or any state’s — right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. Vote yes if you believe Russia should be held to account for its actions,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council. “Vote no, or abstain, if you do not uphold the charter, and align yourselves with the aggressive and unprovoked actions of Russia. Just as Russia had a choice, so do you.”

The text, drafted by the United States and Albania, was supported by 11 of the 15 council members. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes to pass.

The Norwegian ambassador questioned whether the Russian ambassador should have even been allowed to vote.

“A veto cast by the aggressor undermines the purpose of the council. It’s a violation of the very foundation of the U.N. Charter,” Mona Juul said. “Furthermore, in the spirit of the charter, Russia, as a party, should have abstained from voting on this resolution.”

Russian dismissal

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia, who happens to be president of the council this month, presided over the meeting in which his government was widely condemned. He also had the task of reading out the names of dozens of countries that co-sponsored the measure that sought to reprimand Moscow.

By the end of the meeting, more than 80 countries had joined that list.

Nebenzia dismissed the draft resolution not only as “anti-Russian” but also as anti-Ukrainian, because, he said, it ran counter to the interests of the Ukrainian people.

“Today’s draft resolution — your draft resolution — is nothing other than yet another brutal, inhumane move in this Ukrainian chessboard,” he said.

He denied that Moscow was waging a war on the Ukrainian people, but rather said it was carrying out a “special operation” against nationalists to protect residents of eastern Ukraine.

“These objectives will soon be achieved, and the Ukrainian people will gain an opportunity to once again independently determine their future,” he said.

‘Russia is isolated’

The British ambassador called him out on claims that Russia’s aggression is in self-defense, to protect people living in the Russian-backed separatist areas.

“This is absurd. Russia’s only act of self-defense is the vote they have cast against this resolution today,” British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said. “Make no mistake: Russia is isolated. It has no support for the invasion of Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s envoy said his country is under siege from nearly every direction.

“Last night was the most horrific for Kyiv since, just imagine, 1941, when it was attacked by Nazis,” Sergiy Kyslytsya said.

He told the council that his country faces a difficult night ahead, and he took the unusual step of asking the diplomats in the room to have a moment of silence to pray or meditate for peace.

“To pray for souls of those who have already been killed, for souls of those who may be killed,” he said. “And I invite the Russian ambassador to pray for salvation.”

The Russian ambassador interjected to say the people who have died in eastern Ukraine in the past eight years should also be included. The U.N. says 14,000 people have died in the conflict.

“All human lives are valuable,” Nebenzia said.

A round of applause broke out in the chamber after the silence.

“The United Nations was born out of war to end war,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters after the vote. “Today, that objective was not achieved. But we must never give up. We must give peace another chance.”

He said soldiers need to return to their barracks and leaders need to turn to the path of dialogue and peace.

Next steps

“It was inevitable that Russia would block the Security Council from taking meaningful action over Ukraine,” said Comfort Ero, president of the International Crisis Group. “But it is important that all U.N. member states, from all regions, use the U.N. to communicate to Moscow how badly this war will damage its global image.”

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said that Russia’s veto shows its indifference to international law. He urged the General Assembly to step up to fill the void left by the Security Council.

“International scrutiny is needed to spare civilians from possible large-scale violations of international humanitarian law,” he said.

“We will be taking this matter to the General Assembly, where the Russian veto does not apply and the nations of the world will continue to hold Russia accountable,” Thomas-Greenfield confirmed to reporters.

The draft is likely to be adopted in the coming days with a large majority of the 193 members, sending a strong symbolic message to Moscow that it is largely isolated in the international community because of its aggression.
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