Mastercard and Visa are suspending their operations in Russia, the companies said Saturday, in the latest blow to the country’s financial system after its invasion of Ukraine.
Mastercard said cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by its network and any Mastercard issued outside the country will not work at Russian stores or ATMs.
“We don’t take this decision lightly,” Mastercard said in a statement, adding that it made the move after discussions with customers, partners and governments.
Visa said it’s working with clients and partners in Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days.
“We are compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,” Visa Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Al Kelly said in a statement.
The twin suspensions were announced within 16 minutes of each other, and they followed a private video call earlier in the day between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and U.S. lawmakers. During that conversation, Zelenskyy “asked us to turn off MasterCard and Visa for Russia,” Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, tweeted. “I agree,” he added, before Mastercard and Visa made their announcements.
Earlier in the week, Visa and Mastercard had announced more limited moves to block financial institutions from the networks that serve as arteries for the payments system. Russian people have already been hit hard by heavy sanctions and financial penalties imposed by the U.S. government and others.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the value of the Russian currency, the ruble, has plunged by more than a third to a record low. That’s pushing up inflation for Russian households, and all the fear has helped cause long lines at ATMs.
Many other companies around the world have also made moves to increase the financial pressure on Russia and its people because of its attack on Ukraine. Some are selling their stakes in Russian companies, such as energy giant BP, while others like Harley-Davidson halted product shipments to the country.
“This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values,” Visa’s Kelly said.
The moves by Mastercard and Visa could make real differences to their bottom lines. Russia accounted for 4% of all of Visa’s net revenue in its last fiscal year, including money made from domestic and cross-border activities. Ukraine accounted for about 1%, Visa said in a filing with U.S. securities regulators this week.
Mastercard said in its own filing that about 4% of its net revenues during 2021 came from business conducted within, into and out of Russia. Another roughly 2% was related to Ukraine.
Also on March 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that could subject any journalist who deviates from the Kremlin’s talking points on the Ukraine war to a 15-year prison sentence. Because RFE/RL journalists continue to tell the truth about Russia’s catastrophic invasion of its neighbor, the company plans to report about these developments from outside of Russia.
Said RFE/RL President & CEO Jamie Fly, “It is with the deepest regret that I announce the suspension of our physical operations in Moscow today. This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the Putin regime’s assault on the truth. Following years of threats, intimidation and harassment of our journalists, the Kremlin, desperate to prevent Russian citizens from knowing the truth about its illegal war in Ukraine, is now branding honest journalists as traitors to the Russian state. We will continue to expand our reporting for Russian audiences and will use every platform possible to reach them at a time when they need our journalism more than ever. Despite this bleak moment, we know from our organization’s 70-year history that one day, perhaps sooner than many think, we will be able to reopen a bureau in Russia. Time is on the side of liberty, even in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”
Since invading Ukraine, Russia has blocked a number of Russian-language websites producing news content from abroad, including Meduza, BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America. The Kremlin has also blocked access to Facebook and Twitter.
The technical cause of the bankruptcy of RFE/RL’s Russian entity is its longstanding refusal to comply with Russia’s unlawful demand that every piece of RFE/RL’s Russian-language content—every video, every article, every tweet—be accompanied by a state-mandated warning that RFE/RL is a “foreign agent.” In the past year, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has issued 1,040 violations against RFE/RL that will result in fines of more than $13.4 million for its refusal to submit to this content-labeling regime. In addition, 18 RFE/RL journalists have been designated as individual “foreign agents.” On February 9, RFE/RL filed its final written submission with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), asking for a hearing to consider the merits of the legal case it filed in May 2021 challenging Russia’s “foreign agent” laws.
RFE/RL has been broadcasting to Russian audiences since March 1, 1953, when the first programs of “Radio Liberation” were directed at audiences in the Soviet Union. Between November 1988 and August 1991, as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s “glasnost” policies took hold, the Russian Service built up a network of as many as 400 people across the U.S.S.R. and over 40 people in Moscow. On August 27, 1991, Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree giving RFE/RL accreditation and allowing it to open a bureau in Moscow; the decree was revoked by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002.
RFE/RL’s Russian Service is a multiplatform alternative to Russian state-controlled media, providing audiences in the Russian Federation with informed and accurate news, analysis, and opinion. The Russian Service’s websites, including its regional reporting units Siberia.Realities and Northern.Realities, earned a monthly average of 12.7 million visits and 20.6 million page views in 2021, while 297 million Russian Service videos were viewed on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service is the only major international news provider reporting in the Tatar and Bashkir languages to audiences in the Russian Federation’s multiethnic, Muslim-majority Volga-Ural region. Since 1953, the Service, known locally as Radio Azatliq, and its Russian-language reporting unit Idel.Realities, have provided an important and innovative alternative to government-controlled media.
RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service is one of the few independent media outlets reporting in this predominantly Muslim region of the Russian Federation. Producing content in Chechen and Russian via its Caucasus.Realities unit, the service reports the news in one of the most violent and dangerous regions in the world.
Current Time is a 24/7 Russian-language digital and TV network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. In addition to reporting uncensored news, it is the largest provider of independent, Russian-language films to its audiences. Despite rising pressure on Current Time from the Russian government, Current Time videos were viewed over 1.3 billion times on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram/IGTV in FY2021.
About RFE/RL
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke Saturday night with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They talked about the work the United States, its allies, partners and private industry are doing to raise the cost of the war for Russia.
