প্রকাশ: 03/03/2022
Russian troops are
in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and forced their way into the council
building, the mayor said after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow
had made the first major gain of a city in its eight-day-long invasion.
The incursion has yet to overthrow the government in Kyiv
but thousands are reported to have died or been injured and more than 870,000
have fled Ukraine.
The biggest attack on a European state since 1945 has also
caused ructions in a global economy still recovering from the Covid pandemic,
led to a barrage of sanctions against Russia and stoked fears of wider conflict
in the West.
For Russians, the fallout has included queues outside banks,
a plunge in the value of the rouble, and an exodus of firms while Ukrainians
are counting the cost of bombings despite fresh global support, including at
the United Nations.
The Black Sea port of Kherson, a southern provincial capital
of around 250,000 people, is strategically placed where the Dnipro River flows
into the Black Sea and would be the first significant city to fall into
Moscow's hands.
Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday morning it had
captured Kherson but several hours later an adviser to President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy responded the Ukrainian side was continuing to defend the location.
Late on Wednesday, Mayor Igor Kolykhayev said Russian troops
were in the streets.
"There were armed visitors in the city executive
committee today," he said in a statement. "I didn't make any promises
to them...I just asked them not to shoot people."
He called on civilians to walk through the streets only in
daylight and in ones and twos.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special
operation" that is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its
neighbour's military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous
nationalists. It denies targeting civilians.
In other incidents, bombing in Kharkiv, a city of 1.5
million people, has left its centre a wasteland of ruined buildings and debris.
Russians have shelled the city of Izyum, some 120 km south
east of Kharkiv, killing six adults and two children, Ukraine's parliament
said.
An explosion also rocked the Kyiv railway station during the
night, where thousands of women and children were being evacuated.
An interior ministry adviser said the blast was caused by
wreckage from a downed Russian cruise missile, not a direct rocket strike.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Iinternational Response
A UN resolution reprimanding Moscow for its invasion
was supported by 141 of the assembly's 193 members, a symbolic victory for
Ukraine that increases Moscow's international isolation.
"More is at stake even than the conflict in Ukraine
itself. This is a threat to the security of Europe and the entire rules-based
order," said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
An investigation into possible war crimes will immediately
be opened by the International Criminal Court, following requests by 39 of the
court's member states, an unprecedented number.
No one at Russia's foreign ministry was available for
comment when contacted out-of-hours.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis have so far failed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow still
sought Ukraine's "demilitarisation" and that there should be a list
of specified weapons that could never be deployed on Ukrainian territory.
Moscow opposes Kyiv's bid to join NATO.
A Ukrainian delegation had left for a second round of talks
with Russian officials on a ceasefire after a first round made little progress
on Monday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.
Company Exodus
The UN Human Rights Office said it had confirmed the deaths
of 227 civilians and 525 injuries during the conflict as of midnight on 1
March, mostly caused by "the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact
area".
It cautioned that the real toll would be much higher due to
reporting delays.
Russia's defence ministry said 498 Russian soldiers had died
and another 1,597 had been wounded since the start of the invasion, the first
time Moscow put a figure on its casualties.
It said more than 2,870 Ukrainian soldiers and
"nationalists" had been killed, Interfax news agency reported.
Ukraine said more than 7,000 Russian soldiers had been
killed so far and hundreds taken prisoner.
The figures could not be independently verified.
Russia's main advance on the capital - a huge armoured
column, stretching for miles along the road to Kyiv - has been largely frozen
in place for days, Western governments say.
The Kremlin's decision to launch war - after months of
denying such plans - has shocked Russians accustomed to viewing Putin, their
ruler of 22 years, as a methodical strategist.
It has also prompted global firms such as Apple, Exxon and
Boeing to join an exodus from Russian markets.
SWIFT, the dominant messaging system underpinning global
financial transactions, said seven Russian institutions would be excluded from
12 March.
Russia's rouble currency plunged to a new record low on
Wednesday, a slide that will hit Russians' living standards, and the stock
market remained closed.
The central bank, itself under sanctions, has doubled
interest rates to 20% and Fitch downgraded Russia's sovereign credit rating to
'junk' status.
Forbes reported Germany had seized Russian billionaire
Alisher Usmanov's mega yacht in a Hamburg shipyard, while at least five
superyachts owned by billionaires were anchored or cruising in Maldives, an
Indian Ocean island nation that does not have an extradition treaty with the
US, data showed.
Russian businessman Roman Abramovich said he would sell London's Chelsea Football Club and donate money to help victims of the war in Ukraine.
প্রধান সম্পাদকঃ সৈয়দ বোরহান কবীর
ক্রিয়েটিভ মিডিয়া লিমিটেডের অঙ্গ প্রতিষ্ঠান
বার্তা এবং বাণিজ্যিক কার্যালয়ঃ ২/৩ , ব্লক - ডি , লালমাটিয়া , ঢাকা -১২০৭
নিবন্ধিত ঠিকানাঃ বাড়ি# ৪৩ (লেভেল-৫) , রোড#১৬ নতুন (পুরাতন ২৭) , ধানমন্ডি , ঢাকা- ১২০৯
ফোনঃ +৮৮-০২৯১২৩৬৭৭