Highlights:
The number of
Ukrainian refugees was expected to reach 1.5 million on Sunday as Russia
continued its attack 11 days after invading Ukraine and Kyiv pressed for
further Western action, including more sanctions and weapons.
Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over a failed ceasefire plan
that would have let civilians flee Mariupol and Volnovakha, two southern cities
besieged by Russian forces. Another round of talks was tentatively planned for
Monday as Ukrainians who could escape spilled into neighboring Poland, Romania,
Slovakia and elsewhere.
In a televised address on Saturday night, Ukraine's
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on people in areas occupied by Russian
troops to go on the offensive and fight.
"We must go outside and drive this evil out of our
cities," he said, vowing to rebuild his nation. "My confidence in
this is reinforced by the energy of our resistance, our protest."
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier reiterated that he
wanted a neutral Ukraine that had been "demilitarised" and
"denazified," and likened Western sanctions "to a declaration of
war," adding: "Thank God it has not come to that."
Ukraine and Western countries have decried Putin's reasons
as a baseless pretext for the invasion he launched on February 24 and have
imposed sweeping sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow and crippling its economy.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, after meeting with
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ukraine-Poland border, said he expected
new sanctions and weapons for Ukraine in coming days.
The United States has said it would give Ukraine more
weapons and has repeatedly warned it could escalate sanctions, with President
Joe Biden seeking $10 billion in emergency funding to respond to the crisis.
Washington is working with Poland as Warsaw considers
whether to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, a White House spokesperson said
late on Saturday, adding that the United States could replenish Poland's supply
of jets if they did, although challenges remain given the contested airspace.
Zelenskiy had asked for help securing aircraft from European
allies in a video call with US lawmakers earlier on Saturday. He also called
again for more lethal aid, a ban on Russian oil, a no-fly zone and an end to
Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc privileges in Russia, US media reported.
Biden spoke with Zelenskiy for about 30 minutes on Saturday
evening in Washington as Sunday broke in Ukraine, the White House said. They
discussed security, financial support for Ukraine and the continuation of
sanctions against Russia, Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter.
NATO, which Ukraine wants to join, has resisted Zelenskiy's
appeals to impose a no-fly zone over his country, saying it would escalate the
conflict outside Ukraine.
Seeking to mediate, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
met with Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday and later spoke to Zelenskiy,
Bennett's spokesperson said.
"We continue dialogue," Zelenskiy tweeted after
the call.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a six-point plan
to respond to Russia's invasion ahead of meetings with leaders from Canada, the
Netherlands and Central Europe in London next week.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is expected to talk with
Putin on Sunday. Turkey, a NATO member, shares a maritime border with Ukraine
and Russia in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian negotiators said a third round of talks with
Russia on a ceasefire would go ahead on Monday, although Moscow was less
definitive.
FIERCE FIGHTING
Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces were carrying out
a wide-ranging offensive in Ukraine and had taken several towns and villages,
Russian news agency Interfax said.
Ukraine's military said armed forces "are fighting
fiercely to liberate Ukrainian cities from Russian occupiers,"
counter-attacking in some areas and disrupting communications.
The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said the
military shot down two Russian planes and five helicopters on Saturday and also
carried out air strikes against 15 motorized brigades. Reuters had no way to
corroborate the claim.
In Kherson, southern Ukraine, the only regional capital to
have changed hands since the invasion, several thousand people demonstrated on
its main square on Saturday, chanting "Kherson is Ukraine" and
demanding Russian forces withdraw.
Eyewitnesses cited by Interfax said Russian troops fired
automatic rifles into the air in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the crowd
and later left.
Concerns over nuclear dangers remained after Russia seized
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, with a top US official saying on
Friday that Russian troops were 20 miles (32 km) from Ukraine's second largest
nuclear facility.
Russia was warning the EU and NATO again to stop the
"pumping of state-of-the-art weapons systems" into Kyiv, foreign
ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, according to RIA.
Putin, in one of several decrees signed on Saturday, also
gave his government two days to draw up a list of nations engaged in
"unfriendly acts" towards Russia, its news agencies reported.
VISA, MASTERCARD EXIT
The International Monetary Fund warned the conflict would
have a "severe impact" on the global economy, driving up energy and
grain prices. It said it would weigh Kyiv's request for $1.4 billion in
emergency financing as early as next week.