Biden said his administration is ramping up security, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and is working with Congress for more funding.
Zelenskyy himself met virtually earlier Saturday with more than 300 people, including senators, some House members and aides, delivering a “desperate plea” to send more planes to help the country fight the Russian invasion, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken conferred Saturday with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau in Rzeszow, on the border with Ukraine.
Blinken crossed into Ukraine briefly to meet Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba, who asked for more military assistance to defeat Russia.
After the meeting with his Polish counterpart, Blinken reiterated at a news conference that the United States “will defend every inch of NATO territory” and announced the Biden administration is preparing to allocate an additional $2.75 billion in humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a video address announcing the start of the military operation in eastern Ukraine, in Moscow, in a still image taken from video footage released Feb. 24, 2022.
Blinken also praised Poland for assisting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have fled their home country, saying, “The people of Poland know how important it is to defend freedom.”
Rau said, “Poland will never recognize territorial changes brought about by unprovoked, unlawful aggression.”
While Zelenskyy has criticized NATO for not imposing a no-fly zone, Putin said during a meeting Saturday with Aeroflot workers that such a zone would have “colossal and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe but also for the whole world.”
Additionally, Putin said he currently has no plans to declare martial law in Russia because “martial law should be only introduced in cases where there is external aggression,” adding, “we are not experiencing that at the moment, and I hope we won’t.”
Ukrainian civilians receive weapons training in Lviv, Ukraine, March 5, 2022.
Blinken flew on to Moldova Saturday night to show support to the small country, which has its own breakaway region, as it takes in tens of thousands of refugees from Ukraine.
On the ground
The Russians are dropping large bombs on the city of Chernihiv, north of the capital, Kyiv, a regional official said.
“Usually, this weapon is used against military-industrial facilities and fortified structures,” regional head Vyacheslav Chaus told The Associated Press. “But in Chernihiv, against residential areas.”
He posted a photo of what he said was an undetonated, a Soviet-designed 500-kilogram bomb.
Aid to Ukraine
Ukraine says Russian forces are shelling evacuation routes from Mariupol, as well as the city itself, breaking a cease-fire that was to have gone into effect Saturday at 7 a.m. UTC, as the southern coastal city continued to endure days of relentless aerial attacks.
“We are simply being destroyed,” Mayor Vadym Boichenko said of his city of nearly 450,000 people on his Telegram channel.
Volnovakha, a southern city of about 21,000, also was targeted with Russian “heavy artillery” attacks during the temporary cease-fire, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday in a broadcast video.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, however, accused Ukrainian “nationalists” of preventing civilians from fleeing Mariupol, according to RIA, Russia’s state-owned news agency. It cited no evidence to substantiate these claims.
Despite its heavy shelling of Mariupol and Volnovakha, there were fewer Russian aerial and artillery attacks in Ukraine over the past 24 hours compared with previous days, the British Defense Ministry tweeted Saturday on day 10 of Russia’s attack on its western neighbor.
Ukraine-Donetsk-Luhansk-Crimea-map
The ministry said Ukraine continued to control the northern cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv, as well as Mariupol in the southeast. The ministry cited reports of street fighting in the northeastern city of Sumy and said “it is highly likely that all four cities are encircled by Russian forces” as they advance toward the southwestern city of Odesa.
A shipment of satellite-internet equipment arrived Saturday in Kyiv, from Starlink. Mayor Vitali Klitschko showed off the equipment, which will help Ukrainian cities whose internet has been knocked out by Russian shelling.
The number of Ukrainians seeking refuge in other countries could reach 1.5 million by the end of the weekend, the head of the U.N. Refugee Agency said Saturday, an increase from the 1.3 million who have fled.
A Polish border guard guides people at the Ukrainian-Polish border crossing in Korczowa, Poland, March 5, 2022.
Amin Awad, U.N. crisis coordinator for Ukraine, who is meeting in Ukraine with local and international officials, said in a statement Saturday that efforts are underway “to urgently find operational modalities to scale up operations across lines and from outside into areas impacted by the conflict.”
VOA State Department Bureau chief Nike Ching, National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul foreign correspondent Heather Murdock, White House correspondent Anita Powell, and senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
Some information for this report came from The Associate Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was arrested last month at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges.
The Russian Customs Service said Saturday that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service identified the person arrested as a player for the U.S. women’s team and did not specify the date of her arrest. Russian media reported the player was Griner, and her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, did not dispute those reports.
“We are aware of the situation with Brittney Griner in Russia and are in close contact with her, her legal representation in Russia, her family, her teams, and the WNBA and NBA,” Kagawa Colas said Saturday. “As this is an ongoing legal matter, we are not able to comment further on the specifics of her case but can confirm that as we work to get her home, her mental and physical health remain our primary concern.”
On Saturday, the State Department issued a “do not travel” advisory for Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine and urged all U.S. citizens to depart immediately, citing factors including “the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials” and “the Embassy’s limited ability to assist” Americans in Russia.
Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, has played in Russia for the last seven years in the winter, earning over $1 million per season — more than quadruple her WNBA salary. She last played for her Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg on Jan. 29 before the league took a two-week break in early February for the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournaments.
More than a dozen WNBA players were playing in Russia and Ukraine this winter, including league MVP Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley of the champion Chicago Sky. The WNBA confirmed Saturday that all players besides Griner had left both countries.
