Putin threatens Ukraine’s ‘statehood,’ likens sanctions to ‘declaration of war’

From Europe, to Asia, to Africa to North America, people around the globe took to the streets Saturday to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and plead for peace Russia’ invasion has killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians.

Seas, borders, languages and cultural differences separated the protesters, but the imagery of their pleas was similar: sunflowers, Ukraine’s national flower; Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag; the phrase “no war” translated into a slew of languages; banners with Putin’s face vandalized.

The similarities underscore how the invasion, which began late last month, has quickly turned public opinion against Putin and Russia in a war much of the world has followed online. Across social media, videos of Ukraine’s defiance and of Russia’s assault have rallied support for Ukraine.

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The city council in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol suspended efforts to evacuate residents from the battered seaside hub Saturday, accusing Russian forces of shelling the city and its environs despite a temporary cease-fire.

Residents did not have water, electricity, heating or Internet and phone services, according to the international medical organization Doctors Without Borders. “This night the shelling was harder and closer,” a staff member said in a statement Saturday. “We collected snow and rain water yesterday to have some utility water. We tried to get free water today but the queue was huge.”

Local officials said earlier that evacuations would start Saturday, and they urged drivers to “fill the vehicles as much as possible,” after a Russian siege and barrage cut off water, power and food supplies. Russia’s Defense Ministry had announced it would enact a cease-fire for two southern cities, Mariupol and Volnovakha, where civilians would be allowed safe passage out. An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said humanitarian corridors were being prepared for both cities.

A few hours later, the Mariupol city council asked people who had assembled for the evacuation to disperse and take cover in shelters. In a Telegram message, it said negotiations were underway to ensure a cease-fire and secure the corridor. It told residents it would update them via loudspeakers.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also accused Russian forces of shelling Volnovakha despite a “tentative agreement” to create a safe corridor there.

Russia denied breaking the cease-fire, accusing Ukrainian authorities of using civilians as “human shields.”

But Mariupol’s deputy mayor, Sergei Orlov, said people could not leave under the artillery fire. “It is crazy,” he told the BBC. “There is no cease-fire in Mariupol … Our civilians are ready to escape, but they cannot escape under shelling.”

BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Ukrainian counterpart at the Poland-Ukraine border on Saturday, promising increased American support as Russia presses its invasion deeper into Ukraine.

In the border town of Korczowa, Poland, Blinken toured a refugee reception center where Ukrainians were camped out on cots with their children and luggage, and he spoke with Polish officials managing the crush of people pouring in from Ukraine in search of safety.

Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the border crossing, where he cited a surge in outside support to Ukraine, including a wave of international sanctions, humanitarian aid, and an increasing flow of weaponry. He said those steps were already having a devastating effect on Russia.

“That pressure too will not only continue — it will grow until this war, this war of choice, is brought to an end,” he said.

But Blinken, on the second day of a European tour designed to illustrate Western unity in the face of President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, stopped short of promising the additional military support that Kuleba and others in the Kyiv government have said they urgently need — specifically, help with its air war.

In the wake of Russia’s crackdown on news coverage and the imposition of a new law criminalizing reporting that accurately characterizes the Ukrainian invasion, some international news outlets have taken to technology to circumvent the news blackout, pointing readers to VPNs (virtual private networks), the encrypted Tor browser and old-fashioned radio.

As war in Ukraine escalates, sending over a million people fleeing and bringing terror to numerous cities, media outlets including the BBC and Voice of America have been blocked by the Kremlin, along with several Ukrainian sites, Twitter and Facebook. The Russian government has alleged that the sites were providing false news about the war.

But some outlets are refusing to be silenced. In response to the ban, the BBC posted a statement on its website that said “access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia,” attaching instructions on how to circumvent the media blackout by accessing BBC content through two apps: Psiphon, a censorship circumvention tool, and Tor, an anonymous browser. Voice of America also vowed, in a statement, to “promote and support tools and resources that will allow our audiences to bypass any blocking efforts imposed on our sites in Russia.”

Visa and Mastercard, among the world’s largest payment networks, announced Saturday that they will suspend transactions in Russia, the latest American companies to suspend financial ties with the country over the invasion of Ukraine.

