#STAND WITH UKRAINE
(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the Ukraine crisis right now:
HEADLINES
* President Vladimir Putin put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday in the face of a barrage of Western reprisals for his war on Ukraine, which said it had repelled Russian ground forces attacking its biggest cities.
* U.S. and NATO condemned the nuclear alert order.
* Ukrainian and Russian officials were due to hold talks at a venue on the Belarusian border with Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said on Sunday.
* Satellite imagery taken on Sunday showed a large deployment of Russian ground forces including tanks moving in the direction of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from approximately 40 miles (64 km) away, private U.S. company Maxar said.
* European nations and Canada moved on Sunday to shut their airspace to Russian aircraft.
* Japan will join the United States and other Western countries in blocking certain Russian banks’ access to the SWIFT international payment system, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday.
* A decision by Western allies to block certain Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system is likely to lift oil prices well above $100 a barrel as risks with trading Russian oil spike, analysts say.
* BP (LON:BP) is abandoning its stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft in an abrupt and costly end to three decades of operating in the energy-rich country, marking the most significant move yet by a Western company in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
* Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, will divest its Russian assets, the Norwegian prime minister said on Sunday.
* The European Union will tighten sanctions on Russia, target Russian ally Belarus with measures and fund weapons for Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia’s invasion, top EU officials said on Sunday.
* Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said it was “very probable” that neutral Switzerland would follow the EU on Monday in imposing sanctions on Russia and freezing Russian assets in the Alpine country.
* Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) said on Sunday that Russian gas exports via Ukraine to Europe continued normally, in line with requests from customers.
* Russian military vehicles pushed into Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv on Sunday, on a fourth day of fighting.
* Russia has attacked Ukrainian oil and gas facilities, sparking huge explosions.
* At least 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s health ministry said on Sunday, It also said that 1,684 people, including 116 children, had been wounded. A U.N. relief agency said its estimates showed at least 64 civilians had been killed among 240 civilian casualties, but that the real numbers were likely “considerably higher”.
* Ukraine is running out of oxygen supplies that critically ill people need, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, calling for safe passage for emergency imports.
* People fleeing war in Ukraine poured into central Europe, with queues at border crossings stretching for kilometres after the invasion pushed nearly 400,000 people to seek safety abroad. Pope Francis called for humanitarian corridors to help refugees out of Ukraine.
* More than 5,500 people have been detained at various anti-war protests in Russia since the invasion began.
* All French citizens on short-term visits to Russia should leave the country immediately, the French foreign ministry said. U.S. citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, the State Department said.
* Ukraine lodges case against Russia at world court, citing erroneous allegations of genocide against Kyiv.
QUOTES
– “I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try, so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war,” Zelenskiy said of planned talks with Moscow.
– “As you can see, not only do Western countries take unfriendly measures against our country in the economic dimension – I mean the illegal sanctions that everyone knows about very well – but also the top officials of leading NATO countries allow themselves to make aggressive statements with regards to our country,” Putin said on state television.
“We are afraid that Russia is not going to stop in Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
SCHEDULED EVENTS
* World Bank President David Malpass said the bank may be able to provide Ukraine with more financial resources within days and that additional aid will be discussed by G7 finance leaders on Tuesday.
* The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday about Ukraine, where war is raging in a country with four operational nuclear power plants and various waste facilities including Chernobyl.
* Energy ministers from European Union countries will on Monday discuss preparations for potential energy supply shocks and measures to shore up gas stocks.
* The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on Sunday to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, which would be held on Monday, diplomats said.