The 31-year-old Griner has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S., a WNBA championship with the Mercury and a national championship at Baylor. She is a seven-time All-Star.
“Brittney Griner has the WNBA’s full support and our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States,” the league said in a statement.
Ukraine says Russian forces are shelling agreed-upon evacuation routes from Mariupol as well as the city itself, breaking a cease-fire that was to have gone into effect at 7 a.m. UTC.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov had said, “Today, March the 5th, from 1000 am Moscow time (0700 GMT), the Russian side declares a ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave Mariupol and Volnovakha. Humanitarian corridors and exit routes have been agreed upon with the Ukrainian side.”
Mariupol officials said they are delaying the evacuation plans and urged residents to take shelter. The evacuation routes were to have been open for five hours for both buses and private cars.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian forces “are increasingly using brutal methods in Ukraine, including going at civilian populations.”
His comments followed a Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear plant — the largest facility of its kind in Europe — that had sparked a fire in a building at the plant compound.
Speaking to reporters Friday before a meeting with his European Union counterparts in Brussels, Blinken said, “We are faced together with what is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s war of choice: unprovoked, unjustified, and a war that is having horrific, horrific consequences.”
People who have fled Ukraine carry luggage past a bus after arriving at Nyugati station in Budapest, Hungary, March 4, 2022.
“We’re committed to doing everything we can to make it stop,” he added, but he ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying such an action could lead to a broader conflict.
“We have a responsibility to ensure the war does not spill over beyond Ukraine. … A no-fly zone could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe,” he said.
The meeting in Brussels came after Ukraine accused Russia of “nuclear terror” for shelling and starting a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant before taking control of it. The plant is in the city of Enerhodar in the country’s southeast.
Enerhodar, Ukraine
Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate said that no radiation had leaked at the plant and that personnel were continuing to operate the facility safely. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control, Ukrainian officials said.
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the attack at the request of the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania.
“The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during the meeting. “We’ve just witnessed a dangerous new escalation that represents a dire threat to all of Europe and the world.”
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center at the plant.
“This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the power plant attack before Friday’s meeting in Brussels with Blinken and EU foreign ministers.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Konashenkov blamed the attack on a Ukrainian “sabotage group” that he said had occupied the plant’s training building, attacked a Russian patrol and set the building on fire as it left. He offered no evidence, and no other country appeared to take the claim seriously.
The Zaporizhzhia facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.
Nuclear safety experts have expressed concern that fighting so close to the power station could cut off the plant’s power supply, which would adversely affect its ability to keep nuclear fuel cool and would increase the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.
On the ground
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russian ground forces are attacking a Ukrainian town near Odesa and that the United States is watching to see what it means for the city.
A Russia convoy outside the capital, Kyiv, was still trying to reach the city, he said, but the “actions by the Ukrainians have in fact stalled that convoy … stopped it in some places.”
Ukraine’s use of its air and missile defenses has been “quite extraordinary,” Kirby said.
Refugees, mostly women with children, wait for transportation at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, March 5, 2022, after fleeing from the Ukraine.
On Thursday, local Ukrainian government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of the strategic port of Kherson, but a U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.
Ukrainian defense officials say some 66,000 Ukrainians have returned from abroad to fight against the Russians.
A Russian diplomat said Friday that Russia has no intention of occupying Ukraine should its invasion be successful, and that its troops will withdraw once it has fulfilled its objective.
Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov called the invasion a “military operation with limited objectives,” which he said were to “denazify the regime and demilitarize Ukraine.”
Ukraine is a country with a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust. Historians and political observers view Russia’s invocation of World War II as disinformation.
Possibility of more sanctions
Blinken said Friday that the United States was considering additional sanctions against Russia and had not ruled out anything.
“Nothing is off the table. We are evaluating the sanctions every day,” he said.
On Thursday, Washington heaped another round of sanctions on Putin’s inner circle.
“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” Biden said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”
VOA State Department Bureau chief Nike Ching, national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul foreign correspondent Heather Murdock, White House correspondent Anita Powell, and senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
Some information came from the Associate Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Russia says it is observing a cease-fire around two Ukrainian cities to allow evacuation of residents.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, “Today, March the 5th, from 1000 am Moscow time (0700 GMT), the Russian side declares a ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave Mariupol and Volnovakha. Humanitarian corridors and exit routes have been agreed upon with the Ukrainian side.”
The corridor from Mariupol would be open for five hours, the ministry quoted city officials as saying.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian forces “are increasingly using brutal methods in Ukraine, including going at civilian populations.”
His comments followed a Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear plant — the largest facility of its kind in Europe — that had sparked a fire in a building at the plant compound.
Speaking to reporters Friday before a meeting with his European Union counterparts in Brussels, Blinken said, “We are faced together with what is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s war of choice: unprovoked, unjustified, and a war that is having horrific, horrific consequences.”
People who have fled Ukraine carry luggage past a bus after arriving at Nyugati station in Budapest, Hungary, March 4, 2022.
“We’re committed to doing everything we can to make it stop,” he added, but he ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying such an action could lead to a broader conflict.
“We have a responsibility to ensure the war does not spill over beyond Ukraine. … A no-fly zone could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe,” he said.
The meeting in Brussels came after Ukraine accused Russia of “nuclear terror” for shelling and starting a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant before taking control of it. The plant is in the city of Enerhodar in the country’s southeast.
