Feb 25 (Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the Ukraine crisis right now:
HEADLINES
* Russian missiles pounded Kyiv on Friday, families cowered in shelters and authorities told residents to prepare Molotov cocktails to defend Ukraine’s capital from an assault that the mayor said had already begun with saboteurs in the city.
* The EU agreed to freeze any European assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
* NATO said it was making significant additional deployments of forces to the Eastern part of the alliance.
* Moscow said its forces captured the strategic Hostomel aerodrome outside Kyiv and landed paratroopers in the area. This could not immediately be confirmed and the Ukrainian authorities reported heavy fighting there.
* Russia accused Ukraine of going silent on possibility of talks.
* Ukraine wants peace and is ready for talks with Russia, including on a neutral status regarding NATO, a presidential office adviser told Reuters.
* Ukraine’s nuclear agency said it was recording higher “but not critical” radiation levels from the site of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, captured by Russian forces.
* Ukraine accused Russian troops on Friday of firing on ambulances in the Zaporizhzhya and Chernihiv regions and on a psychiatric hospital in Chernihiv.
* Ukraine said two commercial ships were hit by Russian missiles near Odessa.
* The invasion could drive up to 5 million people to flee abroad, U.N. aid agencies said on Friday, adding that at least 100,000 people are already uprooted in the country and fuel, cash and medical supplies are running low.
* Kyiv residents are hiding in underground metro stations, in other cities residents, including tens of thousands of foreign students, packed into bunkers and basements to shelter from a barrage of shelling.
* Guards fire warning shots as Ukrainians try to cram onto evacuation trains.
* The United States, Britain, Canada, the EU, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and others unveiled sanctions against Russia, targeting banks, military exports and members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
* The EU is close to agreement on sanctioning Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Luxembourg said.
* Stocks in Europe and Wall Street rallied as investors welcomed sanctions that did not block Russia from the SWIFT global payments system and left its energy sector largely untouched.
* Russia’s foreign ministry said on Friday that threats of sanctions coming from London will not deter Russia, but will only lead to a new escalation.
* China stuck to a message of declining to call Russia’s action an “invasion”.
* Several countries closed their airspace to Russian airlines, and Russia retaliated. Russia’s S7 Airlines (AVSII.MM) suspended all flights to Europe on Feb. 26-March 13.
* UEFA moves Champions League final from St Petersburg to Paris; F1 cancels Russian Grand Prix.
* Russia will not be allowed to participate in the final of this year’s Eurovision song contest
QUOTES
– “The city has gone into a defensive phase. Shots and explosions are ringing out in some neighbourhoods. Saboteurs have already entered Kyiv,” said Kyiv’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitchko. “The enemy wants to put the capital on its knees and destroy us.”
– “I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields,” Putin said at a televised meeting with Russia’s security council. “Take power into your own hands, it will be easier for us to reach agreement.”
– “You still can stop this aggression. You have to act swiftly,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, urging Europe to act more forcefully in imposing sanctions on Moscow.
