TASS: The Russian military declared a regime of silence in Ukraine and open humanitarian corridors from four cities

The armed forces of the Russian Federation have declared a regime of silence and will open humanitarian corridors from 10 am so that civilians can leave four Ukrainian cities – Kyiv, Kharkov, Sumy and Mariupol. This is reported by TASS with reference to the statement of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

The corresponding decision was made taking into account the humanitarian situation and at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Interfax notes.

At the same time, the coordination headquarters indicated that Russia had brought information about the opening of humanitarian corridors to the relevant structures of the UN, the OSCE and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

In particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and gain access to their financial systems. In addition, the European Union, the United States, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the sky for Russian aircraft.

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