Enerhodar, Ukraine
Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate said that no radiation had leaked at the plant and that personnel were continuing to operate the facility safely. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control, Ukrainian officials said.
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the attack at the request of the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania.
“The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during the meeting. “We’ve just witnessed a dangerous new escalation that represents a dire threat to all of Europe and the world.”
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center at the plant.
“This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the power plant attack before Friday’s meeting in Brussels with Blinken and EU foreign ministers.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Konashenkov blamed the attack on a Ukrainian “sabotage group” that he said had occupied the plant’s training building, attacked a Russian patrol and set the building on fire as it left. He offered no evidence, and no other country appeared to take the claim seriously.
The Zaporizhzhia facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.
Nuclear safety experts have expressed concern that fighting so close to the power station could cut off the plant’s power supply, which would adversely affect its ability to keep nuclear fuel cool and would increase the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.
On the ground
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russian ground forces are attacking a Ukrainian town near Odesa and that the United States is watching to see what it means for the city.
A Russia convoy outside the capital, Kyiv, was still trying to reach the city, he said, but the “actions by the Ukrainians have in fact stalled that convoy … stopped it in some places.”
Ukraine’s use of its air and missile defenses has been “quite extraordinary,” Kirby said.
Refugees, mostly women with children, wait for transportation at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, March 5, 2022, after fleeing from the Ukraine.
On Thursday, local Ukrainian government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of the strategic port of Kherson, but a U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.
Ukrainian defense officials say some 66,000 Ukrainians have returned from abroad to fight against the Russians.
A Russian diplomat said Friday that Russia has no intention of occupying Ukraine should its invasion be successful, and that its troops will withdraw once it has fulfilled its objective.
Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov called the invasion a “military operation with limited objectives,” which he said were to “denazify the regime and demilitarize Ukraine.”
Ukraine is a country with a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust. Historians and political observers view Russia’s invocation of World War II as disinformation.
Possibility of more sanctions
Blinken said Friday that the United States was considering additional sanctions against Russia and had not ruled out anything.
“Nothing is off the table. We are evaluating the sanctions every day,” he said.
On Thursday, Washington heaped another round of sanctions on Putin’s inner circle.
“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” Biden said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”
VOA State Department Bureau chief Nike Ching, national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul foreign correspondent Heather Murdock, White House correspondent Anita Powell, and senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
Some information for this report came from The Associate Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that Russian forces “are increasingly using brutal methods in Ukraine, including going at civilian populations.”
His comments followed a Russian attack on a Ukrainian nuclear plant — the largest facility of its kind in Europe — that had sparked a fire in a building at the plant compound.
Speaking to reporters before a meeting with his European Union counterparts in Brussels, Blinken said, “We are faced together with what is [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s war of choice: unprovoked, unjustified, and a war that is having horrific, horrific consequences.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a media conference in Brussels, March 4, 2022.
“We’re committed to doing everything we can to make it stop,” he added, but ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying such an action could lead to a broader conflict.
“We have a responsibility to ensure the war does not spill over beyond Ukraine. … A no-fly zone could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe,” he said.
The meeting in Brussels came after Ukraine accused Russia of “nuclear terror” for shelling and starting a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant before taking control of it. The plant is in the city of Enerhodar, in the country’s southeast.
Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate said that no radiation had leaked at the plant and that personnel were continuing to operate the facility safely. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control, Ukrainian officials said.
This image made from a video released by Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant shows a bright flaring object landing in grounds of the nuclear plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, March 4, 2022.
The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the attack at the request of the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania.
“The world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during the meeting. “We’ve just witnessed a dangerous new escalation that represents a dire threat to all of Europe and the world.”
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center at the plant.
“This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the power plant attack before Friday’s meeting in Brussels with Blinken and EU foreign ministers.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov blamed the attack on a Ukranian “sabotage group” that he said had occupied the plant’s training building, attacked a Russian patrol and set the building on fire as it left. He offered no evidence, and no other country appeared to take the claim seriously.
The Zaporizhzhia facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.
Nuclear safety experts have expressed concern that fighting so close to the power station could cut off the plant’s power supply, which would adversely affect its ability to keep nuclear fuel cool and would increase the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.
The remains of a missile lie on a street in Vydubychi district of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 4, 2022.
On the ground
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russian ground forces were attacking a Ukrainian town near Odesa and that the United States was watching to see what it meant for the city.
A Russian convoy outside the capital, Kyiv, was still trying to reach the city, he said, but the “actions by the Ukrainians have in fact stalled that convoy … stopped it in some places.”
Ukraine’s use of its air and missile defenses has been “quite extraordinary,” Kirby said.
On Thursday, local Ukrainian government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of the strategic port of Kherson, but a U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.
Russian troops were besieging the port city of Mariupol, east of Kherson, an attempt Mayor Vadym Boichenko said was aimed at isolating Ukraine.
A Russian diplomat said Friday that Russia had no intention of occupying Ukraine should its invasion be successful, and that its troops would withdraw once it had fulfilled its objective.
FILE – Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. office, attends a Human Rights Council meeting at the United Nations in Geneva, Feb. 28, 2018.
Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in Geneva, Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov called the invasion a “military operation with limited objectives,” which he said were to “denazify the regime and demilitarize Ukraine.”
Ukraine is a country with a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust. Historians and political observers view Russia’s invocation of World War II as disinformation.
Possibility of more sanctions
Blinken said Friday that the United States was considering additional sanctions against Russia and had not ruled out anything.
