Photo: Webshot
March 02, 2022
Russian forces shelled multiple Ukrainian cities Wednesday, while Russian officials said they were ready for another round of talks with Ukraine and a key Russian opposition leader urged people in Russia and across the world to hold daily protests against the invasion of Ukraine.
Violence Wednesday included shelling of the southeastern port city of Mariupol, and unconfirmed Russian military claims of seizing the southern city of Kherson.
In a video released Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recalled a bombing Tuesday that hit a TV tower in Kyiv located next to Holocaust memorial site Babi Yar.
“This is beyond humanity. Such missile strike means that for many Russians our Kyiv is absolute foreign. They know nothing about our capital, about our history. They have orders to erase our history, our country and all of us.”
Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, called on Jews across the world to “not stay silent” about what is happening in Ukraine.
“Because Nazism is born in silence. Scream about murdering of civilians, scream about murdering of Ukrainians,” he said.
A spokesman for longtime Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny posted on the jailed opposition leader’s Twitter account that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not Russia” and that people “cannot wait any longer” to rally against the invasion.
Navalny called for people “in Russia, Belarus or on the other side of the planet” to gather in the main square of their towns and demonstrate.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a Russian delegation was ready to hold a second round of talks with Ukrainian officials, after a first round earlier this week yielded only an agreement for further negotiations.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine is also ready to engage in diplomacy, but “not ready to accept any Russian ultimatums at all.” He added that it was not yet known when a new round of talks would take place.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russia should first halt its fighting in order to give negotiations a chance.
“It’s necessary to at least stop bombing people, just stop the bombing and then sit down at the negotiating table,” Zelenskyy told Reuters and CNN in a joint interview in a heavily guarded government compound in Kyiv.
The United Nations General Assembly is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution calling for Russia to immediately withdraw its military forces from Ukraine and condemning Putin’s move earlier this week to “increase the readiness” of Russia’s nuclear forces.
The resolution, which is non-binding but does signal international opinion, follows a failed effort at the U.N. Security Council where Russia used its veto power to block a similar resolution.
The U.N. refugee agency said more than 677,000 people, most of them women and children, had fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since Thursday. It said it expects 4 million people could eventually flee Ukraine.
The EU Commission announced Wednesday it would give temporary residence permits to the refugees, pending approval by member states.
Ukrainian nationals and those with permanent residency would be allowed to live, work and seek an education in EU countries. The same would apply for non-Ukrainians fleeing the country who cannot safely return to their country of origin. The program would not extend the rights to those with short-term approval to live in Ukraine who can return to their country of origin.
“All those fleeing Putin’s bombs are welcome in Europe,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “We will provide protection to those seeking shelter and we will help those looking for a safe way home.”
More than half of those fleeing Ukraine have gone to Poland, where Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country is helping “all the people fleeing from war, all the war refugees regardless of their country of origin.”
“We are treating everyone with dignity and in an equal manner because this is the only way how it should be,” he told reporters.
U.S. President Joe Biden said late Tuesday Russian leader Vladimir Putin “badly miscalculated” in his invasion and the thought that he could make the free world “bend to his menacing ways.”
Biden used the beginning of his State of the Union address to the nation to express support for Ukraine and outline the widespread, unified response from Ukrainian allies that has included sending weapons and aid to Ukraine and imposing strong economic sanctions against Russia.
“Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Ukrainian people,” Biden said. “He will never extinguish their love of freedom. He will never, never weaken the resolve of the free world.”
Biden announced the closing of U.S. air space to all Russian flights and said the U.S. Justice Department is forming a special task force “to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs.”
He reiterated that the United States will not be sending troops to fight in Ukraine, while stating that NATO allies would “defend every inch” of territory in member states.
“The Ukrainians are fighting back with pure courage, but the next few days, weeks and months will be hard on them,” Biden said. “Putin has unleashed violence and chaos, but while he may make gains on the battlefield, he will pay a continuing high price over the long run.”
Among the audience in the U.S. Capitol was Ukraine Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova. Many of the lawmakers in attendance wore forms of yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, to show their support.
A U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday that despite instances of Russian forces in some areas being slowed by logistical problems, the Russian military still has significant combat resources that have not yet been utilized in Ukraine.
The official said the U.S. assesses that since the invasion began last Thursday, Russia has launched more than 400 missiles, and that Ukraine’s air and missile defense systems remain viable.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.