(Bloomberg) —
An aide to U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russia as air strikes shift further west toward Ukraine’s border with Poland. A strike at a military range and training center about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Poland killed dozens. Fighting continued on the outskirts of Kyiv, where Russian forces may be attempting to encircle the capital. Air strikes continued on Mykolaiv on the Black Sea, killing several.
Russian forces abducted a second mayor in Ukraine’s southeast in what appears to be part of a plan to install new administrations. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians against collaborating.
Over 2.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country, with a majority crossing over to Poland, and that could climb to 4 million within days. Britain’s government will offer households money to host Ukrainian refugees and expects “tens of thousands” to come.
Key Developments
- Qatar’s Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow Over Iran, Ukraine
- Satellite Images of Russian Tanks Fail to Penetrate Fog of War
- Mariupol’s Steel Mills Are a War Zone as Staff Huddle in Bunkers
- Companies Leaving Russia Don’t Know If and When They’ll Return
- Major Ukrainian Food Exporter Flips to Feed a Nation at War
- How War in Ukraine Is Tearing Apart the Global Food System
All times CET:
Biden Aide Warns Russia on NATO Encroachment (2:12 p.m.)
Even inadvertent Russian fire onto NATO territory would trigger a response by the military alliance, said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Sullivan spoke as Russia in the past few days has bombed targets increasingly close to Ukraine’s border with NATO member Poland, including a military training facility that had been used by NATO in the past.
“All I will say is if Russia attacks, fires upon, takes a shot at NATO territory, the NATO alliance would respond to that,” Sullivan told CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked about how the alliance would view an “errant shot” on a member country.
Ukraine Continues Mass Evacuations (1:45 p.m.)
Ukraine opened ten humanitarian corridors on Sunday, some to evacuate people from dangerous locations around Kyiv and six in Ukraine’s east, including the a route into besieged Mariupol. Evacuation from Velyka Dymerka to Brovary in the Kyiv region was successfully completed, officials said.
Almost 125,000 people have been moved to safety via the humanitarian corridors so far, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in video statement. “Mariupol is key task today. Our humanitarian convoy is two hours from Mariupol, only 80 kilometers,” he said. A convoy with 100,000 tonnes of food, water and medications is on the way to Mariupol.
Russia Says Half of Foreign Reserves Frozen (1:09 p.m.)
Russia has lost access to almost half of its foreign exchange reserves, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. The U.S., European Union and U.K. have imposed sanctions on Russia’s central bank over the Ukraine invasion.
“The total volume of our reserves is about $640 billion and there are about $300 billion in such condition that we can’t use them now,” Siluanov told state television in an interview that aired Sunday. “We see what pressure Western countries put on China” to limit our access to reserves in yuan, he added.
Second Mayor in Ukraine’s Southeast Said to be Kidnapped (12:20 p.m.)
The mayor of the town of Dniprorudne in Zaporizhzhia region, Yevhen Maveyev, was kidnapped by Russian forces early on Sunday, according to a Facebook post by the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration, Oleksandr Starukh.
EU High Representative Josep Borrell condemned the two abductions in a Twitter post.
Czechs Ask EU for Help in Refugee Crisis 12:07 a.m.)
The Czech Republic asked the European Union for financial and material help as the country’s capacity for accepting Ukrainian refugees is at its limit, said Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
“We have here more than 200,000 refugees and more are to come,” Fiala said. The nation of 10.7 million people asked European authorities to provide mobile humanitarian centers that could accommodate tens of thousand of people. Refugee aid programs should allow the country to tap into EU money, Fiala said.
Russia Looks to Install Leaders After Abducting Melitopol Mayor (10:53 a.m.)
Russia is seeking to install a new leader and a “committee of chosen ones” in the southeastern city of Melitopol after abducting its mayor, Ivan Federov, on Friday.
Local lawmaker Halyna Danylchenko posted a video saying the committee would take charge. Other local officials, including the city’s current elected council, have refused to collaborate with Russian forces and residents have protested the occupation, chanting “Melitopol is Ukraine.”
