Berliner Boersenzeitung - Fresh evacuation efforts for devastated Ukraine cities

EUR -
AED 4.303976
AFN 81.441964
ALL 97.724417
AMD 449.756269
ANG 2.097062
AOA 1074.532108
ARS 1467.319002
AUD 1.793664
AWG 2.109223
AZN 2.007504
BAM 1.958274
BBD 2.365789
BDT 142.830437
BGN 1.955834
BHD 0.441678
BIF 3446.235331
BMD 1.17179
BND 1.500996
BOB 8.096228
BRL 6.556157
BSD 1.171981
BTN 100.360786
BWP 15.654777
BYN 3.834544
BYR 22967.090269
BZD 2.353573
CAD 1.604592
CDF 3381.786877
CHF 0.93107
CLF 0.029006
CLP 1113.110977
CNY 8.413747
CNH 8.416905
COP 4712.940666
CRC 590.946541
CUC 1.17179
CUP 31.052443
CVE 110.733745
CZK 24.628631
DJF 208.250341
DKK 7.46078
DOP 70.48331
DZD 152.044871
EGP 58.118102
ERN 17.576855
ETB 159.490077
FJD 2.633306
FKP 0.863336
GBP 0.862264
GEL 3.175215
GGP 0.863336
GHS 12.176313
GIP 0.863336
GMD 83.782479
GNF 10143.017355
GTQ 9.005376
GYD 245.029545
HKD 9.197904
HNL 30.876537
HRK 7.532502
HTG 153.784275
HUF 399.797296
IDR 19039.249117
ILS 3.888528
IMP 0.863336
INR 100.455709
IQD 1535.045319
IRR 49361.666877
ISK 143.40402
JEP 0.863336
JMD 187.306624
JOD 0.830825
JPY 171.514723
KES 151.742248
KGS 102.473037
KHR 4711.768848
KMF 493.324088
KPW 1054.585525
KRW 1610.122236
KWD 0.357783
KYD 0.976434
KZT 607.637627
LAK 25240.363919
LBP 104992.412278
LKR 352.255003
LRD 234.941473
LSL 20.846005
LTL 3.459992
LVL 0.708804
LYD 6.329253
MAD 10.551939
MDL 19.860089
MGA 5191.031139
MKD 61.507957
MMK 2460.182431
MNT 4205.038884
MOP 9.474069
MRU 46.525908
MUR 52.972553
MVR 18.042664
MWK 2034.81537
MXN 21.838129
MYR 4.980692
MZN 74.947358
NAD 20.845642
NGN 1797.127848
NIO 43.063088
NOK 11.836558
NPR 160.576856
NZD 1.952268
OMR 0.450555
PAB 1.17168
PEN 4.153409
PGK 4.848848
PHP 66.335527
PKR 333.081322
PLN 4.246852
PYG 9081.472602
QAR 4.266021
RON 5.077134
RSD 117.19662
RUB 91.646306
RWF 1680.347319
SAR 4.395227
SBD 9.769127
SCR 16.535124
SDG 703.660427
SEK 11.142801
SGD 1.50036
SHP 0.920843
SLE 26.368938
SLL 24571.861406
SOS 669.677436
SRD 43.649776
STD 24253.693785
SVC 10.251951
SYP 15235.769903
SZL 20.846096
THB 38.293909
TJS 11.336221
TMT 4.112984
TND 3.40394
TOP 2.744453
TRY 46.921414
TTD 7.956051
TWD 34.240841
TZS 3078.883475
UAH 48.97497
UGX 4206.313826
USD 1.17179
UYU 47.39988
UZS 14875.878317
VES 131.577763
VND 30629.42717
VUV 139.799183
WST 3.226363
XAF 656.786717
XAG 0.032209
XAU 0.000354
XCD 3.166822
XDR 0.815664
XOF 654.420316
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.397416
ZAR 20.8927
ZMK 10547.504558
ZMW 28.502007
ZWL 377.316005
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Fresh evacuation efforts for devastated Ukraine cities
Fresh evacuation efforts for devastated Ukraine cities

Fresh evacuation efforts for devastated Ukraine cities

Russia and Ukraine agreed to open more humanitarian corridors on Wednesday to evacuate terrified civilians from bombarded cities as Moscow said some progress was being made in talks with Kyiv.

