Russia-Ukraine live updates: Putin likens sanctions to a ‘declaration of war,’ warns they jeopardize Ukraine’s statehood

Computer chip manufacturers, shipping companies and a host of exporters are halting deliveries to Russia to comply with sanctions. Western nations are closing their skies and ports to Russian planes and vessels. European retailers are shuttering shops in Russia, and in one of the biggest blows yet, Microsoft said Friday it is suspending all new sales in the country.

Russia’s economic integration with the outside world was never smooth and easy. Corruption and lawlessness often throttled industrial development, leaving the country too dependent on exporting its natural resources. The rigged privatization of oil and metals companies in the 1990s left an oligarchic class in charge of the economy.

Still, in the decades since the Soviet collapse, Russia’s economy struggled forward, slowly and imperfectly, forging important trade and investment ties with the outside world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that world leaders who continue to enforce wide-ranging, extensive sanctions on Russia are risking “the future of Ukrainian statehood.”

At a meeting in Moscow, Putin claimed that the sanctions leveled by the United States and the international community in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amount to “a means of fighting against Russia.”

“These sanctions that are being imposed are like the declaration of war,” he said.

He then suggested that pushback from Ukrainian and world leaders could result in an uncertain future for Ukraine.

“The current leadership needs to understand that if they continue doing what they are doing, they risk the future of Ukrainian statehood,” he said. “If that happens, they will have to be blamed for that.”

He made the comments, his first extended remarks about the war since the invasion began, hours after evacuation efforts in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol were stopped. Ukrainian officials said that despite a limited cease-fire to evacuate civilians, Russians continued to shell the city.

Putin responded to the developments in Mariupol, claiming that the Ukrainian government was using its people as “a human shield” during the invasion.

To ensure the safety of its staff, The Washington Post is withholding the name of one of the contributors to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be considered “participation in the armed conflict.”

Putin said Russia would see “any movement in this direction” as an intervention in its military operations in Ukraine that would “pose a threat to our service members.”

“We’ll instantly view them as participants in a military conflict,” the Russian president said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on NATO to impose a no-fly zone after Russian forces seized a nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said Ukrainian officials informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog that a projectile hit a training building in the vicinity of one of the plant’s reactor units. That caused a localized fire that sparked alarm but triggered no release of radioactive material, the agency said.

The United States, Britain and others have so far ruled out supporting any no-fly zone, stating that it would be likely to severely escalate the conflict.

On Saturday, Putin also referred to a move by the city council in the battered Ukrainian port of Mariupol to suspend the evacuation of residents. Ukrainian officials accuse Russian forces of shelling the city and its environs despite a temporary cease-fire. The suspension came hours after Ukraine and Russia had agreed to a limited cease-fire to evacuate civilians in Ukrainian cities that are running out of supplies.

But Putin blamed Ukraine for the actions in Mariupol, claiming that Ukrainian officials “treat even worse the people they themselves consider their own citizens.”

“They just really, directly cover themselves using the people as a human shield,” Putin said. “This situation is now unfolding in Mariupol.”

To ensure the safety of its staff, The Washington Post is withholding the name of one of the contributors to this report.

BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised Poland on Saturday for welcoming hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and for playing a key role in NATO’s effort to strengthen its defenses in Eastern Europe.

Speaking during a visit to the Polish city of Rzeszow, Blinken said Poland has facilitated the supply of military aid to Ukraine and is hosting a growing force of American troops now deployed to Poland to signal U.S. and NATO support. The U.S. troop strength is now over 10,000, Blinken said, more than double the number at the end of January.

“We will stand together, as we’ve been standing together, in support of Ukraine and against Russia’s unprovoked, unwarranted, premeditated invasion,” he said in remarks alongside Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau.

The top U.S. diplomat is seeking to highlight Western unity in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, now in its second week.

Rau said Poland would increase its defense spending to 3 percent of GDP by next year. “The attack on Ukraine already transformed Europe and its sense of security,” he said.

He said Poland has accepted as many as 700,000 refugees and would continue to welcome those fleeing the fighting in Ukraine, regardless of their nationality.

Jessica Orakpo, 23, a medical student from Nigeria, and her friend Nataizya Nanyangwe, 24, an economics student from Zambia, both of whom are enrolled at universities in Ternopil in western Ukraine, decided that the time had come, in the face of Russia’s invasion of the country, for them to leave.

They piled into a cab bound for the Polish border, some 136 miles away, around 8 a.m. last Saturday. After two hours, they hit wall-to-wall traffic. The cab couldn’t go any farther.

