Russia – Ukraine Talks Continued, So did Russian Shelling of Ukraine

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, March 15: As the talks between Ukraine and Russia continued, so did the Russian attack on Ukrainian cities. Shortly before dawn on Tuesday, large explosions thundered across Kyiv as Russia pressed its advance on multiple fronts.

A series of Russian strikes hit a residential neighbourhood of Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, igniting a huge fire and frantic rescue effort in a 15-story Kyiv apartment building. Kyiv mayor said at least four people were killed and scores of others wounded in the shelling.

The Ukrainian military said in a statement that the strikes were artillery strikes. They hit the Svyatoshynskyi district of western Kyiv, adjacent to the suburb of Irpin that has seen some of the worst battles of the war. Flames shot out of the apartment building as firefighters rescued people from ladders. Smoke choked the air. A firefighter at the scene confirmed one person died and that several have been rescued alive but others are still inside as rescuers try to reach them.

Russian forces also stepped up strikes overnight on the northwest suburbs of Irpin, Hostomel and Bucha, the head of the Kyiv region Oleksiy Kuleba said on Ukrainian television. Russian forces also renewed efforts on Tuesday to capture the important port city of Mariupol in the south, and unleashed new artillery strikes on downtown Kharkiv in the east, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Facebook. But Ukrainian forces later claimed that they have beaten back the Russian forces and forced them to withdraw from Mariupol.

A humanitarian convoy of 160 civilian cars left Mariupol after repeated failures to evacuate civilians because of Russian shelling. ‘Massive destruction’ at Dnipro airport after shelling, say Ukraine authorities. Meanwhile, Kyiv mayor says that a 36-hour curfew will be imposed in the city from late Tuesday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations would continue through Tuesday. Speaking in a video address, Zelensky said the Ukrainian delegation did good work during Monday’s talks. He didn’t provide further details but said the talks were “hard but ongoing.” Both the sides have expressed optimism over the outcome of the talks.

He said he spoke on Monday to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as part of efforts to “quickly end the war” and achieve “honest peace”. Bennett, who has sought to mediate a peaceful settlement, also spoke on Monday to Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Zelensky hailed a Russian state TV employee who interrupted the main evening news programme on Russian Channel 1 by running into a studio with a poster against the war in Ukraine. The employee was later arrested by police.

The Ukrainian President again addressed the Russian soldiers, urging them to stop fighting and saying: “I’m offering you a chance to survive.” In a bid to shore up the economy badly battered by the war, Zelensky announced a plan to sharply reduce taxes for business.

The United Nations chief warned on Monday that Russia’s war on Ukraine was holding “a sword of Damocles” over the global economy, especially poor developing countries that face skyrocketing food, fuel and fertilizer prices and are now seeing their breadbasket “being bombed.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters that “Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower oil and about 30 percent of the world’s wheat” and that “grain prices have already exceeded those at the start of the Arab Spring and the food riots of 2007-2008.” He told reporters that 45 African and least developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia, and 18 of them import at least 50%. These countries include Egypt, Congo, Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, he said. “All of this is hitting the poorest the hardest and planting the seeds for political instability and unrest around the globe,” Guterres warned.

The Russian military has besieged the Azov Sea port city of 4,30,000 for a week and a half, leaving its residents desperate for power, water and food. More than 2,500 residents of Mariupol have been killed by the Russian shelling. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in televised remarks that Russian shelling on Monday thwarted another attempt to deliver food and medicines to the city.

The European Union has announced that the 27-nation bloc has approved a new set of sanctions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Last week, the bloc’s nations agreed to slap further sanctions on 160 individuals and added new restrictions on the export of maritime navigation and radio communication technology. They also decided to exclude three Belarusian banks from SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions. Altogether, EU restrictive measures now apply to a total of 862 individuals and 53 entities.

Nearly 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion nearly 3 weeks ago, according to UN data published on Tuesday. Half of that figure — 1.5 million people — represents children forced to flee the conflict, said Unicef spokesperson James Elder.

According to a report by The Kyiv Independent, quoting a Ukrainian ombudsman, three journalists have been killed in Mykolaiv, Kyiv, and Irpin since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to Lyudmyla Denisova, many journalists have been deliberately injured by the Russian forces. Meanwhile, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has urged all men to return to the capital and defend it against the Russian invasion. Kyiv will remain under curfew for 36 hours from late Tuesday.