“Nothing is off the table. We are evaluating the sanctions every day,” he said.
On Thursday, Washington heaped another round of sanctions on Putin’s inner circle.
“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” President Joe Biden said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”
VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul Foreign Correspondent Heather Murdock, White House Correspondent Anita Powell and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
China has issued a call urging “all sides” to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, reflecting the nation’s unease over Russia’s shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest.
“We will monitor the situation and call on all sides to exercise restraint, avoid escalation and ensure the safety of relevant nuclear facilities,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said following the overnight attack, which sparked a fire at the Ukrainian compound.
The foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, refused to condemn the Russian attack or call it an invasion. That is consistent with the neutral stance that China has adopted on the issue at the recent meetings at the United Nations.
China does not want to be seen as a country condoning any military act that would endanger safety at a nuclear power plant, said a Chinese scholar who did not wish to be identified.
“We have our own technology for nuclear plants, the Hualong One technology, which we have begun to export,” he said.
FILE – A dome is installed over a Hualong One nuclear power unit at Fangchenggang nuclear power plant in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, May 23, 2018. (Photo provided by Fangchenggang nuclear power plant and released by China Daily via Reuters)
China signed an agreement with Argentina in January to build the Atucha III nuclear power plant at a cost of $8 billion. It will be the second major export of Hualong One technology, a rival to the U.S. Westinghouse technology, after Beijing built a nuclear power plant in Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative.
China was among the first to ask the International Atomic Energy Agency to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors at four sites.
“China is concerned about the safety, security and safeguards of nuclear facilities in Ukraine,” China’s envoy at the IAEA, Wang Qun Wang, was quoted as saying by the Chinese mission in Vienna.
Speaking at the IAEA meeting on Wednesday, the envoy said, “The responsibility for nuclear safety and security rests with sovereign states, and related issues should be handled through established procedures.
“We hope the relevant parties will act cautiously to avoid causing man-made nuclear safety and security incidents,” he said. “The IAEA should also take full consideration of the security situation in Ukraine in accordance with its mandate and properly address the issue of security protection in Ukraine.”
Russian soldiers earlier took over Ukraine’s decommissioned Chernobyl power plant, site of a nuclear accident in 1986, raising fears about the safety of other nuclear facilities in Ukraine.
FILE – A giant protective dome built over the destroyed fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is seen April 13, 2021.
In another significant move, the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has put a hold on its financial plans in Russia and Belarus, a close ally of Moscow. Those plans are now under review.
In a statement, the Beijing-headquartered AIIB said bank management was taking steps to safeguard its financial position in light of the evolving economic and financial situation.
“Under these circumstances, and in the best interests of the bank, management has decided that all activities relating to Russia and Belarus are on hold and under review.”
China has rejected a report that said its officials told their Russian counterparts to delay an invasion of Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics. Experts say the flap indicates Chinese leaders could have known an attack was coming and that such a discovery would taint China’s reputation in the West.
Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the March 3 New York Times report “pure fake news.” The newspaper cited a Western intelligence report saying senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Feb. 4-20 Games. The war began a week ago.
“The ins and outs of the developments of the Ukraine issue are very clear. The crux of the issue is known to all,” he said.
In Washington, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said the report’s “claims are speculation without any basis and are intended to blame-shift and smear China.”
National leaders seldom tell one another in advance about upcoming wars, so information between Russia and China would point to a special relationship, said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington.
“It is important, because it shows the nature and the depth of the China-Russia relations,” Sun said. “If China identifies with Russian invasions, then China is an accomplice. We cannot expect China to respond in a constructive way.”
In the United States, which has harshly criticized Russia’s invasion, State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter said Thursday that supporters of Moscow will land on the “wrong side of history” and that “the world has been watching to see which nations stand up for Ukraine.”
Sino-Russian ties have grown closer over the past year, but China positioned itself this week as a mediator between war-divided Russia and Ukraine rather than a backer of Moscow.
China’s ties with Russia still rank as an “extremely high priority,” said Andrew Small, a senior fellow with the trans-Atlantic cooperation advocacy group German Marshall Fund. The two competed with Washington during the Cold War and have again realigned themselves against the West in recent years.
China probably expected Russia to win quickly in Ukraine, as it has in its past wars, Small said.
“I think the sense that China acted as an enabler for Russia in the runup to this is not something that’s going to go away, and that’s one of the areas where there will be a lot of collateral damage in different ways economically for China and in their relations with other countries in Europe in particular,” he said.
China probably had at least an inkling of Russia’s designs for Ukraine before the Olympics and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to delay the attack as not to distract from the Games, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, in Hawaii.
Leaders in Beijing could not easily have influenced Putin’s overall decision whether to invade Ukraine, Vuving added.
“What China could do was to persuade Putin to delay the attack [until] after the Olympics, which Putin did, so I think that was realistic and it indicated a very high level of cooperation between China and Russia,” he said.
The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank said it will suspend business related to Russia and Belarus, which have been hit with massive international sanctions over the Ukraine war.
In a statement issued Thursday, the AIIB said that “in the best interests of the bank, management has decided that all activities relating to Russia and Belarus are on hold and under review.”
The bank added that it was “actively monitoring the situation” in Ukraine and that management would do the “utmost to safeguard the financial integrity of AIIB.”
