Barricade on Maidan Square in Kyiv.
(Photo: AP)
new York What’s next in Kyiv? During the night, the Ukrainian capital was spared attacks. But in front of Kyiv, the Russian threat continues to build: satellite images show a military convoy 64 kilometers long that is approaching.
Military strategists anticipate the city may be surrounded. Russia’s war experiences in Syria could serve as a model: there, large cities like Aleppo and Idlib were surrounded and bombed ready for a storm.
According to a media report, Russian soldiers attacked a military medical center in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the country’s second largest city. The Unian agency reported that there was a fight with Ukrainian units. At Kharkiv, the Ukrainians managed to capture six new Russian T-80BWM tanks.
According to the Ukrinform agency, a Russian tank fired into a building of the Ukrainian secret service SBU in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
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An airstrike was reported from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr on Tuesday evening. Cruise missiles apparently hit numerous houses there, as well as a hospital. The information could not be independently verified.
>> Read here: The current developments in our news blog
Biden speaks to the nation
In the US, President Joe Biden has delivered his eagerly awaited State of the Union address. The Ukraine crisis was the main topic. Biden stressed the unity of the West and praised the measures taken that would further isolate Russia.
“If dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” said the US President. “Putin may encircle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never win the hearts and souls of Ukrainians.” The Russian president will also “never weaken the resolve of the free world.”
The US President announced that the US would close its airspace to all Russian aircraft. The EU and Canada had previously announced this step.
Biden called on US Congressmen and Senators to stand up and “send an unequivocal signal to Ukraine and the world.” The US President said of Putin: “He has no idea what to expect.”
>>> Read here: Biden’s State of the Union address: Putin ‘miscalculated’ on Ukraine
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a resolution against Russia at the United Nations. In her speech in New York, Baerbock said: “Today we all have to choose between peace and aggression, between justice and the will of the strongest, between action and looking the other way.”
The UN General Assembly met for an emergency session on Tuesday evening. The Security Council also called the General Assembly, against Russia’s veto, to pass a resolution condemning Russia for the invasion. The vote is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
Before the UN body, Baerbock spoke of Moscow’s “brazen lies”: “They say they are acting in self-defense. But the whole world has watched as they spent months building up their troops to prepare for this attack.”
Addressing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Baerbock said: “You can fool yourself. But you will not fool us. And you will not deceive your own people.”
>>> Read here: Baerbock pleads for resolution against Russia before N-plenary assembly.
Cyber terrorism warning
Experts fear an increase in terrorist attacks in Ukraine – especially in the area of cybercrime. A whole series of attacks on the computer systems of Ukraine and other countries have already been attributed to Russia, the think tank IEP (Institute for Economics and Peace) reported on Wednesday at the presentation of its Global Terrorism Index. “It is possible that the threat of cyberterrorism is increasing globally in parallel with the escalation of the Ukraine conflict,” it said.
Private sector joins sanctions course
The economy is increasingly turning away from Russia. Several large US consumer goods companies announced on Tuesday evening that they no longer want to offer their products in Russia. These include the iPhone manufacturer Apple, sporting goods manufacturer Nike and the car manufacturer Ford.
Likewise, the US oil giant ExxonMobil announced the end of its business relations with Russia. Oil and gas production businesses want to give up. “We condemn Russia’s military actions,” said the largest US oil multinational in a statement during the night. The company supports the people of Ukraine and advocates a strong international response to Russia.
>> Read about this: The first German companies are getting out of business in Russia
You can find more reports from the Handelsblatt here:
German entrepreneurs in Russia worried
“Even for experienced and crisis-tested managers, the attack on Ukraine is a shock. With the war, the unimaginable human suffering and the loss of trust on many levels, what has been achieved in decades of successful economic cooperation is being thrown back dramatically,” said the head of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK), Matthias Schepp, the German press Agency on Wednesday night.
The Chamber had already complained about a decline in German companies in Russia after the previous sanctions and in view of the difficult business conditions in Russia. According to AHK information, their number fell by eight percent in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Most recently, 3,651 companies with German capital were still active in the largest country in the world, citing information from the Russian tax authorities. In the past ten years or so, 42 percent of the companies have withdrawn – in 2011 there were still 6,300 companies with German capital in Russia.
The German economy fears that the trend of leaving the country and withdrawing capital could now accelerate massively. Some companies have a lot to lose. “Those who own a factory cannot just put it in a suitcase. The companies are looking at how they can keep things going so that they don’t have to write off the investments entirely,” said Schepp.
>> Read about this: The first German companies are getting out of business in Russia
nervousness in the markets
Investors are concerned with the question of how badly the Ukraine war will affect the western economy. And the answers are apparently not very edifying. After a quiet start to the week on Monday, global trading centers turned negative on Tuesday.
The leading American index Dow Jones closed 1.86 percent lower, the market-wide S& 500 around 1.6 percent lower. By lunchtime, the Japanese Nikkei was 1.9 percent below Tuesday’s closing price.
There will be no trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Wednesday either. The central bank reports this. However, some selected transactions at the trading venue should be possible for the first time this week.
>> Read about this: The Markets in the Morning – “We are in the middle of a bear market”
With agency material.