Russia-Ukraine War — The Week That Was

The Ukraine war entered its second week Friday with the fall of Europe's largest nuclear power plant into the hands of Russian forces.

That, in a way, underscored the invasion which has so far displaced at least one million Ukrainians from the country, led to the capture of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, and threatened the fall of capital Kyiv itself. The port city of Odessa, with a population of over one million, is thought to be the next target.

The Ukrainians, though, have been defiant. Led by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, they have thwarted Russia’s progress into Kyiv. The Russian Defence Ministry said 498 of its servicemen have been killed and 1,597 wounded in Ukraine, according to an Interfax report. The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights reported 227 Ukrainian civilians have died and 525 have been wounded since the invasion began on Feb. 24.

A look at the key events defining the Ukraine war in the week gone by:

At The United Nations

On Feb. 26, 11 members of the 15-member United Nations Security Council voted in favour of a resolution condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine. India, China and the United Arab Emirates abstained from the vote and Russia vetoed.

On March 2, The UN General Assembly voted to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demand that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its military forces.

The General Assembly voted 141-5 for the draft resolution, ‘Aggression against Ukraine’, which was co-sponsored by 94 countries. Only five nations—Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea—voted against the measure. India and its neighbours - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as China were among the 35 countries that abstained.

Also Read: Ukraine Friday Update: Civilian Toll Mounts, Russia Draws Condemnation

Sanctions

The tanks rolled in, and so did the sanctions. The United States and its allies in Europe have so far chosen to fight back using economic arms, crippling the Russian central bank-held reserves, its currency and commodities, and now its oligarchs. The Russian stock market has been shut for nearly a week and will remain so till March 8. A raft of global companies including Shell, Harley-Davidson, Apple, Nike, Volvo and others have either curtailed or ceased operations in Russia, affecting online to offline consumption.

The biggest hit dealt to Russia’s financial ecosystem came after the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT)—a global messaging system for banks —was disabled for some of Moscow’s biggest lenders.

Russian energy supplies remain untouched by sanctions, given Europe's heavy dependence on them. Yet, Brent crude prices have scaled peaks last seen in 2008 - JP Morgan & Co said Brent could skyrocket to as high as $185 by the end of this year if current conditions continue.

Also Read: OPEC+ Makes Modest Supply Hike as Russia Turmoil Lifts Price

The March Of Moscow, Ukrainian Defiance

Resolutions and sanctions have not stopped Vladimir Putin yet, as Russian forces have continued their onward march into Ukraine—often frustrated by the pushback from citizen militia. Several Ukraine cities have been overrun in part of whole, according to Russian information but confirmations are hard to come by.

Based on reports from Al Jazeera, CNN and BBC:

• On March 2, Russia captured the Black Sea port city of Kherson—their first major conquest since their invasion began.

• On the same day, Mariupol—a city of more than 400,000 along the Sea of Azov— was encircled by Russian and pro-Russian separatist troops.

• On Feb. 28, Russia and Ukraine agreed to meet for a second round of peace talks, even as the fighting intensified. The heaviest assaults were on Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city after the capital.

• In northern Ukraine, satellite imagery showed a Russian military convoy as long as 40 miles still making its way toward Kyiv but seemed stalled possibly due to food and fuel shortages, according to a Pentagon official.

Also Read: A Visual Guide to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

“I need ammunition, not a ride,” President Zelenskiy said, when NATO nations urged him to leave Kyiv, in the days before the invasion, offering transport to the relative safety of Lviv in the far west of Ukraine. Since then, the former comedian’s videos and physical presence in the capital has galvanised Ukrainians, so much so that Kyiv still stands.

On March 3, Zelenskiy held his first press conference since the war began, reported the New York Times. Expressing pride at the resistance put up by citizens, he said “We have a special people, an extraordinary people.”

He said he was willing to compromise with Russia for the sake of peace but not on the sovereignty of Ukraine. NYT reported him as saying - “Well, we cannot just say, ‘here it is, it’s your country now, Ukraine is part of Russia.’ This is just impossible. So why suggest it?”

Also Read: Ukraine’s TV Comedian President Finds His Role as Wartime Leader

Putin’s Take

The Russian president has insisted his military advance in Ukraine is “going to plan”, according to Al Jazeera. He appeared in no mood to heed a global clamour for hostilities to end as the war entered its second week.

Putin again said Russia was rooting out “neo-Nazis”, adding during the televised opening of a national security council meeting that he “will never give up on [his] conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are one people”.

Zelenskiy, meanwhile, sought a sit-down meeting with his Russian counterpart to end the invasion, while also calling on the West to increase military aid to Kyiv, reported Al Jazeera from the March 3 briefing.

“It’s not that I want to talk to Putin,” the Ukrainian president told journalists at his heavily fortified office in Kyiv. “I need to talk to Putin. The world needs to talk to Putin. There is no other way to stop this war.”

Then, addressing Putin, he said: “What do you want from us? Leave our land.” “Sit down with me, just not 30 metres away”, he added, making a reference to Putin receiving world leaders at an enormously long table.

NATO And European Union

On March 2, European Union ambassadors agreed to call for an initial assessment of Ukraine’s chances of joining the 27-nation bloc.

The envoys will ask the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, to look into the possibility, reported Bloomberg citing officials who declined to be identified speaking on a confidential issue. EU leaders are expected to discuss Ukraine’s prospects at a summit in Paris on March 10-11, Bloomberg reported.

The move follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky formally putting in a bid on March 1. Membership requires an arduous set of steps that can last more than a decade.

Separately, Moldova and Georgia have asked the European Union to begin membership talks, moves could antagonise Vladimir Putin as the eastern nations push to align themselves more with Europe and the western alliance.

Also Read: How War in Ukraine Is Changing the World

To understand the decadal events that led up to this flashpoint, watch this discussion with Professor John Mearsheimer - the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.