“We are compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,” Visa CEO Al Kelly said in a statement dated Saturday. “We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues, and on the clients, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia. This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values.”

Visa and Mastercard cards issued outside Russia will no longer work in the country, according to the companies. Cards issued by Russian banks will be cut from the networks run by the companies but may continue to operate through a state-owned processing system disconnected from Visa and Mastercard.

The announcements came the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed directly to U.S. lawmakers to continue to isolate the Russian economy, suggesting that the Visa and Mastercard payment networks in the country should be shut down.

On Saturday, President Biden told Zelensky he “welcomed the decision” by Visa and Mastercard as part of ongoing efforts by his administration, allies and private industry to punish Russia for its aggression, according to a White House readout of their call.

The companies, complying with government sanctions, had blocked Russian financial institutions from their networks. But the decision to suspend their payment networks’ ties to Russia further secludes individuals and businesses in Russia who rely on their services for international transactions.

The decision also affects the payment companies’ financial connections with Russia: The country accounted for about 4 percent of each company’s annual net revenue, according to recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings from Visa and Mastercard.

The United States drastically enhanced its shipments of lethal military aid and protective equipment to Ukraine as the prospect of a Russian invasion became more apparent and then a reality, according to a declassified accounting of transfers and sales reviewed by The Washington Post.

The list indicates that, as early as December, the Pentagon was equipping Ukrainian fighters with arms and equipment useful for fighting in urban areas, including shotguns and specialized suits to safeguard soldiers handling unexploded ordnance. Over the last week, the Biden administration has increased such shipments, sending Stinger antiaircraft missile systems for the first time and further augmenting Kyiv’s supply of antitank Javelin missiles and other ammunition.

Taken together, the variety, volume and potency of firepower being rushed into the war zone illustrate the extent to which the United States sought to prepare the Ukrainian military to wage a hybrid war against Russia, even as President Biden has expressly ruled out inserting American troops into the conflict.

Shell said Saturday that it had purchased Russian crude after it and other oil giants declared that they would limit ties with the country over its invasion of Ukraine. The company also noted the difficulties with sanctioning one of the world’s largest oil exporters.

Europe’s largest oil company said in a statement Saturday that it made “the difficult decision to purchase a cargo of Russian crude oil” on Friday to assure the continued supply of petroleum products for Europeans — a rare step as the company promised to “continue to choose alternatives to Russian oil wherever possible.” Profits from the Russian oil will be committed to a fund “to alleviate the terrible consequences that this war is having on the people of Ukraine,” the company said.

The news came after Shell, as well as BP and Norway’s state-controlled oil company, announced that it would exit joint ventures with Russia’s state-owned Gazprom and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

But Shell on Saturday said it cannot immediately and entirely boycott oil-rich Russia, given the significant role the country plays in the global supply.

Restricting Russian oil, a cheaper alternative on the market, is a risky calculation, because leaders around the world fear driving up the already soaring cost of oil. On Friday, the White House said it is considering a U.S. ban on oil imports from Russia amid growing bipartisan calls from Congress.

Shell previously said it had stopped “most activities involving Russian oil,” though “a tight market presents a relative lack of alternatives.”

“We didn’t take this decision lightly and we understand the strength of feeling around it,” Shell’s statement said.

BILA TSERKVA, UKRAINE — In the secret location that has become a makeshift camp for the local administration of this city 50 miles south of Kyiv, officials and commanders met Saturday morning to discuss security and supply lines to the capital and the east.

As they debated whether they were prepared for a Russian advance, an explosion boomed in the distance, sending everyone rushing to an underground bunker.

Karina Maniukina, 16, had been making pancakes in her kitchen when the blast struck on the street outside. “There was just an orange light,” she said, dried blood on the side of her face where she had been hit by the spray of glass. “I thought I was going to die.”

This city of about 200,000 people would be a strategic prize in any Russian effort to choke off Kyiv, but for the moment it remains at the mouth of one of the few relatively safe passages in and out of the capital. Streams of people fleeing Kyiv clog checkpoints here as they make their long drive toward safety.

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