Many Russians, reeling from a 30% fall in the rouble's
value, money transfer curbs and the exit of a growing number of Western
companies, have expressed fear for their economic future.
Both Visa and Mastercard on Saturday said their credit card
operations would be suspended in Russia.
Elon Musk promised to deliver more Starlink satellite
internet terminals to Ukraine next week, Zelenskiy said on Saturday, adding he
had spoken to the SpaceX chief executive. That could help shore up Ukraine's
internet access but also poses potential security risks, experts say.
'HELP US IF YOU CAN'
Heavy shelling was heard in the background as residents of
Volnovakha tried to flee the fighting.
"Help us if you can, we all want to live, we have kids,
husbands, we are mothers and fathers, we are also people," said one local,
Larisa. "Where shall I go? What's on me and a bag of things is all I got.
That's all I have."
Blinken, following a meeting in Brussels of counterparts
from NATO, the G7 and the European Union, met refugees staying in a disused
shopping mall in Poland, which has taken in the vast majority of the Ukrainians
forced to flee their country.
Ksenia Tymofeeva, 41, worked in a bank in Kyiv until she
fled two days ago, leaving behind her husband, also a bank worker, who stayed
to fight the Russian invaders.
"He doesn't have any military experience, but it's our
homeland," she said at the site near the Poland-Ukraine border.
More refugees crossed into Moldova, Blinken's next stop.
The World Health Organization said 249 civilians had been
killed so far and 553 injured as of March 3. It put the number of refugees at
1.2 million and said another 160,000 people had been internally displaced.
"The human cost is likely much higher as access and
security challenges make it difficult to verify the actual number of deaths and
injuries," it said in a statement.
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.
The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
It was co-signed by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, who gave unspecified "support" to the new round of strikes, the second this month and fourth since the rebels began their attacks on ships in the region.
"The Huthis' now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response," the statement said.
Huthi-run Al-Masirah television reported "a series of raids on the capital Sanaa," while AFP correspondents in the rebel-controlled city in western Yemen said they heard several loud bangs.
"The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways," Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement after the strikes.
"We will continue to make clear to the Huthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage, and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries."
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree was defiant, vowing in a social media statement that the rebels would "confront the American-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arab Seas."
The UK Ministry of Defence said four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s targeted "several very long-range drones, used by the Houthis for both reconnaissance and attack missions," on Saturday, at a site north-east of Sanaa.
Saturday's operation comes after several merchant vessels were struck this week in the region, including the fertilizer-filled Rubymar, whose crew had to abandon ship after it was hit Sunday and began taking on water.
Apart from the joint operations with Britain, the United States has also carried out unilateral strikes against Huthi positions and weaponry in Yemen, and downed dozens of missiles and drones in the Red Sea.
- Anti-ship missile downed -
Earlier on Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that an American Navy ship had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile "launched into the Gulf of Aden from Iranian-backed Huthi controlled areas of Yemen."
The missile "was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a US-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker," CENTCOM said on X, formerly Twitter.
US forces on Friday also shot down three attack drones near commercial ships in the Red Sea and destroyed seven anti-ship cruise missiles on land, CENTCOM said.
The Huthis say they are targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.
Following previous US and UK strikes, the Huthis declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
The Huthis will "persist in upholding their religious, moral and humanitarian duties towards the Palestinian people, and their military operations will not stop unless the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," military spokesman Saree said.
Anger over Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza -- which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 -- has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Comment
Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.
Global powers trying to navigate a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far come up short, but a US envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday to try to secure a truce deal.
International concern has spiralled over the high civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel.
More than four months of relentless fighting and air strikes have flattened much of the Hamas-run coastal territory, pushing its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the UN.
International concern has in recent weeks centred on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people forced to flee their homes elsewhere in the territory are now living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents.
The last city untouched by Israeli ground troops, Rafah also serves as the main entry point via neighbouring Egypt for desperately needed relief supplies.
Israel has warned it will expand its ground operations into Rafah if Hamas does not free the remaining hostages held in Gaza by next month's start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.
- 'My daughter' -
The war started when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages -- 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,313 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.
