No ceasefire as heavy fighting continues

Kyiv and Moscow failed to make any progress on ceasefire or evacuation corridors as their foreign ministers met in Turkey on Thursday as heavy fighting continues around the Ukrainian capital.

“We also talked on the ceasefire, a 24-hour ceasefire, but no progress was accomplished on that,” Ukranian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters after his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Antalya.

“It seems that there are other decision-makers for this matter in Russia,” Kuleba said, in apparent reference to the Kremlin. He also repeated his vow that the country will not give in, saying, “I want to repeat that Ukraine has not surrendered, does not surrender, and will not surrender.”

He described the meeting as “difficult”, accusing his counterpart of bringing “traditional narratives” about Ukraine to the table.

“We are ready for diplomacy, we seek diplomatic decisions but as long as there are none, we go with dedication, sacrificing ourselves, to defend our lands, our people, in the face of Russian aggression.”

Belarusian state news agency Belta has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow on Friday.

They will discuss topical issues of bilateral relations, the development of cooperation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, economic cooperation under sanctions pressure, as well as the situation in the region and Ukraine, according to Belta.

Belarus is an ally of Russia and is being used as a launch point for Russian troops into Ukraine.

Heavy fighting

The Kyiv regional administration said heavy fighting was going on in some areas beyond the capital. It highlighted fresh fighting in settlements around Brovary, which is across the Dnieper River, east from the capital.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Ukrainian television that around half of the city’s residents had left the capital, which has now “become a fortress, every street and every building”.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed to have defeated a regiment of Russian troops and eliminated its commander, Col A Zakharov, in Brovary, which is northeast of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said on Thursday, reports CNN.

Child killed in hospital attack

At least three people were killed, including a young girl, in an attack Wednesday on a children’s hospital in Mariupol, local officials said on Thursday.

The city council said 1,200 inhabitants have been killed in nine days of Russian siege.

The attack on the children’s hospital, described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “war crime”, has triggered international indignation.

At least 71 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a war on February 24, a Ukrainian parliament official said Thursday. More than 2.3 million refugees, including one million children, have fled Ukraine.

Ukraine likely to join EU ‘soon’

French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said that Ukraine, among other Eastern European countries, will “probably” join the European Union “in a few years.”

“It is my deep conviction that there will be a European Union which will be in a few years, I don’t know when, in a few years, probably extended to Ukraine, to Moldova, to Georgia, perhaps to other countries,” he told French broadcaster France Inter.

$14 bn for Ukraine

US lawmakers signed off on almost $14 billion in aid for Ukraine on Wednesday.

“The brave, freedom-loving people of Ukraine and our allies in the region will receive urgently needed investments to fight Vladimir Putin and the Russians’ illegal and immoral invasion,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved $1.4 billion in emergency financing for Ukraine to help meet urgent spending needs.

Russia’s economic isolation

Nestle, cigarette maker Philip Morris, Sony and Goldman Sachs joined the list of multinationals stepping back from Russia as the World Bank’s chief economist said Moscow was edging close to defaulting on its debt.

On Wednesday, Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, said a government commission had approved the first step towards nationalising assets of foreign firms that leave the country. The commission had supported a bill allowing for firms more than 25 per cent owned by foreigners from “unfriendly states” to be put into external administration.

A senior Biden administration official on Wednesday said the US was weighing sanctions on nuclear power supplier Rosatom. The UK sanctioned Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, Andrey Kostin, the chairman of VTB Bank, Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, Nikolai Tokarev, the president of Transneft, Dmitri Lebedev, the chairman of Bank Rossiya, industrial tycoon Oleg Deripaska, and billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC.

Russia has, meanwhile, set a list of imported goods and equipment prohibited from being transferred out of the country until the end of the year.

‘War crimes’

US Vice President Kamala Harris stopped short of calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine “war crimes”.

Speaking alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw Thursday, Harris said: “We are also very clear that any intentional attack on innocent civilians is a violation.”

She added: “The UN has set up a process by which there will be a review and investigations and we will of course participate as appropriate and necessary.”

Oil rises

Oil prices rose on Thursday following a sharp drop in the previous session.

Brent crude futures were up $3.10, or 2.8 per cent, at $114.24 a barrel at 0419 GMT after trading in a more than $5 range. The benchmark contract slumped 13 per cent in the previous session in its biggest one-day drop in nearly two years.

Meanwhile, the World Bank chief economist Carmen Reinhart has warned that soaring energy and food prices triggered by Russia’s invasion could exacerbate existing food security concerns in the Middle East and Africa, and may fuel growing social unrest.