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“We do not have confirmation at the moment that ceasefire started … [or] set out for this day,” the deputy mayor of the port city Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, told the BBC, saying it was difficult to collect information given the city has been without electricity, heat, water or phones for days and Russian shelling continues. “The route is not safe,” he said.
As the war enters its 12th day, Ukraine asked the United Nations’ highest court on Monday to intervene to halt Moscow’s invasion. Ukraine’s suit argues that Russia relied on false claims of genocide in two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have battled Kyiv for years, in an attempt to justify its invasion. The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, is based in The Hague and adjudicates legal disputes between states. Russia was a no-show on Monday at the proceedings.
Here’s what to know
U.N. says better system needed for distribution of refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere
Return to menuRussia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the more than 1 million Ukrainians who have fled to neighboring countries since, illustrates the need for a “better system” for the distribution of refugees in Europe and elsewhere, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Monday.
Grandi said people in the initial wave of those fleeing Ukraine are more likely to have the resources and connections to go. But the crisis may soon enter a second phase, he said, made up of refugees with fewer resources and nowhere to run, placing a burden on the countries near Ukraine, such as Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
"We need a more structured system"
Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, says that if the war continues the EU, UK, US & Canada will need to share responsibility for taking in refugees with no connections to neighbouring countrieshttps://t.co/nWTg8dtFH6 pic.twitter.com/1aML8wFxAd
“This is where we need a more structured system in the E.U. and certainly beyond the E.U. [for] … how to share this responsibility,” Grandi said, pointing to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and other nations.
The European Union last week unanimously adopted a never-before-used directive granting Ukrainian refugees temporary rights to live, work and study in E.U. member states for at least a year. The directive calls for “measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving [displaced] persons and bearing the consequences thereof.”
“I do hope that this, in the end, is the silver lining of this crisis, that Europe understands that any country can become [a] recipient of large numbers of refugees and need the help of others,” Grandi said.
Oil price hovers around $130 amid speculation about possible U.S. ban on Russian oil and gas
Return to menuThe price of an oil barrel briefly hit $139 on Monday, its highest level since 2008, after the number of U.S. officials calling for a ban on Russian oil and gas imports grew over the weekend.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and others expressed their support on Sunday for such a ban, amid a U.S.-led push to sanction the Russian economy into a standstill in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Brent crude oil was back down to around $128 per barrel at 3:30 a.m. Eastern time — a level that still spurred fears of further cost-of-living increases and inflation across the world.
This comes mere days after the United States and other members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said they would release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves to stabilize prices, which have been climbing steadily on investors’ fears that the fighting in Ukraine could disrupt supply routes, and on concerns about the effects of Western sanctions, which so far have avoided Russian oil and gas.
More than a fourth of the European Union’s gas imports come from Russia, and the country’s daily exports of crude oil account for about 12 percent of global trade, according to the IEA.
Bolshoi director resigns over pressure to pick sides on Ukraine-Russia conflict
Return to menuThe chief conductor and music director of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow has resigned from his posts at two orchestras over what he described as untenable pressure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I have never supported and I will always be against any conflicts in any shape and form,” Tugan Sokhiev wrote Sunday in a Facebook post, in which he lamented that geopolitical tensions were seeping into the world of music and said creatives were the victims of “cancel culture” over their stance on Ukraine.
In the same post, Sokhiev said that in addition to leaving the Bolshoi Theater, he had also resigned from his role as musical director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in France.
Sokhiev’s resignation is the latest example of Russians coming under intense pressure in Western countries to condemn President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was fired from the Munich Philharmonic symphony orchestra, the city’s mayor said in a news release, because he did not accede to a request from the mayor to “clearly and unequivocally distance himself” from Putin and from the war.
Sokhiev in his statement wrote that he is being “forced” to choose between his musicians in Russia and in France, between “one cultural tradition” and another. “I will be soon asked to choose between Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy,” he said, citing some of the most famous Russian and Western European composers.
“I cannot bare to witness how my fellow colleagues, artists, actors, singers, dancers, directors are being menaced, treated disrespectfully and being victims of so called ‘cancel culture,’” he wrote. “We musicians are the ambassadors of peace. Instead of using us and our music to unite nations and people we are being divided and ostracised.”
Ukraine calls proposed humanitarian corridors into Russia and Belarus ‘unacceptable’
Return to menuUkraine accused Russia of proposing humanitarian corridors that evacuate civilians into Russia and Belarus — and insisted that the flow of people from battle zones should be allowed into western Ukraine or European Union countries.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced six evacuation corridors and claimed that agreement had been reached with the Ukrainian side in advance: one from the capital, Kyiv, to Gomel in Belarus; two from the hard-hit port city Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine and Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia; one from Kharkiv to Russia’s Belgorod region; two from Sumy to Belgorod and to Poltava in east-central Ukraine.
Russia said that the opening of corridors came at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. Macron has denied Russia’s claim that he asked for humanitarian corridors in Ukraine that lead to Russia.
