Protesters hold posters reading 'We will never surrender!, Donbass is Ukraine, The empire must die' in front of Russian Embassy in Kyiv. Photo / Efrem Lukatsky, AP
Protesters hold posters reading 'We will never surrender!, Donbass is Ukraine, The empire must die' in front of Russian Embassy in Kyiv. Photo / Efrem Lukatsky, AP
Russia is evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine is urging its citizens to leave Russia.
The region is braced for further confrontation after President Vladimir Putin received authorisation to use military force outside his country and the West responded with sanctions.
Hopes for a diplomatic way out of a new, potentially devastating war in Europe appeared all but sunk as the US and key European allies accused Moscow of crossing a red line Tuesday in rolling over Ukraine's border into separatist regions, with some calling it an invasion.
Russia emptied its diplomatic posts in Ukraine, state news agency Tass reported, a day after the Foreign Ministry announced a plan to evacuate, citing threats. By Wednesday afternoon, the Russian flag no longer flew over the Kyiv embassy, and police surrounded the building.
Cyclists ride past an installation of crosses on which is written 'Russian occupier' in front of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo / Emilio Morenatti, AP
After weeks of trying to project calm, Ukrainian authorities signalled increasing concern.
The Foreign Ministry advised against travel to Russia and recommended anyone there leave immediately, saying Moscow's "aggression" could lead to a significant reduction in consular services.
Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council chief Oleksiy Danilov called for a national state of emergency, subject to parliamentary approval. He said it will be up to regional authorities to determine which measures to apply, but they could include additional security at public facilities, traffic restrictions and additional transport and document checks.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of National Security and Defense Council, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kyiv. Photo / Efrem Lukatsky, AP
Ukraine's Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said a wave of denial-of-service attacks targeted official websites and some banks, affecting sites of the parliament, Cabinet, and Foreign Ministry offline and causing interruptions or delays to the sites of the defence and interior ministry, which controls the police.
These were just the latest in a series of signs of escalating tensions. Kyiv recalled its ambassador to Russia and considered breaking all diplomatic ties with Moscow; dozens of nations further squeezed Russian oligarchs and banks out of international markets;
Germany halted a lucrative pipeline deal; the US repositioned additional troops to Nato's eastern flank bordering Russia, and the top US diplomat cancelled a meeting with his Russian counterpart.
The Azovstal metallurgical plant on the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Photo / Sergei Grits, AP
Already, the threat of war has shredded Ukraine's economy and raised the spectre of massive casualties, energy shortages across Europe, and global economic chaos.
Even as the conflict took a new, dangerous turn, leaders warned it could still get worse.
Putin has yet to unleash the force of the 150,000 troops massed on three sides of Ukraine, while US President Joe Biden held back on even tougher sanctions that could cause economic turmoil for Russia but said they would go ahead if there is further aggression.
European Union sanctions against Russia took effect, targeting several companies along with 351 Russian lawmakers, who voted for a motion urging Putin to recognise the rebel regions, and 27 senior government officials, business executives and top military officers.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the EU sanctions only "a first step" and said more could follow. Sanctions are key because the West has ruled out taking on Russia militarily.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Western leaders not to wait.
"We call on partners to impose more sanctions on Russia now," he tweeted Wednesday. "Now the pressure needs to step up to stop Putin. Hit his economy and cronies. Hit more. Hit hard. Hit now."
To stop Putin from further aggression, we call on partners to impose more sanctions on Russia now. First decisive steps were taken yesterday, and we are grateful for them. Now the pressure needs to step up to stop Putin. Hit his economy and cronies. Hit more. Hit hard. Hit now.
Responding defiantly to the steps already taken, Russian Ambassador in the US Anatoly Antonov retorted on Facebook that "sanctions cannot solve a thing. It is hard to imagine that there is a person in Washington who expects Russia to revise its foreign policy under a threat of restrictions."
Russia's Foreign Ministry has also bristled at sanctions. "Russia has proven that, with all the costs of the sanctions, it is able to minimise the damage," it said.
In Ukraine's east, where an eight-year conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces has killed nearly 14,000 people, violence also spiked again. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and six more were injured after rebel shelling, the Ukrainian military said. Separatist officials reported several explosions on their territory overnight and three civilian deaths.
In St Petersburg, meanwhile, several hundred people reportedly rallied in support of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics in the east, while Russia marked Defender of the Fatherland Day, which celebrates the country's veterans and active service troops.
Pro-Kremlin activists and students rally with Russian and Donetsk People republic flags and a poster that reads: 'Donetsk Luhansk People republics we are together'. Photo / Ivan Petrov, AP
After weeks of rising tensions, Putin took a series of steps this week that dramatically raised the stakes. First, he recognised the independence of those separatist regions. Then, he said that recognition extends even to the large parts of the territories now held by Ukrainian forces, including the major Azov Sea port of Mariupol.
Finally, lawmakers gave him authority to use military force outside the country — effectively formalising a Russian military deployment to the rebel regions.
Putin laid out three conditions that he said were the only ways out of the crisis: He called on Kyiv to recognise Russia's sovereignty over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to renounce its bid to join Nato and partially demilitarise.
The first two demands had been previously rejected by Ukraine and the West as non-starters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his call for talks with Putin.
"Many times I suggested to the president of Russia to sit down at the negotiating table and talk. This is a question of dialogue, not a question of 'condition'," he said after meeting the presidents of Poland and Lithuania. The Kremlin has previously brushed off such calls.
Putin remained vague when asked whether he has sent any Russian troops into Ukraine and how far they could go, and Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin said no Russian troops were in the region.
Pushilin's remarks contradict those of Vladislav Brig, a member of the separatist local council in Donetsk, who said Tuesday that Russian troops had already moved in.
