These are the most important events at the beginning of the fifth day of invasion:
The negotiations between Ukraine and Russia
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border begin early Monday morning, according to sources from both countries quoted by Russian and Ukrainian media. “It is not a postponement, the meeting will take place in the morning due to a logistical issue on the Ukrainian side,” said a source, quoted by the Russian agency TASS.
The spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sergei Nikiforov, also told the nv.ua portal that due to complex logistical measures, as well as the need to guarantee the safety of the Ukrainian delegation, it would still take a few hours to reach the meeting place. .
Ukraine has reported that it will do so unconditionally at the Aleksandrovka-Vilcha checkpoint, on the border between Ukraine and Belarus, and that Minsk would be responsible for the safety of the Ukrainian delegation.
The President of Ukraine explained that he accepted this meeting “so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine would have the slightest doubt that I, as president, did not try to stop the war, when there was a small one, but still a chance.”
Previously, Kiev refused to meet with the Russian delegation in Minsk due to its involvement in the war against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military command declares that the Armed Forces of the country stopped the advance of Russian troops towards Kiev.
“All attempts by the Russian occupation troops to meet their objectives failed,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrski, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, said of Russian attempts to storm the outskirts of the capital.
Syrski, quoted by the UNIAN agency, stressed that “the enemy suffered considerable casualties.”
“Russian troops are demoralized and exhausted. We have shown that we know how to defend our guest house that we have not invited,” said the general.
According to the Army, all movements of enemy troops are controlled.
Ukraine raised this Sunday to 352 the number of civilians who died during the war caused by Russia, which has also caused 1,684 injuries, according to the country’s Ministry of the Interior. Among the deceased are 14 children, says a message from the ministry on Telegram.
Special session at the UN General Assembly
The UN Security Council passed a resolution to convene an urgent special session on Ukraine at the General Assembly, the body where the organization’s 193 member states sit. The special session is expected to begin this Monday, but the vote on the text will not take place before Wednesday, to give all the delegations time to analyze it with their capitals.
The initiative, promoted by the United States and Albania, went ahead with eleven votes in favor, three abstentions – China, India and the United Arab Emirates – and a single vote against, that of Russia, which in this case did not have veto power. as it is a procedural decision.
The call comes after Russia blocked a resolution in the Security Council on Friday that condemned its invasion and ordered the withdrawal of troops, and seeks that the Assembly, where Moscow cannot veto decisions, approves over the next few days a similar document.
The ruble collapses
The ruble collapses in the Forex market by almost 30% against the dollar and the euro after the announcement by some banks of the SWIFT international interbank clearing system and the suspension by the European Union (EU) of transactions with the Central Bank of Russia (BCR).
Shortly after 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT) the ruble lost 28.34% against the greenback, whose exchange rate stood at 107.48 dollars per ruble. The Russian currency fell in turn by 27.02%, to 119.8 euros per ruble.
In the case of the dollar, this is a record drop since at least 1993 and in the case of the euro it is the biggest drop since at least 1994.
The Central Bank of Russia (BCR) announces measures to ensure liquidity.
The BCR wants to ensure the liquidity of the country’s banks affected by Western sanctions, such as the release of accumulated capital reserves worth 733,000 million rubles (6,245 million euros or 6,963 million dollars) for consumer loans and mortgages .
“As part of its countercyclical macroprudential policy, the Bank of Russia will dissolve the accumulated macroprudential capital buffer for consumer loans and unsecured mortgage loans in rubles and foreign currency from February 28, 2022 (733 billion rubles as of February 1). February 2022),” the monetary entity said in a statement.
The Norwegian State Global Pension Fund, which invests oil and gas revenues abroad, will freeze and then dispose of its millionaire assets invested in Russia, the government of this Nordic country announced.
The investment of what is considered the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world in Russia amounts to about 27,000 million Norwegian crowns (2,709 million euros or 3,053 million dollars), according to Norwegian economic media.
The center-left Norwegian government has ordered the National Bank to immediately freeze all its investments in Russia and not carry out any operations, to then start the sale of assets, as a reaction to the war against Ukraine.
The European Union (EU) agreed this Sunday to grant 450 million euros to finance the supply of lethal military equipment to Ukraine and another 50 million euros for non-lethal equipment, such as fuel and protective equipment.
“We have decided to use our capabilities to provide weapons, lethal weapons, lethal assistance to the Ukrainian Army, worth 450 million support package, and 50 million more for non-lethal supplies, such as fuel and protective equipment,” the high representative announced. of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, at a press conference at the end of a videoconference of community ministers of the branch.
Borrell stressed that it is “the first time in history” in which the EU will jointly finance this type of equipment, for which “everyone agreed or, at least, did not obstruct this decision.”
The European Union will grant temporary protection to all displaced Ukrainians who arrive in the Member States fleeing the war launched against their country by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
