What we know about Ukraine on the fifth day of Russian invasion

According to the US, Putin’s change in Russian nuclear policy is an ‘unacceptable’ escalation, as the rouble is likely to plummet on Monday as a result of global sanctions. 

In reaction to Nato members’ “aggressive rhetoric”, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military leadership to place nuclear deterrence forces on high alert. The United States blasted the directive, saying Putin was “creating dangers that don’t exist in order to justify additional action.” 

The rouble is expected to fall by at least 25% when markets start on Monday, reflecting the unprecedented sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over the weekend. On Monday, the European Central Bank announced that Sberbank Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sberbank Russia, which is majority-owned by the Russian state, is failing or is on the verge of failing. 

According to Russian news sources, Belarus ratified a new constitution in a referendum, surrendering the country’s non-nuclear status when the country has become a launchpad for Russian soldiers invading Ukraine. The plan might conceivably allow Russia to put nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country surrendered them after the Soviet Union’s demise. The constitutional reform package also extended President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule. 

On Monday, a Ukrainian delegation is scheduled to meet the Russian “without preconditions” on the border with Belarus; however, Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested that he sees little chance of substantive conversation. 

According to Ukraine’s interior ministry, 352 Ukrainian citizens, including 14 children, were killed during Russia’s assault. An additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been injured, according to the report. The ministry provided no information on the number of casualties among Ukraine’s armed services. Hanna Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, claimed Russian forces had lost roughly 4,300 servicemen, a figure that could not be independently verified. 

On Sunday, satellite footage revealed a huge deployment of Russian ground forces, including tanks, heading in the direction of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, from about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away. The city is still under Ukrainian control. According to the photographs published by Maxar Technologies, the deployment included hundreds of military vehicles and stretched for more than 3.25 miles (5 kilometers). According to the report, the convoy carried fuel, logistics, and armored equipment like tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled artillery. 

Ukraine has agreed to hold peace negotiations with Russia “without preconditions,” according to Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. The Ukrainian president expressed skepticism that any progress would be made but added, “let us try so that no Ukrainian citizen would have any doubt that I, as president, sought to stop the war when there was even a chance.” 

Ukraine will receive arms from the EU. Several European countries, including Sweden, are offering military assistance to Ukraine. Sweden has not delivered weaponry to a country in armed combat since the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939. 

The EU intends to limit its airspace to Russian planes, including oligarchs’ private jets. The bloc would also outlaw the Russian state-sponsored television networks RT and Sputnik. 

The United Nations General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Monday in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the first time the Security Council has made such a request in 40 years. 

According to the UN refugee agency, over 368,000 individuals have fled Ukraine into neighbouring nations. According to the UN, if the situation worsens, up to 4 million people might become refugees. 

The World Health Organization has warned that dwindling Ukrainian oxygen supply could endanger thousands of lives. 

Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska, Russian oligarchs, have come out against Putin’s invasion. “I am deeply committed to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, and I consider the current situation as a tragedy for both,” Fridman added. Deripaska has urged for peace negotiations to start “as soon as possible.” 

Pope Francis expressed his “heartbreak” over the war and appeared to take a swipe at Putin by denouncing those who “believe in the diabolic and perverted logic of armaments.” 

The UK will contribute an additional £40 million in humanitarian help to Ukraine, while the US will provide approximately $54 million (£40 million) in fresh humanitarian aid. 

An independent monitoring organisation said that Russian police detained over 1,400 individuals at anti-war protests on Sunday, bringing the total number of arrests in the crackdown to almost 4,000. 

Published by- Aashay Bhujbal

Edited by- Kritika Kashyap