Ukraine has said separately that Moscow plans a sham “referendum” in the occupied southern city of Kherson in a bid to show that residents want to break away from Ukraine. Western intelligence warned before the war that Moscow would try to install puppet administrations if it invaded.
Anti-War Protesters Detained Across Russia (10:40 a.m.)
About 100 people have been detained Sunday at anti-war protests in 17 cities around Russia, according monitoring group OVD-Info. The largest number was in Yekaterinburg, where 24 people were seized by police.
Jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny called on Russians to come out against the war in the main squares of dozens cities. The protests are considered illegal by Russian authorities, who’ve detained over 13,000 people nationwide since the attack began. Most of the arrests have taken place in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where demonstrations are planned later on Sunday.
Ukraine Warns Potential Collaborators (10:40 a.m.)
Ukraine’s government will criminally prosecute those who collaborate with Russian occupiers by participating with sham local authorities, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff.
“Any initiatives in the occupied cities in the south of Ukraine, in Kherson, Kakhovka, Henichesk, aimed at holding ‘referendums,’ fictitious sessions of local councils, distributing passports, are absolutely useless,” Mykailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.
Poland’s Duda Rules Out Nothing From Putin (10:30 a.m.)
Vladimir Putin is capable of using any kind of weapons in Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda said when asked if he fears the Russian president would use chemical weapons.
Duda told the BBC that heeding Ukraine’s pleas for NATO to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would lead to direct conflict with Russian forces and likely cause a third world war.
Poland’s government had initially offered to send fighter jets to Ukraine to help in their defense. Russia said that it would consider such a move a declaration of war, Duda said.
Poland Says Close to 1.7 Million Have Crossed Border (10:04 a.m.)
A total of 1.675 million people have crossed into Poland from Ukraine since Feb. 24, including 79,800 on Saturday and another 16,800 early Sunday, border authorities said. President Andrzej Duda said as many as 2.5 million may end up fleeing to Poland, where most refugees are being supported by volunteers.
Russian Missiles Strike Military Range Near Poland (9:16 a.m.)
Russia is targeting additional sites in far western Ukraine, close to the border of NATO member Poland, it what’s likely to become a new provocation for the U.S. and NATO allies.
Dozens of missiles hit the Yaroviv military training center in the Lviv region, regional officials said, killing at least 35 people and wounding 134, Lviv region governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram. The facility is within an hour’s drive of the Polish border. The U.S. has regularly sent military instructors there since 2015 and it’s also hosted NATO drills at times, the Associated Press reported.
The bombing follows strikes on other targets in western Ukraine a day earlier. Some 10 cruise missiles were directed at airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, to the north and south of Lviv, respectively, officials said.
NATO Chief Rejects ‘Absurd’ Russia Claims (9:00 a.m.)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the suffering in Ukraine is likely to get worse in the short term.
“The coming days are likely to bring even greater hardship,” the NATO chief said. He rejected “absurd claims” by Russia about chemical and biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, and warned Moscow against attacking Ukraine with weapons of mass destruction “under this web of lies.”
In Germany, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht is fleshing out plans to quickly raise the army’s combat readiness. Germany can no longer afford “overambitious dream projects,” she said in an opinion piece for Die Welt. The focus will now be “on proven, mature products that are available on the market.”
Gazprom Says Transit Via Ukraine Continues (8:59 a.m.)
Russian natural gas supplies to Europe are continuing as usual, Tass reported Sunday, citing Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov.
The gas export monopoly is shipping gas via Ukraine and paying transit fees to the country, even after the Russian invasion began over two weeks ago.
Air Serbia to Reduce Moscow Flights After Criticism (8:48 a.m.)
Serbia’s flagship carrier will scale back flights to Moscow following criticism it ramped up its schedule after other European airlines halted service.
The Balkan country hasn’t joined international sanctions on Russia, although it backed United Nations resolutions condemning the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Announcing the move on Sunday, President Aleksandar Vucic cited unspecified “harangues” against Serbia and allegations that Air Serbia was profiting by offering Russia travelers a rare loophole to fly into Western Europe via Belgrade.
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