The multilateral financial institution, a brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping, was launched in 2016 to counter the West’s dominance of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Russia is among the AIIB’s founding members and holds around a 6% vote in its operations. It also has a seat on the bank’s board of directors.
It is the third-biggest stakeholder behind China, which holds almost 27% of voting power, and India.
Disclosures on the AIIB website show it has so far approved two Russia projects with financing of $800 million.
Only a small portion of its loan portfolio is in Russia.
Two projects for Belarus have also been proposed, in the fields of public health and transport.
“AIIB stands ready to extend financing flexibly and quickly and support members who have been adversely impacted by the war,” the bank said, without giving further details.
While Russia and Belarus are members of the bank, Ukraine is not.
While majority of governments have reacted to Russia’s invasion with sanctions, Beijing, which has close ties with the Kremlin, has taken a cautious line over the invasion, neither condemning it nor voicing outright support.
Financial institutions and businesses around the world are scrambling to distance themselves from Russia and Belarus over the conflict.
The Shanghai-based New Development Bank, established around the same time and for similar reasons as AIIB, also said it has “put new transactions in Russia on hold.”
As the world’s biggest trader and buyer of crude oil, China has been hit hard by the economic sanctions unleashed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Even Chinese government officials have begun to predict economic difficulties on the horizon.
“This year, the pressure on foreign trade will be huge, and the situation will be very severe,” Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said at a recent press conference.
The current sanctions regime has pushed up the price of crude oil. This will result in a heavy financial burden on China, which is the world’s biggest oil importer. The economic restrictions may also affect the $147 billion annual trade between China and Russia. Fund transfers to Russian entities can no longer occur in U.S. dollars, the currency of choice for 86% of international transactions.
“Chinese firms are caught between a rock and a hard place,” Jacob Gunter, senior analyst at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, told VOA.
Chinese companies with operations in the U.S. or the European Union may fall victim to secondary effects of the sanctions if parent corporations in China maintain business links with Russia, he said.
Four pallets of Lenovo Chromebook laptops sit in a Denver Public Schools warehouse after arriving, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, in Denver.
Two Chinese firms, Lenovo and Didi, which recently announced plans to cease doing business in Russia, faced a storm of ridicule and criticism on Chinese social media for “pandering to American whims.” This has caused a lot of concern among dozens of Chinese firms, which fear losing the domestic market if they cut ties with Russia.
Energy imports constitute two-thirds of China’s purchases from Russia. For now, the ban on Russia-related SWIFT fund transfers does not affect energy payments. This safeguard primarily shields European countries that are heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies, but it will also protect Chinese energy-related transactions. SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is an international bank-to-bank transfer system.
Some experts also predict China will end up importing inflation. The prices of many imported commodities have risen since the Russian invasion, said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for Capital Economics.
“If the situation escalates further and energy trade between Russia and the West is cut off, then the impact would be even larger,” he said.
On the other hand, Williams said, the war offers some economic opportunities for China.
“With much of the world cutting off ties with Russia, China is in a strong position to negotiate long-run energy supply contracts on favorable terms. Meanwhile, bans on Western exports of certain goods may allow some Chinese suppliers to take their place instead,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing.
An important question is whether Beijing will stick to its recent deal with Russia for enhanced trade, including expanded purchases of Russian gas. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the agreement February 4, the opening day of the Winter Olympics, during a visit to Beijing.
“I think Beijing is frustrated by Russia’s actions in Ukraine so soon after the deal, but it is unlikely to walk away from it,” Gunter said, adding that although China will become a crucial lifeline for Russia, there are limitations to the extent Beijing can offer support without drawing the ire of the West.
Besides, demand for energy, one of Russia’s most important exports, cannot increase significantly in the short term, because importing quantities of Russian gas in excess of what has been contracted will require additional pipeline facilities, which take time to build.
China has for years been trying to reduce its dependence on U.S. dollars and has signed currency swap agreements with several trading partners, including Russia. In 2015, Beijing launched the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, an international yuan payment and clearing system, as an alternative to SWIFT.
“It remains to be seen how CIPS will work and if it could act as a possible ‘competitor’ for the SWIFT,” Lourdes Casanova, director of the Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University, told VOA.
The CIPS system may not be entirely immune to U.S. intervention if it is used by China for transactions with countries other than Russia, said Williams of Capital Economics. At present, 17 Russian banks are connected to the CIPS system.
“It is also subject to Western sanctions on transactions involving Russian banks,” he said. “While the CIPS payments system doesn’t touch the U.S. banking system, payments through it that were deemed to be intended to circumvent U.S. sanctions could trigger sanctions for those involved. That effectively limits the use of CIPS to bilateral transactions between Russia and China.”
President Joe Biden’s announcement that the U.S. would go after Russian oligarchs and close U.S. airspace to Russian planes in response to the Ukraine invasion drew Democrats’ praise, but some Republican lawmakers want even tougher action. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.
Washington on Thursday piled another round of sanctions on a circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, hours after Russian and Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had taken control of the strategic Ukrainian port city of Kherson and had shelled major cities in an offensive that has forced more than 1 million people to flee the country.
Among the newly sanctioned oligarchs is close Putin ally Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals. German authorities have seized his 512-foot yacht, estimated to be worth nearly $600 million. Under the directive, his private jet is also open to seizure. The directive also bans more than 50 wealthy Russians from traveling to the U.S.
