Crisis in Ukraine: The global implications of Russia’s invasion
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rages on and the humanitarian toll mounts, USA TODAY reporters in the region and in Washington chart the ripple effects of this unprecedented conflict. Zulekha Nathoo hosts ‘Crisis in Ukraine.’
Staff video, USA TODAY
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. and its allies are in talks to ban Russian oil imports. That move would come if a balance can be found to keep an “appropriate supply of oil on world markets.”
Meanwhile, Russia can still come to the table and negotiate, even 11 days into a fierce fight in Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Sunday.
Over a million people have streamed out of Ukraine into neighboring nations, the UN refugee agency said Sunday, making it the worst such crisis in Europe since World War II. The Polish prime minister’s office said 922,400 people had crossed its border with Ukraine since fighting began 11 days ago.
That update came as a second attempt in as many days was made to allow residents to leave the embattled port city of Mariupol, where people have been living without gas and water for several days. The second evacuation effort failed, as well, a Ukrainian official said.
Earlier Sunday, Ukrainian officials warned that Russian forces could be moving to seize the dam of a hydroelectric power station north of Kyiv, the New York Times reported.
The threat to the power plant is part of what Ukrainian officials believe is an effort by Russian forces to control infrastructure. The most notable example came late last week, when a fire broke out at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after Russian forces shelled the area.
Latest developments:
►President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke Saturday, according to the White House. Biden said his administration is pushing economic, economic and “security” aid to Ukraine, along with trying to secure additional funding from Congress.
►Ukraine and Russia will engage in talks aimed at negotiating a cease-fire and safe passage for civilian evacuations on Monday, a Ukraine official said, after the first evacuation of the southeastern city of Mariupol was halted in violation of a cease-fire.
► The State Department urged Americans on Saturday to leave Russia immediately, citing the “unprovoked and unjustified attack” against Ukraine and the potential for harassment of U.S. citizens by Russian government security forces.
►A gallon of regular gas in the U.S. will likely average $4 before the end of the weekend, analysts projected. The cost of gasoline has risen in recent weeks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine applies pressure on global oil markets.
► In its cold open sketch, “Saturday Night Live” skewered Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham and former President Donald Trump for their pre-war comments on Ukraine and Russia with the “Fox News Ukrainian Invasion Celebration Spectacular,” a fundraising telethon for Russian oligarchs held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
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VISUALS: Mapping and tracking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
UKRAINE WAR DIARY: Illarion Pavliuk checks in with his family. He’s ready to fight
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Sunday warned that those calling for a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine may not fully understand the ramifications of the act.
“That means flying AWACS 24 hours a day. That means the willingness to shoot down and engage Russian airplanes in the sky. That means, frankly, you can’t put those planes up there unless you’re willing to knock out the anti-aircraft systems that the Russians have deployed, and not just in Ukraine, but in Russia, and also in Belarus,” Rubio said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Basically, a no fly zone – if people understand what it means – means starting World War III,” he continued.
The Florida senator also responded to online criticism he faced Saturday for sharing pictures of a Zoom call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Ukrainian ambassador asked Congress to refrain from doing so for security reasons, saying that ambassador made that request late into the call and that he does not believe he put Zelenskyy at risk.
– Ella Lee
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN the U.S. is in talks with European allies to “look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil while still making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets.”
“That’s a very active discussion as we speak,” he said, noting he was on a call with President Joe Biden and Cabinet officials Saturday to discuss the potential ban.
The U.S. and European partners insulated Russia’s oil and natural gas imports from severe sanctions levied against Moscow in an effort to hold down inflation costs for consumers. Russia supplies about 30% of Europe’s oil and 40% of its natural gas.
The top U.S. diplomat, who is Moldova to discuss security and humanitarian assistance for the influx of refugees who have fled to the country, said officials have seen “very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians” that could constitute war crimes. He said the U.S. is investigating and documenting the reported attacks to determine whether war crimes are being committed.
Blinken said the U.S. is also in talks to send U.S. fighter jets to Poland so the country can send Soviet-era planes to Ukraine that Ukrainian forces are familiar with.
– Courtney Subramanian
ENTERING UKRAINE: Thousands of people are fleeing the fighting in Ukraine. Here’s who is trying to get in.
U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Sunday doubled down on the United States’ position that it will not be enacting a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“President Biden has been very, very clear that American troops will not be put on the ground or in the air to escalate this war and make this an American war against the Russians,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But we’ve also been very clear that we will support Ukraine in every other way possible.”
Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. is in talks with Poland and NATO to provide jets to Ukraine or crack down on tougher sanctions for Russia, but stopped short of confirming that help is guaranteed.
She added that despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued aggression in Ukraine, negotiation is still on the table.
“We have been working since the beginning of this to bring the Russians to the negotiating table, and that offer is still on the table – not just by us but also by our European colleagues,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
– Ella Lee
Defense officials in the United Kingdom said they believe Russia is targeting populated areas in multiple locations, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol in an effort to break Ukrainian morale, according to a statement released early Sunday.
“Russia has previously used similar tactics in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, employing both air and ground-based munitions,” the statement said. It also credited the scale and strength of the Ukrainian resistance for targeting Russian supply lines and slowing the advance of ground forces.
“There is a realistic possibility that Russia is now attempting to conceal fuel trucks as regular support trucks to minimise losses,” the statement read.
LVIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official says a second attempt to evacuate civilians from a southern city under siege for a week has failed due to continued Russian shelling.
Evacuations from the port city of Mariupol were scheduled to begin at noon local time during a 10 a.m.-9 p.m. local cease-fire, Ukrainian military authorities said earlier Sunday.
Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said the planned evacuations along designated humanitarian corridors were halted because of an ongoing assault.
“There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,“ he said on Telegram.
A similar cease-fire planned for Mariupol and the nearby city of Volnovakha collapsed Saturday, trapping residents under more shelling and aerial bombardment by Russian forces.
– Associated Press
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was taken into custody in Moscow and faces drug smuggling charges after being found with vape cartridges in her carry-on luggage.
Russian Federal Customs Service said it detained a “professional basketball player, a member of the US National Basketball Association, a two-time Olympic basketball champion in the US team,” identified as Griner by the Russian news agency TASS.
“Brittney Griner has the WNBA’s full support and our main priority is her swift and safe return to the United States,” a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports on Saturday.
– Scooby Axson
Moody’s on Sunday again slashed Russia’s credit rating and listed its future outlook as “negative.”
The financial services company downgraded Russia’s rating based on expectations that the Central Bank will further restrict payments across borders, including debt service on government bonds.
The rating – Ca – is now closer to junk status, “driven by severe concerns around Russia’s willingness and ability to pay its debt obligations,” Moody’s said in a statement issued early Sunday.
“Concerns around the government’s willingness to pay and the unpredictability of government actions could result in larger than historical average losses for investors,” the statement said.
– Katie Wadington
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy is pushing his call for foreign countries to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Establishing a no-fly zone would risk escalating the conflict by involving foreign militaries directly. Although the United States and many Western countries have backed Ukraine with weapons shipments, they have sent no troops.
Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday that “the world is strong enough to close our skies.”
NATO countries have ruled out policing a no-fly zone, which would bar all unauthorized aircraft from flying over Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as “participation in the armed conflict.
– Associated Press
The war in Ukraine has now sent 1.5 million refugees out of the country, the UN reported Sunday.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, called the situation “the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II” in a tweet.
Another attempt to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol was set to begin Sunday morning after a temporary ceasefire was announced, CNN and the BBC reported, citing local officials.
The evacuation attempt will come about 24 hours after a previous attempt was thwarted when Russian troops continued to shell the area in violation of a cease-fire.
Ukraine and Russia were previously scheduled to engage in talks Monday aimed at negotiating a cease-fire and safe passage for civilian evacuations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Moldova pledging America’s support to the small Western-leaning former Soviet republic that is coping with an influx of refugees from Ukraine and warily watching Russia’s intensifying war with its neighbor.
Blinken was meeting on Sunday with senior Moldovan officials who are appealing for international assistance in dealing with more than 120,000 refugees from Ukraine that it is now hosting while also seeking security reassurances against potential Russian aggression. More than 230,000 people have fled into Moldova from Ukraine since the war began 11 days ago.
Blinken said Moldova’s welcoming of refugees is an inspiration to the world.
“We admire the generosity of hospitality, the willingness to be such good friends to people who are in distress, and, indeed, I want to do everything we can to help you deal with the burden that this has imposed,” he said.
Russia already has troops in the country of 2.6 million that are stationed in the disputed territory of Transnistria and are being closely watched as Russian President Vladimir Putin presses ahead with the invasion of Ukraine. Although it has no plans to try to become a member of NATO, Moldova formally applied to join the European Union just three days ago in a fast-track bid to bolster its ties with the West.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is suspending operations in Russia due to government pressures since the start of the war in Ukraine.
RFE/RL, which describes itself as an editorially independent media company supported by a grant from Congress and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, issued a statement late Saturday saying it had stopped operating in Russia “after local tax authorities initiated bankruptcy proceedings against RFE/RL’s Russian entity on March 4 and police intensified pressure on its journalists.”
The media entity also referenced a law signed Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin that could subject journalists to prison sentences if they deviate from Kremlin-approved descriptions of the war. It said RFE/RL journalists would “continue to tell the truth about Russia’s catastrophic invasion of its neighbor,” reporting on developments from outside of Russia.
“This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the Putin regime’s assault on the truth,” President and CEO Jamie Fly said.
Russia’s federal communications agency announced Friday that it would block the websites of RFE/RL, the BBC, Voice of America and other foreign outlets for spreading what it termed “fake” information.
RFE/RL, which has maintained a physical presence in Russia since 1991, said nine of its Russian language websites have been blocked in the last week after it refused to comply with demands to delete information about the invasion of Ukraine.
– Bill Keveney
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s prime minister has returned Sunday morning from a surprise trip to Russia where he met President Vladimir Putin and discussed the war in Ukraine.
Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow on Saturday, where he met the Russian leader for three hours. The trip was made “in coordination and with the blessing” of the Biden administration, according to Bennett’s office.
Bennett spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his meeting with Putin. He then flew to Germany to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Bennett landed in Israel on Sunday morning and is expected to convene his Cabinet for its weekly meeting later in the day.
Bennett’s trip was the latest attempt at diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Israel is one of the few countries that has good working relations with both Russia and Ukraine. Israel has delivered humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but also maintains ties with Moscow to make sure that Israeli and Russian warplanes do not come into conflict in neighboring Syria.
– The Associated Press
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