Although during meeting between Moscow and Kyiv on Monday since the outbreak of war, Ukraine demanded “immediate ceasefire”, more than half-a-million Ukrainians have fled the country, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked his country to stay high-alert on possibility of nuclear attack from the Ukrainian side thinking President Volodymyr Zelensky may fire nuclear weapons targeting at least five different targets in Russia including Kremlin. According to media reports, as the delegations arrived for talks on the border between Belarus and Ukraine on day five of Moscow’s invasion, the Ukrainian presidency demanded the ceasefire “and the withdrawal of troops” — which Moscow is almost certain to reject.
Another source said, Vladimir Putin may retort to Russia’s nuclear weapons if the Western nation continue exerting pressure on Moscow through sanctions and providing weapon to the Ukrainian side.
“I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters.
Severe financial sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow showed their impact on financial markets on Monday morning, with the Russian ruble collapsing to a record low and the Russian central bank more than doubling interest rates to 20 percent.
The sanctions targeting the Russian financial sector are intended to change the calculus of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, but on the ground the roughly 100,000 Russian troops thought to be inside Ukraine continued an invasion from the north, east and south.
Western defense officials and the Kyiv government say battling Ukrainian troops have kept the country’s major cities out of Russian hands despite incursions in the capital Kyiv and the second largest city, Kharkiv, over the weekend.
“The Russian occupiers have reduced the pace of the offensive,” the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Monday, again claiming that Moscow had suffered “heavy losses”.
The small southern city of Berdyansk has been occupied by Russian soldiers, however, Ukrainian officials said.
In the capital Monday, after a relatively calm evening, people rushed out to buy food after the lifting of a strict blanket curfew-imposed Saturday, with local forces given shoot-on-sight orders over the weekend.
Amid reports of further Russian troop movements towards Kyiv, Moscow said it had now “gained air superiority over the entire territory of Ukraine”, while accusing Ukrainian troops of using civilians as human shields.
Putin on Sunday ordered Russia’s nuclear forces onto high alert in response to what he called “unfriendly” steps by the West, whose unity and speed in imposing sanctions on the Russian economy has surprised observers.
“The Western sanctions on Russia are hard, but our country has the necessary potential to compensate the damage”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Monday.
The UN’s refugee agency UNHCR said over half a million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion Thursday.
“More than 500,000 refugees have now fled from Ukraine into neighboring countries”, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said in a tweet.
The grim figure came as talks got underway at the Belarus-Ukraine border on Monday included Ukraine’s defense minister and other officials from Ukraine and Russia.
Kyiv had been initially reluctant to send a delegation to Belarus, given the country’s role in facilitating Russia’s attack on Ukraine by hosting troops and weaponry used in the invasion.
“We definitely have an interest in reaching some agreements as soon as possible”, Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin who has travelled to Belarus for the talks, said in televised remarks.
Zelensky meanwhile issued another video address, wearing his now trademark green khaki sweatshirt, calling on the European Union to agree to “the immediate accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure”.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, gave her personal support on Sunday in an interview with the Euronews channel, but without specifying a timeframe.