“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” President Joe Biden said Thursday ahead of a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”
The sanctions list also includes some of Putin’s oldest friends, a former judo partner and others with connections to the mercenary Wagner Group, and Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.
“One of the big factors is of course the proximity to President Putin,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “We want him to feel the squeeze. We want the people around him to feel the squeeze. I don’t believe this is going to be the last set of oligarchs. Making them a priority and a focus of our individual sanctions is something the president has been focused on.”
On the ground
Meanwhile, Moscow’s attempt to quickly take over the Ukrainian capital has apparently stalled, but the military has made significant gains in the south in an effort to sever the country’s connection to the Black and Azov seas.
Local government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of Kherson, the first city to fall in Russia’s week-old invasion of Ukraine, following days of disputed claims over who was in control. A U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.
Despite Russian assaults on Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, they all remained in Ukrainian hands, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.
“We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address early Thursday. “They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.”
Russian troops were also besieging the port city of Mariupol east of Kherson, an attempt Mayor Vadym Boichenko said was aimed at isolating Ukraine.
“They are trying to create a blockade here,” Boichenko said Thursday in a broadcast video. He said the Russians were attacking rail stations to prevent civilian evacuations and that the attacks had cut off water and power.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov cited expectations ahead of the invasion that Russia would quickly overtake Ukraine, writing on Facebook, “No one, neither in Russia nor in the West, believed that we would last a week.” He added that while there were challenges ahead, Ukraine had “every reason to be confident.”
Faithful gather to pray for peace in Ukraine, amid Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, March 2, 2022.
Little hope for peace talks
The two sides held a second round of peace talks in Belarus on Thursday and agreed to set up humanitarian corridors with cease-fire zones so that civilians could safely flee the combat. Ukraine had pushed for a general cease-fire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — who is also under direct U.S. sanctions — told reporters Thursday that Russian forces would continue their effort to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure and would not allow its neighbor to represent a military threat to Russia.
In a 90-minute telephone conversation Thursday with Emmanuel Macron, Putin told the French president that Russia would achieve its goals, including the demilitarization and neutrality of Ukraine, by any means necessary, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Macron told his Russian counterpart the war he started against Ukraine was a “major mistake,” according to a French official. Macron told Putin that if he thought his goals were realistic, “you are lying to yourself,” the official said, adding that the Russian president “wanted to seize control of the whole of Ukraine.”
Poland has taken in one-half of the more than 1 million refugees who have fled Ukraine in the past week, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. body has said it expects 4 million people could leave Ukraine because of the conflict.
Ukraine’s emergency agency said Wednesday that Russia’s attacks had killed more than 2,000 people across the country.
Russia’s Defense Ministry put out its first casualties report, saying 498 of its troops had been killed in Ukraine, while more than 1,500 others had been wounded.
Ukrainian service members warm themselves around a fire in the Luhansk region, March 3, 2022.
Russians still outside Kyiv
A senior U.S. defense official said Thursday that the Russian forces in northern Ukraine and outside Kyiv remained “largely stalled” despite U.S. assessments that 90% of the combat power that Russia prepared for the invasion had entered Ukraine.
The official said the cities in northern and eastern Ukraine, including Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv, had been subjected Thursday to “heavy bombardment” but that Russian forces in the north were still facing stiff resistance from Ukrainians.
“We continue to see them resist and fight and defend their territory and their resources quite effectively,” said the official, who added that Russia had launched more than 480 missiles since the invasion began.
Putin offered a more optimistic assessment Thursday, telling members of his security council on a video call that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was progressing “according to plan.” He added, “All tasks are being successfully carried out.”
Putin mentioned the safe passageways for Ukrainian civilians to leave areas of combat and, without providing evidence, accused Ukrainian nationalist groups of preventing civilians from fleeing and using them as human shields.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon also announced Thursday that it was postponing a nuclear missile test launch scheduled for this week. The decision came days after Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on higher alert.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the decision to delay the test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. He added that the United States would like to see Moscow reciprocate by “taking the temperature down” in the crisis over Ukraine.
VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul Foreign Correspondent Heather Murdock and White House Correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Russian paratroopers have landed in Kharkiv where deadly street battles erupted, while Russian troops made advances in the south on the seventh day of an invasion that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday aimed to erase his country’s history.
Russian military attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city, near the Russian border, killed 21 civilians and injured 112 others overnight, the regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said in a Telegram post, adding that Russian forces had attacked a military hospital.
Renewed Russian shelling on Wednesday morning struck several buildings, including a university, and killed four people, emergency services said.
Kharkiv, a largely Russian-speaking city, has a population of around 1.4 million.
The White House announced new sanctions Wednesday on Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions, which target the defense and oil sectors, will “severely limit the ability of Russia and Belarus to obtain the materials they need to support their military aggression against Ukraine, project power in ways that threaten regional stability, and undermine global peace and security,” the White House said.
The new sanctions also will target entities associated with Russian and Belarusian militaries that make combat aircraft, infantry fighting vehicles, electronic warfare systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles for Russia’s military.
“The United States will take actions to hold Belarus accountable for enabling [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, weaken the Russian defense sector and its military power for years to come, target Russia’s most important sources of wealth, and ban Russian airlines from U.S. airspace,” the White House said.
Additionally, the U.S. and its allies are seeking to restrict “technology exports” in the oil industry, hoping to degrade “Russia’s status as a leading energy supplier over time.”
