As Russia’s diplomatic and economic isolation grows four days after invading Ukraine, talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials began near the Belarusian border on February 28, 2022, according to Moscow.
Since World War II, the invasion of Ukraine has become the largest assault on a European state.
According to the Interfax news agency, Russian forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the territory surrounding a nuclear power plant on Monday but met fierce resistance elsewhere.
After a Russian advance that went more slowly than some expected, talks began with the goal of a rapid ceasefire and the departure of Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian president’s office.
Russia has been more evasive, with the Kremlin refusing to comment on Moscow’s negotiating objectives.
After President Vladimir Putin initiated the assault on Thursday and put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday, it was unclear whether any progress could be made.
The meetings are taking place along the border with Belarus, a close Russian ally that ratified a new constitution on Sunday, abandoning the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a staging area for Russian soldiers invading Ukraine.
The Western-led response to the invasion was broad, with sanctions virtually cutting off Moscow’s key financial institutions from the Western markets, driving the rouble down 30% against the dollar on Monday.
Weapons deliveries to Ukraine have also increased.
Blasts were heard early Monday in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and Kharkiv, a significant eastern city, according to Ukrainian police.
They said that Russian ground forces’ attempts to take major cities had been rebuffed.
The towns of Berdyansk and Enerhodar in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, as well as the territory around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power station, were taken over by Russian soldiers, according to Interfax.
However, the ministry stated that the plant’s activities were unaffected.
According to the news agency, Ukraine denied that the nuclear reactor had come into Russian hands.
On Monday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the chairman of the Donetsk regional administration, stated on television that fighting continued throughout the night surrounding the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol.
He didn’t specify whether Russian forces had won or lost terrain, and he didn’t give any estimates for casualties.
Since Thursday, at least 102 civilians have been murdered in Ukraine, with another 304 injured, according to UN human rights director Michelle Bachelet, but the true count is likely to be “considerably higher.”
According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than half a million people have fled to neighboring nations.
Since Thursday, Russia has fired over 350 missiles against Ukrainian targets, some of which have impacted civilian facilities, according to a senior US defense official.
“It appears like they are adopting a siege mentality,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “Any student of military tactics and strategy would tell you that adopting siege tactics increases the likelihood of collateral damage.”
NATO allies were supplying Ukraine with air defense missiles and anti-tank weapons, according to NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg in a tweet on Monday.
The Russian government accused the European Union (EU) of hostile behavior, claiming that military transfers to Ukraine were destabilizing and demonstrated that Russia was correct in its efforts to demilitarize its neighbor.
It refused to say whether a clash between Russia and NATO was a possibility.
Russia has urged that Ukraine never be admitted to NATO.
Germany announced a major boost in defense spending, overcoming decades of reluctance to match its economic might with military might.
On Monday, Russia’s rouble fell about 30% against the dollar after Western countries announced sweeping sanctions on Saturday, including the exclusion of some Russian institutions from the SWIFT international payments system.
Russia’s central bank tried to contain the escalating consequences, announcing that it would begin gold purchases on the domestic market, run a no-limit repurchase auction, and relax limitations on banks’ open foreign currency balances.
It also instructed brokers to prevent foreigners from selling Russian equities.
Several European subsidiaries of Sberbank Russia, which is majority-owned by the Russian government, have failed or are about to fail as a result of the war in Ukraine’s reputational cost, according to the European Central Bank.
Britain announced on Monday that it was imposing additional sanctions against Russia in coordination with the US and the EU.
Corporate behemoths reacted as well, with British oil major BP, Russia’s largest foreign investor, announcing that it would sell its interest in state oil company Rosneft for up to $25 billion.
Rolling anti-invasion rallies have taken place around the world, including in Russia, where almost 6,000 people have been jailed at anti-war protests since Thursday, according to the OVD-Info protest monitor.
Ukraine’s request for an urgent debate on Russia’s invasion this week was granted by the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, just minutes after Kyiv’s envoy told the Geneva forum that some of Moscow’s military operations “may amount to war crimes.”
The motion was approved by the 47-member council with 29 votes in favor and five votes against, including Russia and China.
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged the EU on Monday to grant Ukraine immediate membership.
“Our ambition is to be with all Europeans and, above all, to be equal… In a video statement uploaded on social media, he stated, “I am confident we deserve it.”
According to the White House, US President Joe Biden will hold a conference call with allies and partners on Monday to arrange a coordinated response.
Russia refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation,” claiming that they are not intended to occupy territory but rather to destroy Ukraine’s military capabilities and capture what it considers to be dangerous nationalists.
The European Union and Canada have banned all Russian planes from their airspace, forcing Russian airline Aeroflot to postpone all flights to European destinations until further notice.
The Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik were also blacklisted by the EU.
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