After the cab hit the bottleneck, Orakpo and her friend decided to continue their journey by foot. Orakpo said she packed only some clothes, blankets and her travel documents.

By the time they drew close to the Polish border — a day later — they faced another obstacle, one that Orakpo says was prompted by her race.

Nearly 1.3 million people have been evacuated by train since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Oleksandr Kamyshin, chairman of Ukrainian Railways, said Saturday.

The railway is “quite mobile” and continues to carry thousands of people per day from the center, east and south of Ukraine to western Ukraine, where people fleeing the fighting can find safer ground or join an exodus to neighboring countries.

“Our target is to have zero people staying on the railway station at the end of the day. So far, we managed to have these figures lower than 1,000 people daily at each of the big stations,” Kamyshin said in a news conference.

Trains are unloading about 45,000 people a day in Lviv — a city in western Ukraine that has emerged as a key transit hub for those fleeing the country — compared to 5,000 people daily before the war. Despite the crush of people pressing to leave, Kamyshin said the rail company has no staffing shortages.

The train journeys can be harrowing. Kamyshin said a train intended to pick up evacuees from Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, but was stymied when Russian forces bombed the track, resulting in the loss of two train cars. The train was empty at the time, he said.

So far, Russian attacks have caused infrastructure damage costing billions of dollars, Kamyshin said.

“We got a number of bridges bombed, tracks bombed, electric power stations bombed,” he said. “We are repairing those ones which are urgent and vital for our evacuation program. Meanwhile, we just fix and note all the others, which we would be working on once the war is over.”

Kamyshin said the state-owned company is focused on securing safe passage for evacuees — and on providing “at least minimal comfort” for those stuck waiting for the next train at stations across the country.

People in cities seized by Russian forces, though, have found their escape routes, at least by rail, cut off.

After the Russian invasion began, the company had been shuttling people west and humanitarian supplies east on passenger trains. Now, it has increased capacity for shuttling humanitarian aid by switching to cargo trains. Kamyshin said the railway has carried more than 600 tons of humanitarian goods from west to east in Ukraine — but so far only to cities still under Ukrainian government control.

“We don’t go to those cities which are controlled by Russians,” Kamyshin said.

Evacuation routes from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol were suspended on Saturday after local authorities accused Russian forces of shelling the city and surrounding areas despite a temporary cease-fire. Kamyshin said that so far, Russia is “not ready” to grant safe passage for evacuees and humanitarian supplies to cities that “are under their temporary control.”

Spanish fashion retailer Zara will temporarily close all of its stores in Russia, its owner, Inditex, said in a statement Saturday.

In a copy of a letter sent by Inditex to the National Securities Market Commission in Spain, and seen by The Washington Post, the company said that “under the current circumstances, it cannot guarantee the continuity of operations and trading conditions in the Russian Federation.”

It added that the group would be “pausing temporarily its operations in the 502 stores (of which 86 are Zara) and online in the country.” Inditex said Russia accounts for around 8.5 percent of total group EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) and that “the total investment in the Russian Federation, given that all locations are leased, is not financially significant.”

“Inditex continues to prioritize its workforce of more than 9,000 people, with whom it is going to develop a special support plan,” the letter added.

Meanwhile, French luxury fashion brand Chanel said Friday that it would also suspend its business in Russia.

“Given our increasing concerns about the current situation, the growing uncertainty and the complexity to operate, Chanel decided to temporarily pause its business in Russia,” the company said in a LinkedIn post. “We will no longer deliver into Russia” and “will close our boutiques,” it said, adding that “the safety of our employees is our priority.”

Western countries and brands are responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by seeking to hit Moscow economically and show solidarity with Ukraine.

Russia boycott: A list of global campaigns that are underway in support of Ukraine

Pro-Ukrainian protesters crowded the streets of the southern city of Kherson on Saturday, chanting insults about Russian President Vladimir Putin in front of Russian soldiers.

According to eyewitness accounts, Kherson was one of the first cities to fall to Moscow’s forces, though Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has not confirmed its capture.

Multiple videos verified by The Washington Post showed demonstrators rallying on streets by the city’s state administration offices and historic Freedom Square.

A Russian soldier fired four shots into the air in an effort to disperse the protesters. It seemed to have no effect on the crowd. A block away, a man clambered on top of a moving Russian military vehicle and swung the Ukrainian flag back and forth. Other locals chanted “Go home! Go home!” at Russian soldiers.

Russian tanks entered the key port city, which sits by the Black Sea close to the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, on Wednesday.

The city’s mayor posted to Facebook on Friday that Russian troops were blocking food and humanitarian aid from reaching the city. He added that the mobile connection was down and that the local television center was “hijacked.”