On Wednesday (23 Feb), Ukraine’s Security Council called for a State of Emergency, which had been met with overwhelming support from the Parliament.
The State of Emergency, which essentially places the country under the martial law of Kyiv’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will allow him to impose restrictions on movement, stop rallies, and prohibit political parties and organisations “in the internets of national security and public order”.
It also gives the government the right to impose curfew and conduct checks.
The State of Emergency will last for 30 days, starting from this Thursday (24 Feb).
This decision was stoked by the cyberattacks that have been causing outages on government and state websites for weeks, with the most recent happening on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s parliament, cabinet, and foreign ministry websites were all affected.
Furthermore, Russian troops have moved into the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk under the pretext of “peacekeeping operations”.
In the last four days, six Ukrainian soldiers have already died during the intensifying shelling at the Eastern borders. It’s unknown if a full-frontal assault will be sparked by these warning shots, and even President Zelenskyy admits that President Putin’s actions are difficult to predict.
More than 150,000 Russian troops have amassed in combat formation at the shared borders, to say nothing of the warships lining Crimea’s coast in the Black Sea.
President Zelenskyy Calls Up the Reservist Troops
Left with little alternatives, President Zelenskyy placed 200,000 Ukrainian reservists on notice for mobilisation, with 36,000 of its members being veterans from the last conflict with Russia in 2014.
Reservists aged 16 to 60 have been called forth, with the maximum service period being a year.
The Ukrainian President said that Ukraine has not reached the point where mandatory conscription was necessary, but they had to be prepared for a potential large-scale conflict.
“Ukrainians are a peaceful nation,” he said. “We want quiet. But if we are today silent, then tomorrow we will disappear. Before us lies hard work, every day, but we are prepared for it with confidence in ourselves, in our country, in victory.”
Due to the growing hostilities, President Zelenskyy also urges the approximately three million citizens living in Russia to leave.
Likewise, the Russian Embassy in Ukraine has lowered its flag and evacuated its staff from the country.
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Despite the Sanctions
In spite of the economic sanctions that have been collectively placed on Russia, targeting key oligarchs and financial institutions, Russia shows no signs of backing down.
United States President Joe Biden has even announced that they will be working with Germany to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline—a system of offshore natural gas pipelines in Europe that run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany—which was among the sanctions he had placed on Russia.
The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) were quick on their heels to follow through with the sanctions, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promising that additional defensive weapons will be sent to Ukraine.
In the face of the mounting international pressure via economic sanctions, Kremlin officials have only responded scornfully.
Presently, Russia is not as affected as the Western powers hope they would be, since Russia is naturally energy-rich, with $639 billion in reserves and a $182-billion sovereign wealth fund to cover any potential crisis.
Hence, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tells the West to pursue tougher sanctions as a means to deter “further aggression”.
“First decisive steps were taken yesterday, and we are grateful for them. Now the pressure needs to step up to stop Putin. Hit his economy and cronies. Hit more. Hit hard. Hit now.” Kuleba tweeted.
With so many peace negotiations falling through, first with Moscow recognising the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk regardless of the warnings and rendering the ceasefire Minsk-II Protocol useless, then President Putin outright ignoring any threats of sanctions to continue his military deployments in the name of Russia’s security interest whilst lying out a list of unreasonable demands, some wonder if peace talks are even necessary anymore.
In fact, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian have cancelled separate meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
A summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Putin that was once suggested by France now appears all the more unlikely.
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