Some local leaders said there were no confirmations of a temporary cease-fire, and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk posted a video on the presidential channel saying that the proposed evacuation routes are “unacceptable.”
“This is an unacceptable variant for opening humanitarian corridors,” she said in the video. “Our people will not go to Belarus, so that they will then go by plane to the Russian Federation.”
“I hope that the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, understands that his name and sincere effort to help the civilian population of Ukraine and foreign citizens … is in fact being used and manipulated by the Russian Federation.”
Ukraine accused Russia of disrupting two previous attempts to evacuate civilians over the weekend, and the latest announcement from Moscow came as its forces continued to bombard airfields and encircle cities across Ukraine.
“We do not have confirmation at the moment that ceasefire started … [or was] set out for this day,” the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, told the BBC, saying it was difficult to collect information given the city has been without electricity, heat, water or phones for days and Russian shelling continues. “The route is not safe,” he said.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, “Detailed information about the humanitarian corridors has been brought to the Ukrainian side in advance, as well as to the specialized structures of the UN, the OSCE and the International Committee of the Red Cross.”
Producing no evidence, he blamed Ukrainian “nationalists” for the deaths of four civilians in an attempted Mariupol evacuation Sunday evening.
Macron did not request humanitarian corridors leading to Russia, French official says
Return to menuPARIS — The French president’s office on Monday denied claims that Emmanuel Macron had personally requested humanitarian corridors from embattled or besieged Ukrainian cities to Russia, appearing to contradict Russian authorities.
Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken for almost two hours on Sunday to discuss the safety of nuclear power plants in Ukraine and other subjects, including humanitarian concerns.
A senior French official later said Macron and other partners were advocating for civilian evacuations from the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, but the official did not mention humanitarian corridors leading to Russia.
Russian officials said humanitarian corridors would be opened Monday morning local time, including from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, following “French President Emmanuel Macron’s personal request to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
The routes described by Interfax suggested that the corridor from Kyiv would force residents to evacuate toward Belarus, whereas residents fleeing the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv would be forced to evacuate toward Russia. Two other humanitarian corridors — from the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol in the south and Sumy in the northeast — appeared to also include options that end in Russian or Ukrainian territory, Reuters reported.
“It’s another way for Putin to push his narrative and say that it is the Ukrainians who are the aggressors and they are the ones who offer asylum to everyone,” an Élysée official told France’s BFM television on Monday.
In a response, the Élysée said “we ask that the Russians stop fighting” and demand “the protection of civilians and the sending of aid.
Ukraine Internet access ‘highly likely’ to be disrupted by Russian strikes, Britain warns
Return to menuBritain’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Russia was “probably targeting” Ukrainian communication infrastructure in a bid to restrict people’s access to reliable news updates, warning that Internet disruptions were “highly likely” as strikes continue.
“Russia reportedly struck a TV tower in Kharkiv yesterday, suspending broadcasting output,” the ministry said in a tweet outlining its latest intelligence on the situation in Ukraine. “This follows a similar strike on a TV tower in Kyiv on 01 March 2022.”
Loss of Ukrainian Internet access could also be “collateral damage” from Russian strikes on infrastructure, the ministry said.
In recent days, Internet outages have been reported in the cities of Mariupol, Sumy, Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Britain’s government says that it is continuing to provide Ukraine with “economic, humanitarian and defensive military assistance” and that officials are imposing additional sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
China ready to mediate Ukraine conflict, says top diplomat
Return to menuChina is ready to act as mediator between Ukraine and Russia, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday, as he defended Beijing’s continued rhetorical support of Moscow while claiming neutrality.
“China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in urging peace talks and is willing when necessary to work together with the international community to launch required mediation,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters at his annual news conference, part of the yearly meeting of parliament underway in Beijing.
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said in an interview published Friday that, when it came to mediating a peace deal, “it must be China.” He told Spanish newspaper El Mundo, “We have not asked for it nor have they asked for it, but since it has to be a power and neither the U.S. nor Europe can be [mediators], China could be.”
Analysis: SNL’s cold open lampoons Fox News’ changing tune on Russia and Ukraine
Return to menuLast week, “Saturday Night Live” set aside a funny cold open for a moving one, beginning with the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York singing “Prayer for Ukraine.” Music played a big role this week as well, though SNL was back to its usual business: skewering Fox News and — still, somehow — Donald Trump.
The conceit pulling it all together: a “Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular,” live from Mar-a-Lago, a telethon designed to raise money for suffering oligarchs, hosted by Alex Moffat as Tucker Carlson (“I’m like if a pair of boat shoes came to life”) and Kate McKinnon as Laura Ingraham (“When I read Harry Potter, I root for Voldemort”).
Ukraine to contest Russian ‘genocide’ claims in international court
Return to menuUkraine will ask the United Nations’ highest court on Monday to intervene to halt Russia’s invasion, arguing it relies on false claims of genocide in two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have battled Kyiv for years.
The International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, is based in The Hague and adjudicates legal disputes between states. Its rulings are legally binding, although countries don’t always adhere to them, and it has no real way of
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