Russia Eyes Sanctions Workarounds in Energy, Gold, Crypto
WASHINGTON—The harsh sanctions imposed on Russia and the resulting crash of the ruble have the Kremlin scrambling to keep the country’s economy running. For Vladimir Putin, that means finding workarounds to the Western economic blockade even as his forces continue to invade Ukraine.Former Treasury Department officials and sanctions experts expect Russia to try to mitigate the impact of the financial penalties by relying on energy sales and leaning on the country’s reserves in gold and Chinese currency. Putin also is expected to move funds through smaller banks and accounts of elite families not covered by the sanctions, deal in cryptocurrency, and rely on Russia’s relationship with China.
Right now, “the biggest two avenues that Russia has are China and energy,” said John Smith, former director of Treasury’s financial intelligence and enforcement arm.
Apple Stops Product Sales in Russia
American big brands including Apple, Google, and Harley-Davidson on Tuesday cut sales and distanced themselves from Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, joining a growing list of companies from shippers to carmakers to energy companies shunning the country.Apple Inc. said it had stopped sales of iPhones and other products in Russia and Harley-Davidson Inc. suspended its business and shipments of its bikes.
The world’s biggest shipping lines, MSC and Maersk, on Tuesday suspended container shipping to and from Russia, deepening the country’s isolation.
The West has imposed heavy restrictions on Russia to close off its economy from the global financial system, pushing companies to halt sales, cut ties, and dump tens of billions of dollars worth of investments.
“We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence,” Apple said in a statement announcing a pause in sales in Russia and other measures including limiting Apple Pay and dropping the ability to download RT News outside of Russia.
“We have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens,” it added.
US and Allies Announce Release of 60 Million Barrels of Oil From Reserves
President Joe Biden on Tuesday authorized the Department of Energy (DOE) to release 30 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic petroleum reserves, representing half of a coordinated 60-million-barrel release from International Energy Agency (IEA) member states.The move comes as part of an effort to stabilize oil markets amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia. Russia provides 10 percent of the global supply of natural gas and oil and roughly 40 percent of the European Union’s.
The price of crude oil has been accelerating of late and on Tuesday reached more than $104 a barrel—the highest it’s been since 2014.
Russian Forces Escalate Attacks on Ukraine’s Civilian Areas
KYIV, Ukraine—Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-biggest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower in what the country’s president called a blatant campaign of terror.“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after the bloodshed on the square in Kharkiv.
Ukrainian authorities said five people were killed in the attack on the TV tower, which is a couple of miles from central Kyiv and a short walk from numerous apartment buildings. A TV control room and power substation were hit, and at least some Ukrainian channels briefly stopped broadcasting, officials said.
Zelenskyy’s office also reported a powerful missile attack on the site of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, near the tower. A spokesman for the memorial said a Jewish cemetery at the site, where Nazi occupiers killed more than 33,000 Jews over two days in 1941, was damaged, but the extent would not be clear until daylight.
At the same time, a 40-mile (64-kilometer) convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks and other vehicles advanced slowly on Kyiv, the capital city of nearly 3 million people, in what the West feared was a bid by Russian President Vladimir Putin to topple the government and install a Kremlin-friendly regime.
The invading forces also pressed their assault on other towns and cities, including the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.
Ukraine Wants Russia Kicked Off the Internet
Ukraine has effectively asked that Russia be kicked off the internet.In a letter sent Monday to the president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Ukraine’s deputy minister for digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, cited the “atrocious crimes” of Russia’s invasion, including its alleged breach of the Geneva Conventions in attacking civilian targets.
Federov asked that ICANN revoke, permanently or temporarily, the domains .ru and .su and shut down the root servers in Moscow and St. Petersburg that match domain names and numbers.
Russian Troop Morale ‘Is Flagging’ in Some Units
A senior U.S. Department of Defense official told reporters on a call that intelligence has “indications that morale is flagging in some” of the Russian forces’ units.“We have picked up independently on our own, indications that morale is flagging in some of these units. That they again did not expect the resistance that they were going to get, and that their own morale has suffered as a result,” the official told reporters Tuesday.
Not all of the Russian troops were fully trained and prepared to go into battle, the official continued to say.
Russian Radio Station Taken Off Air Over Ukraine Coverage
Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy was taken off air on Tuesday, its editor Alexei Venediktov said, in a blow to one of the few remaining liberal media that the Kremlin has tolerated until now.The move came shortly after the prosecutor general’s office demanded that access be restricted to Ekho Moskvy and the TV Rain online news channel because of their coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The demand was prompted by their websites’ “targeted and systematic posting of information calling for extremist activities, violence and deliberately false information about the actions of Russian forces as part of a special operation” in Ukraine, the prosecutor’s office said.
Russia Kills 5 in Attack on Kyiv TV Tower
Russian forces fired at the Kyiv TV tower and Ukraine’s main Holocaust memorial, among other civilian sites targeted Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.Ukraine’s State Service for Emergency Situations said the strikes on the TV tower killed five people and left five more wounded.
Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, posted a photo of clouds of smoke around the TV tower, which is a couple miles from central Kyiv and a short walk from numerous apartment buildings. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said an electrical substation powering the tower and a control room on the tower were damaged from the hit.
The head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Andriy Yermak, said on Facebook that a “powerful missile attack on the territory where the (Babi) Yar memorial complex is located” is underway.
