More than one million civilians have fled Ukraine this past week as its remaining civilians are left without heat, light, and water a week after Russia’s initial invasion. As Russian and Ukrainian talks continue in Belarus, many see the situation worsening rather than concluding. This past Tuesday Ukraine’s parliament misspoke about Belorussian troops entering the Chernihiv region on Twitter. The Tweet went as far as to say “The information was confirmed to the public by Vitaliy Kyrylov, spokesman for the North Territorial Defense Forces. More details later,” The rumor was quickly shut down within the same day by the U.S., saying there was ‘no indication the claim was correct’.
After failed first-round of meetings in Belarus Monday, Neither side suggested it was expecting breakthroughs. Many Ukrainians believe the next move for Russia is to gain the aid of the Belarussian army, which further explains the allegedly incorrect anxiety-ridden Tweet posted earlier this week. There are a few reasons as to why many believe Putin has Belarus in his back pocket, the most recent came to surface Tuesday night as seven bus-size Russian military ambulances, with blacked-out windows, pulled up to the back entrance of one of the main hospitals in Belarus, about thirty miles away from the Ukrainian border.
According to local residents and physicians, The transport was part of a steady flow of Russian soldiers injured in intense fighting surrounding Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Which has now come to a halt as a result of too many unprecedented casualties. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised in an ominous, almost haunting video that if the West were to help Ukraine, “Nobody would win.”
As violence continues to grow and fear surges in Ukraine, other nations are showing their support and anger through sanctioning Russia, removing Russian access to various ports worldwide, and also having private-owned companies temporarily pull their business from the Russian economy. The Russian people are continuing to struggle in their seemingly voiceless society. Following the arrests of the protestors of the war, Russian civilians could be experiencing the unfolding of what could be the ‘Blockade on Russia’, an economic war that replicates the 1939-1945 Blockade of Germany during World War II.
Hope continues to get demolished along with any stretch of the Ukrainian land Russia carelessly lusts after. On Wednesday, the first Ukrainian city to fall was Kherson. Russian troops and tanks rolled into Kherson, on the Dnieper River near the Black Sea, after days of intense fighting that left as many as 300 Ukrainian civilians and fighters dead, said the mayor and another senior Ukrainian government official, to the New York Times, who had confirmed that the city had fallen. Other Russian troops surrounded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and Mariupol, the country’s port. A large convoy of armored vehicles gathered north of Kyiv, ominously, in evident readiness for a big operation.
Following the actions taken by Russia Wednesday, an emergency session of the General Assembly was had. In the meeting, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and calling Moscow to immediately withdraw all forces from Ukraine, a move that aimed to politically isolate Russia.
Countries continue to stand ready in defense with Ukraine as thirty-nine various nations insisted on investigating possible war crimes committed in Ukraine after Russia was accused of bombing civilians. Yesterday, six days after the initial invasion, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said evidence was being collected on alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative journalism site Bellingcat, said there was evidence of Russia causing “civilian harm”, including through the use of “cluster bombs in civilian areas”, from credible video and stills of the violence.
Today, Ukrainian negotiators resumed talks with Russian officials and demanded a ceasefire. In seven days, more than 1 million refugees fled in and the humanitarian crisis only gets worse. With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers dying, it seems that a ceasefire is one of the only actions Ukraine can take. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak tweeted a picture of himself and other negotiators seated at a conference table in an unknown location. For the meeting, the Ukrainians wore battle fatigues and winter jackets, the Russians wore suits and ties.