War cabinet member Benny Gantz said Israel's operation in Rafah would begin "after the evacuation of the population", although his government has not offered any details on where civilians would be evacuated to.
In the early hours of Thursday, AFP reporters heard multiple air strikes on Rafah, particularly in the Al-Shaboura neighbourhood.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said early Thursday that 99 people had been killed around Gaza during the night, most of them women, children and elderly people.
Abdel Rahman Mohamed Jumaa said he lost his family in recent strikes on Rafah.
"I found my wife lying in the street," he told AFP. "Then I saw a man carrying a girl and I ran towards him and.... picked her up, realising she was really my daughter."
He was holding a small shrouded corpse in his arms.
- 'Possibility of progress' -
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was expected to arrive in Israel Thursday -- his second stop in the region after Egypt as part of US efforts to advance a hostage deal and broker a truce.
Hamas's chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo for talks as well, according to the group.
Israel's Gantz said there were efforts to "promote a new plan for the return of the hostages".
"We are seeing the first signs that indicate the possibility of progress in this direction."
Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesman, said Washington was hoping for an "agreement that secures a temporary ceasefire where we can get the hostages out and get humanitarian assistance", but declined to give details on ongoing negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the army will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the remaining hostages.
Israel's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed a proposal by Netanyahu to oppose any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The vote came days after the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden's administration and a small group of Arab nations were working out a comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
It included a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the report said.
Separately, a report by an Israeli group that fights sexual violence said Hamas's October 7 attack also involved systematic sexual assaults on civilians, based on witness testimonies, public and classified information, and interviews.
The report came the same week UN rights experts called for an independent probe into alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinian women and girls -- which Israel rejected as "despicable and unfounded claims".
Israeli officials have repeatedly alleged the militants committed violent sexual assaults during the attack -- something Hamas has denied.
- 'Waiting for death' -
Combat and chaos have stalled sporadic aid deliveries for civilians in Gaza, while in Khan Yunis -- a city just north of Rafah -- medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said an Israeli tank had fired on a house sheltering their employees and families.
Two relatives of MSF staff were killed and six others injured, it said, condemning the strike in the "strongest possible terms".
When contacted by AFP about the incident, the Israeli army said its forces had "fired at a building that was identified as a building where terror activity is occurring", adding that it "regrets" harm to civilians.
In the same town, the Palestinian Red Crescent said another hospital was also hit by "artillery shelling".
Israel has repeatedly said Hamas militants use civilian infrastructure including hospitals as operational bases -- claims that Hamas has denied.
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies.
"We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
The meeting was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, the conference venue, here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud briefed newsmen about the outcome of the meeting upon its completion.
The Foreign Minister said the Bangladesh Premier and Jaishankar attached importance to doing business between the two friendly countries through their own currencies to reduce dependency on other currencies like the US dollar.
He said Bangladesh and India have excellent bilateral relations and it has elevated to another height under the leadership of the prime ministers of the two countries.
"The relations between the countries are getting stronger day by day," he said, adding that the two leaders discussed the issues during the meeting.
Quoting Jaishankar, Hasan said, "Our relations will further be closer in the days ahead."
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.
The meeting between the two leaders was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Hasan also said that they also discussed how the attacks on innocent men and women in Gaza can be stopped.
The Premier reminded all that war can't bring wellbeing for any one.
"Others can be benefitted from the war. But the war cannot bring welfare for the countries involved in war and their people have to be affected by the war," said Sheikh Hasina.
In this connection, the Prime Minister recollected her memories about the sufferings of the countrymen and she herself faced during the Great War of Liberation in 1971.
She recalled her inhuman sufferings and the birth of her only son Sajeeb Wazed Joy under the captivity of the Pakistani occupation forces during the War.
"Bangladesh's foreign policy - 'Friendship to all, malice to none’ - prominently came up in the discussion between Prime Minister and Zelenskyy," the foreign minister said.
Replying to a query, Hasan said the friendly relations between Bangladesh and Russia which got foundation during the Liberation war , will not hamper at all.
"Our relationship with Russia is very wonderful. Russia stood beside us during the Liberation War and played a pivotal role in rebuilding Bangladesh after the war," he said.
He said they only discussed how to stop the war.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels. The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies. "We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here. "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.