When you wake up, Russia has approached the city and almost surrounded the Ukrainian capital Kiev!
Kiev was heavily bombed
The defense of Kiev was once again fought
After two days and two nights of fierce fighting, by Saturday morning the Russians had made remarkable progress, advancing step by step to encircle Kiev. Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov said on social media that the Russian army destroyed more than 200 Ukrainian military facilities and dozens of air defense systems and radar stations, and eliminated a small number of Ukrainian fighters, helicopters and military vehicles, taking control of the strategic airport gostomery northwest of Kiev.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Demitro Kureba
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Haleba condemned Russia's "terrible rocket attack" on Kiev, claiming that some residential areas had been hit. Kiev's mayor and former world weight boxing champion Krichko said Kiev had entered a defensive phase and warned of Russian saboteur activity in the city.
The U.N. refugee agency warned that a two-day offensive by Russian forces had forced more than 50,000 people to flee their homes, and estimated tens of thousands of Ukrainians were on their way. Many people try to cross the border into Poland.
Looking back at history, it has been 80 years since the last "Defense of Kiev"! That year, 500,000 German troops surrounded 850,000 Soviet troops, and finally ended with the collective surrender of the surviving 660,000 Soviet troops.
The paradox of history is that the Soviet Union, which lost Kiev, still had Moscow to go; but if Ukrainian President Zelensky lost Kiev, where would he and his government go?
As the military operations are being pushed forward step by step, a Russian presidential spokesman has claimed to hold talks with Ukraine in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. This kind of "alliance under the city", like a strong man holding a steel knife to the neck of a little girl to propose marriage, what can be said about the result? The international community will wait and see.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, a new round of sanctions between the United States and Europe has followed.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the new sanctions would target Russia's banking, oligarchic and high-tech sectors, saying the sanctions "would have a significant cost to the Russian economy."
The White House statement noted that the sanctions announced today will extend coverage to Russia's top ten financial institutions; export controls will cut off more than 50 percent of Russia's high-tech imports.
According to a U.S. Treasury statement, the U.S. will cut off two of Russia's largest financial institutions, Sberbank and the Russian Foreign Trade Bank (VTB), from the U.S. financial system.
These two financial institutions account for half of the total assets of the Russian banking sector. The other three major financial institutions, Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC and Novikombank, are subject to the same blanket lockdown sanctions.
Such an action would limit opportunities for Russian financial institutions to transact in dollars, dealing a blow to their ability to handle global trade. More than 80% of Russia's daily foreign exchange transactions and half of its trade is conducted in US dollars.
The Ministry of Finance noted that these Russian entities are vital to the Russian economy, with total assets reaching nearly $1.4 trillion. Now they will not be able to raise money through the U.S. market, limiting the Kremlin's ability to raise funds for its aggressive activities.
The breadth of U.S. sanctions on Russia extended beyond the banking sector, with 13 major Russian companies and entities imposed new debt and equity restrictions in areas such as mining, metals, energy, transportation and logistics.
In addition, the United States, in conjunction with its allies, has imposed multilateral export controls on key technologies, primarily targeting Russia's defense, aerospace, and marine industries, aimed at cutting off access to important military technology and equipment in these sectors.
The U.S. Commerce Department said the European Union, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand had announced plans to impose essentially similar restrictions, and more countries were expected to join the ranks of sanctions against Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Russia's violation of international commitments, which undermined important principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity;
Noting that the Council of Europe has imposed an unprecedented series of sanctions on Russia and Belarus, in addition to economic punishments, on key figures;
Stressing the need to ensure the unity of European partners and allies in order to safeguard sovereignty, security and democracy, the "land of allies" will be further defended under the NATO framework.
He also mentioned: "We will give an additional 300 million euros of budget assistance and have also been in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to provide the required defensive armaments".
Macron described the war in Ukraine as "a major geopolitical and historical turning point in the 21st century" and argued that the crisis "will have an impact on our lives, economy and security."
Macron admits that sanctions may also have an impact on themselves, but they defend their values and will take measures to protect people and businesses that have been hit.
After a videoconference held by NATO leaders, nato secretary-general vowed to continue to support the Ukrainian government and military, warning that NATO has taken unprecedented action to prevent Russia from violating NATO member states.
The new round of financial sanctions will focus on further blockades of Russia's banking system, which will isolate Russia from the global financial system and expose put the Putin government under enormous economic pressure.
However, the international community generally believes that the sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States are far from enough. Some experts believe that this round of sanctions will cause a serious blow to russia's financial industry, but the sanctions themselves are not enough to stop Russia's military behavior.
In fact, Putin has made it clear that the sanctions imposed by the West will not stop him. It is clear that Putin will complete his deployment according to his own arrangements before stopping his actions.