প্রকাশ: 28/02/2022
President Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated East-West
tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday, while
Ukraine's embattled leader agreed to talks with Moscow as Putin's troops and
tanks drove deeper into the country, closing in around the capital.
Citing “aggressive statements” by NATO and tough financial
sanctions, Putin issued a directive to increase the readiness of Russia's
nuclear weapons, raising fears that the invasion of Ukraine could lead to
nuclear war, whether by design or mistake.
The Russian leader is “potentially putting in play forces
that, if there’s a miscalculation, could make things much, much more
dangerous,” said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of
anonymity to discuss rapidly unfolding military operations.
Putin's directive came as Russian forces encountered strong
resistance from Ukraine defenders. Despite Russian advances across the country,
U.S. officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and
slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts.
Amid the mounting tensions, Western nations said they would
tighten sanctions and buy and deliver weapons for Ukraine, including Stinger
missiles for shooting down helicopters and other aircraft.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, meanwhile,
announced plans for a meeting with a Russian delegation at an unspecified
location on the Belarusian border.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the meeting would take
place, nor what the Kremlin was ultimately seeking, either in those potential
talks on the border or, more broadly, from its war in Ukraine. Western
officials believe Putin wants to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it
with a regime of his own, reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.
The fast-moving developments came as scattered fighting was
reported in Kyiv. Battles also broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city,
Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country's south came under assault from
Russian forces.
By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a
Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy
Arestovich, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s office. Russian troops also made advances
toward Kherson, another city in the south of Ukraine, while Mariupol, a port
city on the Sea of Azov that is considered a prime Russian target, is “hanging
on," Arestovich said.
With Russian troops closing in around Kyiv, a city of almost
3 million, the mayor of the capital expressed doubt that civilians could be
evacuated. Authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to
defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience
who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs.
In Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off
attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a
6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian
shelling.
During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs,
pumping oxygen into the girl, looked directly into the Associated Press video
camera capturing the scene.
“Show this to Putin," he said angrily. “The eyes of
this child, and crying doctors."
Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on
a gurney, her jacket spattered with blood.
Nearly 900 kilometers (560 miles) away, Faina Bystritska was
under threat in the city of Chernihiv.
“I wish I had never lived to see this,” said Bystritska, an
87-year-old Jewish survivor of World War II. She said sirens blare almost
constantly in the city, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Kyiv.
Chernihiv residents have been told not to switch on any
lights “so we don’t draw their attention,” said Bystritska, who has been living
in a hallway, away from any windows, so she could better protect herself.
“The window glass constantly shakes, and there is this
constant thundering noise,” she said.
Meanwhile, the top official in the European Union outlined
plans by the 27-nation bloc to close its airspace to Russian airlines and buy
weapons for Ukraine. The EU will also ban some pro-Kremlin media outlets, said
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The U.S. also stepped up the flow of weapons to Ukraine,
announcing it will send Stinger missiles as part of a package approved by the
White House on Friday. Germany likewise plans to send 500 Stingers and other
military supplies.
Also, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly scheduled an
emergency session Monday on Russia's invasion.
Putin, in ordering the nuclear alert, cited not only
statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by
the West against Russia, including Putin himself.
“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions
against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO
members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said in
televised comments.
U.S. defense officials would not disclose their current
nuclear alert level except to say that the military is prepared all times to
defend its homeland and allies.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC that Putin is
resorting to the pattern he used in the weeks before the invasion, “which is to
manufacture threats that don’t exist in order to justify further aggression.”
The practical meaning of Putin’s order was not immediately
clear. Russia and the United States typically have land- and submarine-based
nuclear forces that are on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but
nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not.
If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat
readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile
submarines to sea, then the U.S. might feel compelled to respond in kind, said
Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.
Earlier Sunday, Kyiv was eerily quiet after explosions lit
up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one airport. A main
boulevard was practically deserted as a strict curfew kept people off the
streets. Authorities warned that anyone venturing out without a pass would be
considered a Russian saboteur.
Terrified residents hunkered down in homes, underground garages
and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault. Food and
medicine were running low, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
“Right now, the most important question is to defend our
country,” Klitschko said.
In downtown Kharkiv, 86-year-old Olena Dudnik said she and
her husband were nearly thrown from their bed by the pressure blast of a nearby
explosion.
“Every day there are street fights, even downtown,” with
Ukrainian fighters trying to stop Russian tanks, armored vehicles and missile
launchers, Dudnik said by phone. She said the lines at drugstores were hours
long.
“We are suffering immensely,” she said. “We don’t have much
food in the pantry, and I worry the stores aren’t going to have anything
either, if they reopen." She added: “I just want the shooting to stop,
people to stop being killed."
Pentagon officials said that Russian troops are being slowed
by Ukrainian resistance, fuel shortages and other logistical problems, and that
Ukraine's air defense systems, while weakened, are still operating.
But a senior U.S. defense official said that will probably
change: “We are in day four. The Russians will learn and adapt.”
The number of casualties from Europe's largest land conflict
since World War II remained unclear amid the confusion.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that 352 Ukrainian
civilians have been killed, including 14 children. It said an additional 1,684
people, including 116 children, have been wounded.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor
Konashenkov gave no figures on Russia's dead and wounded but said Sunday his
country's losses were “many times” lower than Ukraine's.
About 368,000 Ukrainians have arrived in neighboring
countries since the invasion started Thursday, according to the U.N. refugee
agency.
Along with military assistance, the U.S., European Union and
Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system,
which moves money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions
worldwide. They also moved to slap restrictions on Russia’s central bank.
Russia's economy has taken a pounding since the invasion,
with the ruble plunging and the central bank calling for calm to avoid bank
runs.
Russia, which massed almost 200,000 troops along Ukraine's
borders, claims its assault is aimed only at military targets, but bridges,
schools and residential neighborhoods have also been hit.
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