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- Russia’s Financial Markets Are Hammered by Sanctions
- Russia’s ruble plummets as sanctions hit
Updates, The New York Times
KYIV
EnergiesNet.com 02 28 2022
Ukrainians hold talks with Russia, with little optimism that fighting will end.
Marc Santora – Monday , 11:27 GMT
LVIV, Ukraine — With a three-mile-long convoy of Russian military vehicles pressing down on Kyiv, a Ukrainian delegation met counterparts from Russia on Monday in Belarus, even as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine expressed little hope that talks would bring an end to fighting that has killed more than 350 civilians since the Russian invasion began.
Mr. Zelensky, who was not attending the meeting, said that Ukraine would push for “an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of troops,” according to a statement from his office, which came as the Ukrainian army and citizen volunteers fought to repel Russian advances on multiple cities for a fifth day. In other developments:
- The value of the ruble plunged by more than 25 percent against the dollar on Monday after the United States, Europe and other nations took steps to exclude some Russian banks from international transactions by removing them from the SWIFT financial messaging system.
- President Vladimir V. Putin told military leaders to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert in response to the “illegitimate sanctions” imposed by the United States and the European Union, which announced a total closure of the E.U. airspace to Russian aircraft.
- Russian forces carried out missile strikes across Ukraine overnight, according to Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the president’s office. His office reported strikes in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv. There were no further details immediately available in terms of casualties.
Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow met at the Belarus border, but President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed little hope that talks would end the fighting. Russia showed no sign of de-escalating even as its economy staggered under sanctions and the ruble plummeted.
The ruble crashes, the stock market closes and Russia’s economy staggers under sanctions.
By Anton Troianovski
MOSCOW — The ruble cratered, the stock market froze and the public rushed to withdraw cash on Monday as Western sanctions kicked in and Russia awoke to uncertainty and fear over the rapidly spreading repercussions of President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
As the day began, Russia’s currency lost as much as a quarter of its value within hours. Scrambling to stem the decline, the Russian Central Bank more than doubled its key interest rate, banned foreigners from selling Russian securities and ordered exporters to convert into rubles most of their foreign-currency revenues. It closed the Moscow stock exchange for the day because of the “developing situation.”
“The economic reality has, of course, changed,” the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters, announcing that Mr. Putin had called an emergency meeting with his top finance officials.
Even as Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for talks at the Belarus border, Moscow’s military offensive showed no sign of letting up, and the hectic moves offered the first signs that the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West over the weekend were shaking the foundations of Russia’s economy. The decisions by the United States, Britain and the European Union restricting the Russian Central Bank’s access to much of its $643 billion in foreign currency reserves have undone much of the Kremlin’s careful efforts to soften the impact of potential sanctions.
And with dozens of countries closing their airspace to Russian planes, major foreign investors pulling out and the West placing debilitating restrictions on Russia’s biggest banks, it was becoming clear that Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was ushering in a period of international isolation for Russia unseen since the Cold War.
“So, has Russia become Venezuela or is it still Iran?” the morning-show host on the liberal-leaning Echo of Moscow radio station asked an economist on Monday.
“We’ll go through the Iran phase,” Yevgeny S. Gontmakher of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics responded, referring to sanctions placed on Iran because of its plans for uranium enrichment, “but what happens after that is hard to say.”
Elvira Nabiullina, the widely respected governor of the Russian Central Bank, was expected to speak to the public at 4 p.m. Moscow time.
On Sunday, Mr. Putin called the West’s sanctions “illegitimate” in a televised meeting with his defense minister and top military commander. Mr. Putin then told them to place Russia’s nuclear arsenal on high alert; some analysts fear that Russia’s economic instability could lead Mr. Putin to escalate his conflict with the West using new military threats or other means, such as cyberattacks.
But there was also extreme uncertainty inside Russia as the value of people’s savings evaporated and the interconnections with the Western world that Russians had come to take for granted in the last three decades rapidly broke away. It was not immediately clear whether most Russians would blame Mr. Putin for the crisis — or whether they would take cues from Kremlin propaganda and blame the West.
“Times change, much has happened, but one thing has not changed,” a reporter on the state-run news channel Rossiya 24 said on Sunday. “When a united Europe tried to destroy Russia, this always ended up bringing about the opposite result.”
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.
Valerie Hopkins
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have begun in Belarus.
The Ukrainian delegation arrived for talks with their Russian counterparts in the Gomel region of Belarus according to a picture released by the Belarusian state owned new agency, Belta.
Ukranian delegation (Sergei Kholodilin/Belta)
Nick Cumming-Bruce
Reporting from Geneva
Heavy artillery, multi-launch rocket systems and airstrikes are responsible for most of the civilian casualties in fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine, the United Nations’ top human rights official said. Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said that by Sunday night her office had recorded 102 civilian deaths, including seven children, and more than 300 people injured. “The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher,” Ms. Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Anton Troianovski
Reporting from Moscow
The Russian Central Bank has ordered the Moscow stock exchange to remain closed all day, citing “the developing situation.”
