Daily Times

Russian President Vladmir Putin on Monday levelled conditions on ending Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine as Russian forces shelled the country’s second city in the face of sweeping Western sanctions.

The Russian attacks on Kharkiv killed at least 11 people, Ukrainian officials said. Kyiv says more than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed since the invasion began on Thursday. The United Nations said more than half a million people have fled the country. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on Monday met for the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion with Ukraine demanding a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops. The talks ended with both sides agreeing to continue a second-round of negotiations “soon”.

In a lengthy telephone call, Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that “the demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine and Western recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula were prerequisites to ending fighting in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. “The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no positions of the armed forces,” said Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the region that includes Kharkiv. An AFP photographer in the city inspected damage caused by fighting on Sunday, finding a destroyed school, as well as several burned out Russian infantry vehicles. Russian corpses in army fatigues could also be seen in the streets.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned what he called “the barbaric air strikes being carried out by Russia against innocent civilians, including children”. Earlier on Monday, the Russian army urged Ukrainians to leave Kyiv “freely” on one highway out ahead of what is an expected Russian offensive to capture the capital. Long queues for groceries snaked through the streets of Kyiv on Monday after a strict 36-hour military curfew was lifted and volunteer militias learned how to make home-made explosives. “We will greet them with Molotov cocktails and bullets to the head,” bank employee Viktor Rudnichenko told AFP. “The only flowers they might get from us will be for their grave.” The Russian ruble crashed to a record low as sanctions imposed by the West over the weekend had an immediate impact in Moscow, forcing the central bank to more than double its key interest rate to 20 percent.

“Ninety percent of Russians are going to rush to withdraw their rubles and change them into dollars, property or even gold,” predicted 51-year-old retired soldier Edward Sysoyev, who was in line to take out cash from a Moscow bank. “It’ll be ordinary people who pay for this military bun-fight.” As Russia becomes increasingly isolated on the world stage, it faced a crucial test of support Monday as the 193 members of the UN General Assembly held an extraordinary debate on a resolution condemning Moscow’s “unprovoked armed aggression” in Ukraine. During the rare emergency special session — just the 11th the Assembly has held in the United Nations’ 77-year history – Russia defended its decision to invade as member state after member state made a plea for peace. “The fighting in Ukraine must stop,” warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after the session began with a minute of silence for the victims.