Russia Warns: No US Military Bases in Ex-Soviet Countries
The United States and its European allies must not build any bases in the former Soviet Union or use those countries for military purposes, warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday.Lavrov, quoted by Russian state-run news agencies RIA and TASS, said the Kremlin found it unacceptable that some European nations are hosting U.S. nuclear weapons and again said Russia is taking measures to stop Ukraine from obtaining similar weapons. He did not provide evidence for the claim.
“It is high time to bring American nuclear weapons home, and to completely eliminate the infrastructure associated with them in Europe,” he said at a U.N. video conference on Tuesday.
As Lavrov started to speak, video footage showed more than 100 U.N. diplomats leaving their seats and walking out of the room.
Russia Bombards Ukraine’s No. 2 City
Russian forces bombarded the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and other civilian sites Tuesday.At the same time, a 40-mile (64-kilometer) convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks and other vehicles advanced on the capital, Kyiv, in what the West feared was a bid to topple Ukraine’s government and install a Kremlin-friendly regime. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces pressed their attack on other towns and cities across the country, including at or near the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the region’s Soviet-era administrative building was hit. Explosions tore through residential areas, and a maternity ward was moved to an underground shelter.
Kharkiv’s Freedom Square—Ukraine’s largest plaza, and the nucleus of public life for the city—was struck with what was believed to be a missile.
Ukraine Lifts Visa Requirement for Foreign Nationals Seeking to Join Its Fight Against Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has temporarily lifted a visa requirement for foreign nationals who wish to join Ukraine’s “International Defence Legion” to fight against Russia.Zelensky also announced Monday he will release prisoners with combat experience to defend Ukraine.
“Under martial law, participants in hostilities—Ukrainians with real combat experience—will be released from custody and will be able to compensate for their guilt in the hottest spots of war. All sanctions are lifted from some people who took part in the anti-terrorist operation. The key now is defense,” he said.
Russia’s Lavrov Says There Is a Danger of Ukraine Acquiring Nuclear Weapons
Russia’s foreign minister told a Geneva disarmament meeting on Tuesday that Kyiv has been seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, calling this a real danger that it needed to prevent.“Ukraine still has Soviet technologies and the means of delivery of such weapons,” Sergei Lavrov told the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament in a pre-recorded address. “We cannot fail to respond to this real danger.”
He delivered the speech to a thin crowd since many diplomats including France and Britain staged a walk-out to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
They stood in a circle outside the meeting for the duration of Lavrov’s speech, holding a Ukrainian flag. Lavrov was supposed to attend the session in person but the visit was canceled, with Russia accusing unidentified EU states of blocking his flight path.
At the same meeting, Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Russia of war crimes through its shelling of his country and called for a special meeting to address Russian aggression and weapons of mass destruction.
Earlier in the session, the president organized a minute of silence for the victims of fighting in Ukraine.
Russian Forces Shell Maternity Hospital Near Kyiv: Report
Russian forces on Feb. 28 shelled a private maternity hospital in Adonis, located in the village of Buzova in Kyiv province, according to the clinic’s CEO Vitaliy Girin.“Everyone was evacuated,” he said, reassuring that everyone made it out of the building safely.
“Everything is ok with me and my family! Share this, please, because there is a lot of fake information,” Girin added.
Russian Military Convoy North of Kyiv Stretches for 40 Miles: Maxar
Satellite images taken on Monday show a Russian military convoy north of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv that stretches for about 40 miles (64 kilometers), substantially longer than the 17 miles (27 kilometers) reported earlier in the day, a U.S. private company said.Maxar Technologies also said additional ground forces deployments and ground attack helicopter units were seen in southern Belarus, less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the Ukraine border.
Americans, Canadians Answer Ukraine Call for Foreign Fighters
A Texas software developer and a cook in British Columbia are among dozens of Americans and Canadians answering Ukraine’s call for foreign volunteers to fight Russia’s invasion.Others were applying at Ukrainian embassies and consulates before quitting jobs or dropping out of university.
Ukraine Lifts Visa Requirement for Foreign Nationals Seeking to Join Its Fight Against Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has temporarily lifted a visa requirement for foreign nationals who wish to join Ukraine’s “International Defense Legion” to fight against Russia.Zelensky signed a decree late Monday, which will take effect on Tuesday and remain in effect as long as martial law persists. Foreigners—with the exception of Russian citizens–won’t need a visa to enter Ukraine if they are joining the legion to fight Russian troops, according to the decree, The Kyiv Independent first reported.
Zelensky also announced Monday he will release prisoners with combat experience to defend Ukraine.
“Under martial law, participants in hostilities—Ukrainians with real combat experience—will be released from custody and will be able to compensate for their guilt in the hottest spots of war. All sanctions are lifted from some people who took part in the anti-terrorist operation. The key now is defense,” he said.
The Ukrainian government has also been providing some of its citizens with basic military training.
Biden Admin Downplays Fears of Nuclear War With Russia
President Joe Biden on Monday said that Americans should not fear the prospect of a nuclear war with Russia as White House officials indicated that the United States hasn’t changed the status of its nuclear forces.The comments come after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that he would ready his country’s strategic defense forces, which oversee some of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
While attending an event Monday, Biden was asked by a reporter if Americans should be worried about nuclear war. Biden simply responded with “No.”
Putin, a day earlier, said the move to increase the readiness of the nuclear forces was done after the United States, the European Union, and other nations imposed punishing sanctions and other penalties against Russia’s leadership.
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