The Russian attack on Ukraine has now entered its second day, with raids from all sides and even explosions in Kiev, attributed from the Ministry of the Interior to the anti-aircraft batteries, and the general mobilization decreed by the country’s president, Volodomir Zelenski.
The president of Ukraine, in addition, has warned in the early hours of this Friday that Russian troops are shelling residential areas of the country in the second day of military fighting.
“Enemy planes are viciously operating over residential areas, particularly in the capital. Terrible explosions in the morning sky over Kiev. bombings. Impact on a residential building. Fire”the Ukrainian president has assured in a video through his Telegram channel.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, early this morning Russian troops have entered the Obolonsky district of Kiev and the Ukrainian army is fighting them. In this context, the ministry has asked the neighbors not to leave the house and prepare Molotov cocktails. In that same district, a video posted on social media shows a Russian armored vehicle having destroyed a car.
According to the minister, Kiev anti-aircraft defense today shot down a Russian aircraft, which fell next to a city apartment building. “The enemy aircraft was shot down by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense and fell next to a building located on Koshitsa 7a street, Darnitsk district“, the ministerial adviser wrote in his Telegram account, who did not specify the type of plane shot down.
But the foreign minister, Dmitro Kureba, spoke on his Twitter account of “terrible missile attacks on Kiev”: “The last time our capital suffered something similar was in 1941, when it was attacked by Nazi Germany.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky It has also reported the death of 137 Ukrainians during the first day of the Russian attack on the country. “According to preliminary data, unfortunately we have already lost 137 of our heroes, our citizens, ten of them officers. 316 were injured,” the president said in a speech to the nation.
“Today Russia attacked the entire territory of Ukraine. And today our defenders have done a lot,” he said. “The enemy attacks not only military installations, as he claims, but also civilians. They kill people and turn peaceful cities into military targets. This is vile and will never be forgiven,” she stressed.
Zelensky regretted, again, that no one has given him a clear answer about Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO. “We were left alone to defend our state. Who is prepared to fight by our side? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to ensure Ukraine’s accession to NATO? Everyone is scared,” she stressed.
President Zelensky says he is the “number 1 target” of the Russian army. “I am in the capital, my family is also in Ukraine,” she stressed. “According to our information, I am the enemy’s number one target. My family is the second. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” she said, denying that she had left Kiev.
The president signed the decree on the general mobilization of all people of serving age in the Army for the war that Russia began on Thursday against the country. “Decree: announce and carry out a general mobilization”, it is stated in the text published on the page of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Previously, Zelenski had presented the decree to the Verkhovna Rada or Parliament, as reported by the Legislature itself on its Telegram account.. The decree provides for the mobilization to be carried out within a maximum period of 90 days in 25 territories of Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken he was “convinced” that Russia intends to overthrow the Kiev government and he did not rule out that Moscow may try to go further in its attempt to regain influence in neighboring countries.
“I am convinced that he is going to try to do that,” Blinken said when asked during an interview with the ABC channel if he believed that Russia will seek to bring down the Ukrainian government with its invasion.
The Security Council of The UN will vote this Friday on a resolution condemning the Russian attack on Ukraine which contains very harsh terms against the action of the Russian Federation, according to the draft text.
It is certain that Russia, which has the right to veto, will block the resolution prepared by the United States and circulated on Thursday among the members of the Council and its international allies.
International sanctions on Russia
The Heads of State and Government of the EU They agreed this Thursday on a battery of sanctions to hit the Russian economy, energy and tradealthough they have chosen not to deploy all the options yet and are already exploring the scope of future sanctions and the requirements for their activation.
The document of the second package of sanctions contemplates measures in six areas: the financial, energy and transport sectors, trade in dual-use goodsthe visa policy and new individual sanctions.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, believes that the new sanctions backed by the Twenty-seven against Russia are “up to the dramatic circumstance” of the invasion “unilateral, unfair and unjustified” from Ukraine and will cause “very significant economic damage” to the government of Vladimir Putin.
Is about a “massive package of sanctions, such as has never been adopted” by the European Union, Sánchez stressed to the press at the end of the extraordinary European summit in which the EU leaders supported new sanctions against Russia.
US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against five large Russian financial entities, including the two largest banks in the country, as well as oligarchs close to the Kremlin, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“This means that all their assets in the US will be frozen (…) We are going to stop Russia’s ability to finance itself,” Biden remarked during a speech from the White House.
The sanctions seek to sever the connection of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and deprive that institution of transactions in dollars, which according to the White House controls almost a third of the assets of the Russian banking sector and is “crucial” for the country’s economy.
In addition, the sanctions block the assets under US jurisdiction of the second largest Russian bank, VTB and three other banks -Otkritie, Novikom and Sovcom-, as well as all their subsidiaries, and impose restrictions on the debt operations of thirteen Russian entities.
However, Biden avoided excluding Russia from the Swift international banking data system, one of the measures that were considered for being considered one of the most forcefulassuring that “it is not the position that the rest of Europe wants to take”.
The Government of Japan announced new sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine that include controls on exports of semiconductors and other products that can be used for military purposes and the freezing of funds from Russian financial entities. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida presented this Friday a new round of punitive measures against Moscow that has been taken in coordination with the G7 and that come after the sanctions already revealed last Wednesday by Tokyo.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced on Friday the imposition of sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, as well as the indefinite suspension of bilateral ministerial consultations.
Ardern said his government will impose travel bans on an undetermined number of Russian officials and others linked to the Ukraine invasion, and will also ban exports of supplies to Ukraine’s military and security forces.
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