Text size:

After air-raid sirens rang out again in Kyiv overnight, the plan was to open safe routes out of five Ukrainian areas including two suburbs of the capital that have been devastated by Russian shelling.

But previous ceasefire efforts have been bedevilled by violations, with Moscow apparently determined to push forward a 14-day-old invasion of its neighbour that has shocked the world.

Russia's war has sent around 2.2 million refugees across Ukraine's borders in what the UN has called Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, and sparked fears of wider conflict.

The West has responded with punishing sanctions, with the United States banning imports of Russian oil as it unleashed one of its biggest economic weapons against Moscow.

Major brands have continued to pull out of Russia, with McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Heineken among the latest to join the international chorus of outrage.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's appeals for air support remain unanswered, with Washington rejecting an offer from NATO ally Poland to give Kyiv jets.

Russia insisted on Wednesday that Moscow's troops were not working to "overthrow" the Ukrainian government.

"Some progress has been made" in three rounds of negotiations with officials from Kyiv to resolve the conflict, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing.

- New evacuation routes -

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Moscow vowed to respect the truce from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm around six areas that have been heavily hit by fighting.

Vereshchuk said Ukraine has had a "negative experience" of ceasefires not being respected, adding that residents had asked Russia to "keep its promises".

One of the evacuation routes is from Sumy, where some 5,000 civilians were able to escape on Tuesday, with some 60 buses able to leave the stricken town east of Kyiv near the Russian border, officials said.

For the first time the corridors also include Irpin, Bucha and Gostomel, a cluster of towns on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv that have been largely occupied by Russian forces.

"I didn't want to leave, but there's nobody left in the homes around us, no water, no gas and no electricity," Larissa Prokopets, 43, told AFP on Tuesday.

The routes out of the city on Wednesday would lead to Kyiv, the regional administration said.

Ukraine has previously rejected some humanitarian corridors because they would lead fleeing civilians to Russia or its ally Belarus.

A corridor was also agreed for the port town of Mariupol, where several previous evacuations have failed, leaving thousands of people without water or power since Friday in what the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called "really apocalyptic".

Fighting raged in other areas, with at least 10 people killed in a Russian military attack on homes and other buildings in the eastern Ukrainian town of Severodonestk on Tuesday, a local official for the Lugansk region said in a statement on Telegram.

- 'Fight to the end' -

In a defiant speech to British lawmakers, Zelensky invoked Winston Churchill's resistance against Nazi Germany as he vowed to "fight to the end."

"We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets," he told the packed chamber, which gave him a standing ovation.

But Western governments have baulked at the idea of a no-fly zone to defend Ukraine's skies, fearing it would trigger a conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

US Vice President Kamala Harris was travelling to Poland on Wednesday after the Pentagon rejected the "not tenable" Polish plan to deliver MiG-29 fighter jets to a US air base in Germany.

"The prospect of fighter jets... departing from a US/NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance," spokesman John Kirby said.

- Russian default looms -

The West has instead relied on funnelling weapons and aid into Ukraine, while aiming to bring Russia's economy to its knees through sanctions.

Ratings agency Fitch downgraded Russia deep into junk territory on Tuesday, predicting a default on its sovereign debt payments to be "imminent".

Britain said it would join the United States in phasing out Russian oil by the end of the year, and the European Union also said it would slash gas imports by two-thirds.

The EU on Wednesday agreed to add more Russian oligarchs, and to cut three Belarusian banks from the global SWIFT payments system over Minsk's support for the Kremlin's attack, France said.

The United States meanwhile also said the Kremlin's prize geopolitical energy project, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, was now dead.

"It is a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea, I don't think it will ever be revived," Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told US lawmakers.

A corporate boycott grew too, with Dutch brewery Heineken, the world's second-biggest beer company, saying it would stop selling and producing beer there.

Fast food giant McDonald's, soft drinks titan Coca-Cola and coffee chain Starbucks also suspended their operations in Russia.

- Chernobyl loses contact -

Since invading Ukraine, Russia has taken control of the defunct Chernobyl atomic plant, captured Europe's biggest nuclear plant and put its nuclear forces on alert.

Putin is using nuclear "blackmail" to keep the international community from interfering the conflict, the head of the Nobel prize-winning group ICAN told AFP Tuesday.

burs-dk/spm

(A.Lehmann--BBZ)