“The United States and our allies and partners do not have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy — which is why we have carved out energy payments from our financial sanctions,” the White House said.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Monday, February 28, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). The International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) announced the expulsion of Russia from all its competitions, including the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The decision was made after a recommendation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), so the host of the 2018 World Cup will not be able to attend the greatest soccer event on the planet.
The Russian national team had to play the European playoff against Poland on March 24, for one of the three places that are still pending in that confederation for the World Cup.
The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Sunday for a rare emergency special session against the backdrop of Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine. The vote underscores White House claims of international unity in support of Ukraine and comes ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more
U.S. citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, the State Department said Sunday, citing an increasing number of airlines canceling flights and countries closing their airspace to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
“U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available,” said a security alert dated Feb. 27 on the website of the U.S. embassy in Moscow.
It has asked U.S. citizens to have “a contingency plan that does not rely on U.S. government assistance.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two, has unleashed a barrage of Western reprisals, with U.S. and European governments imposing sanctions on Russian banks and financial institutions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the attack a “special operation” through which he aims to demilitarize Moscow’s southern neighbor.
The State Department has kept its travel advisory for Russia at “Level 4: Do Not Travel.” On Feb. 20, the U.S. embassy in Moscow had advised Americans in the country to have an evacuation plan, citing the threat of attacks in Moscow and along the Russian border with Ukraine.
La Unión Europea da otro paso en su escalada de sanciones contra Rusia como represalia por la invasión de Ucrania. Los Veintisiete van a prohibir la emisión a las principales televisiones internacionales rusas, las públicas Russia Today y Sputnik TV, y a sus filiales. El anuncio llega apenas unas horas después de que se comunicaran dos durísimas sanciones financieras, la desconexión de varios bancos rusos del sistema de pagos internacional Swift, y la congelación de los activos del banco central ruso en los países implicados en este castigo (la UE, Estados Unidos, Canadá y Reino Unido). En ambos casos la encargada de comunicar la decisión ha sido la presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula von der Leyen.
“En otro paso sin precedentes, prohibiremos la maquinaria mediática del Kremlin en la Unión Europea. Los medios públicos Russia Today y Sputnik, más todas sus filiales, no podrán extender sus mentiras para justificar la guerra de Putin y la división en nuestra Unión. Estamos desarrollando herramientas para prohibir su desinformación tóxica en Europa”, ha justificado la presidenta Von der Leyen junto al alto representante para la Política Exterior de la Unión Europea, Josep Borrell.
China refused to join its close friend, Russia, in vetoing a U.S.-backed resolution in the U.N. Security Council deploring Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
China abstained on the motion but also made statements that could be extremely disappointing to Moscow. Zhang Jun, China’s U.N. ambassador, called for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as it was being violated by Russia.
“Ukraine should become a bridge between the East and the West, not an outpost for confrontation between major powers,” Zhang said. However, he also called for understanding Russia’s fears about NATO attempts to expand and include Ukraine as a member.
China has been using this argument about sovereignty and territorial integrity in rejecting foreign comments and opinions about trouble spots such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. It has also used this argument to oppose the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
“Russian annexation of portions of Ukraine, or invasion and seizure of Kiev, violate China’s position that sovereignty is sacrosanct,” John Culver, a former U.S. intelligence officer said on Twitter.
Cold feet
China’s decision to take a neutral stance on the invasion of Ukraine raises several questions. Did Beijing develop cold feet at the last moment, or did Russia go much further in its military aggression in Ukraine than China had expected?
“The unity and strong resolve of Western countries to isolate Russia is a matter of surprise. China needs to feel the pebbles and carefully walk through the stream,” a senior journalist with state-run Chinese media said while requesting not to be named.
Just a few days ago, Chinese experts had said there was no way Europe would back U.S. proposals against Russia because it was heavily dependent on Russian gas.
Europe’s ability to shun Russia “depends on the extent to which the US is able to replace Russia’s natural gas exports,” Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the state-owned Global Times.
Now that Europe has overcome any hesitation and moved to stop further aggression from Russia, Beijing will be concerned about the more stringent financial sanctions imposed on Moscow, such as the ban on the international operations of the Russian central bank and the cutting Russia out of the SWIFT international fund transfer system.
As the world’s biggest trader, China has strong reasons to worry about being bracketed with Russia, particularly because many Chinese banks have close dealings with Russian financial companies. The stakes are also high for Chinese companies, as 254 of them are listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
For years, China has been trying to take advantage of differences between Washington and Europe. For instance, it has pushed for wider investment opportunities in Europe after the U.S. made it difficult for Chinese companies to buy corporate assets in areas related to security and high technology.
As the biggest importer of crude oil, it is China that will pay a heavy price due to the rise in oil prices, which have touched $100 per barrel. Russia is the second-largest source of oil for China, after Saudi Arabia.
China could face serious difficulties in buying Russian crude after Russia’s ouster from the international payments system, although Russia and China have been working on a payments process that does not require access to SWIFT for bilateral trade.
Domestic opinion
Within China, almost no one would accept the idea that Chinese authorities, known for taking a long-term view of situations, could have miscalculated or developed cold feet.
But there are signs that Putin did not reveal the full extent of his planned actions to Xi.
The New York Times reported that American intelligence had shared information about Russian preparedness to invade Ukraine with Chinese officials but the latter had rejected the possibility. U.S. officials calculated that China had a lot to lose in a Russian war on Ukraine and hoped Beijing might use its influence on Moscow to stop a direct invasion.