Valerie Hopkins
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
As delegations from Ukraine and Russia met for talks, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for the European Union to grant his country immediate membership. “Our goal is to be together with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be on an equal footing,” he said in a video address. “I’m sure it’s fair. I’m sure it’s possible.”
Nick Cumming-Bruce
Reporting from Geneva
The U.N. Human Rights Council has brushed aside Russian objections and accepted a request from Ukraine for an urgent debate on Russia’s invasion, where Ukraine is expected to call for a team of human rights experts to monitor and report on abuses and war crimes. The council’s 47 members voted 29 to 5 in favor of holding the session, with 13 abstentions. China joined Russia in voting against the session along with Cuba, Venezuela and Eritrea.
“
Liz Alderman
Reporting from Paris
The European subsidiary of one of Russia’s biggest banks was on the verge of collapse Monday as punishing Western sanctions took a toll. Sberbank Europe AG, domiciled in Austria, and its subsidiaries in Croatia and Slovenia “experienced significant outflows of deposits due to the impact of geopolitical tensions on their reputation,” and were “failing or likely to fail,” the European Central Bank said. The bank, which held €13.6 billion in assets at the end of last year, was likely to go bankrupt imminently, the central bank added.
Yu Young JinR
Reporting from Seoul
On Monday morning, a man in his 50s tried to break into the Consulate General of Russia in Busan, South Korea, according to a spokesman for the Busan police department, who added that the man’s actions were motivated by his opposition to the war. According to the Busan Metropolitan Government, more than 1,000 Russians live in the city.
Megan Specia
Reporting from London
In new sanctions announced on Monday, the British government banned its country’s financial institutions from conducting transactions with the Russian central bank as well as with its foreign ministry and sovereign wealth fund. In a tweet, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the measures were intended to further isolate Russia from the international financial system, adding, “Putin must fail.”
Valerie Hopkins
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
The Ukrainian delegation has arrived at the Ukraine-Belarus border for negotiations with Russia. The delegation from Kyiv includes the Minister of Defense, the head of Mr. Zelensky’s party faction in Parliament, and the deputy foreign minister of Ukraine. “The key issue of the talks is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine,” the president’s office said in a news release.
Russia’s delegation is being led by Vladimir R. Medinsky, a former culture minister and an adviser to President Vladimir V. Putin.
Marc Santora
Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine
The British military said that the bulk of the Russian forces attacking Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, were some 18 miles north of the city and were being slowed by the Ukrainian army’s fierce defense of the Hostomel airfield, a key Russian objective. In an early-morning statement released on Twitter, the British Defense Intelligence agency reported that fierce fighting continued around the cities of Chernihiv and Kharkiv, but both remained under Ukrainian controlth=550px
The Ukrainian armed forces said that as of 6 a.m. Monday they had succeeded slowing the pace of the Russian offensive. They accused the Russian forces of continuing to target civilian airfields and other critical infrastructure in violation of international humanitarian law. “At the same time, all attempts by the Russian invaders to achieve the goal of the military operation failed,” the military said in a statement
Ukrainians arrive for talks with Russia, with little optimism that fighting will end.
LVIV, Ukraine — With a three-mile-long convoy of Russian military vehicles pressing down on Kyiv, a Ukrainian delegation arrived at the border with Belarus on Monday for talks with Russia even as President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed little hope that the meeting would bring an end to the conflict, which has killed more than 350 civilians since the invasion began.
Mr. Zelensky, who was not attending the meeting, said that Ukraine would push for “an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of troops,” according to a statement from his office, which came as the Ukrainian army and citizen volunteers fought to repel Russian advances on multiple cities for a fifth day.
The Ukrainian forces, now getting the kind of military assistance from abroad that its leader has been pleading for since before the invasion, have managed to defend Kyiv and other major cities despite being outgunned and outnumbered. But even as it offered talks, Russia has shown little interest in de-escalating, and military experts have also cautioned that thousands of better-trained Russian soldiers have not entered the fight. In other developments:
- President Vladimir V. Putin told military leaders to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert in response to the “illegitimate sanctions” imposed by the United States and the European Union, which announced a total closure of E.U. airspace to Russian aircrafts.
- The value of the ruble plunged by more than 30 percent against the dollar on Monday after the United States, Europe and other nations took steps to exclude some Russian banks from international transactions by removing them from the SWIFT financial messaging system.
- Russian forces carried out missile strikes across Ukraine overnight, according to Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the president’s office. His office reported strikes in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv. There were no further details immediately available in terms of casualties.
nytimes.com 02 28 2022
