Russia, Ukraine war threatens global peace, especially if economic sanctions continually fail to deter Putin, a situation that may lead to military intervention
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The war between Ukraine and Russia has opened on multiple fronts.
According to the AFP, Russia claims it has destroyed over 70 military targets, including 11 airfields, in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military admitted that there has been intense fighting for control of an airbase near Kyiv, the capital of the country, hours after President Vladimir Putin authorised military operations in the Eastern European country.
Ukraine also claimed to have killed at least 50 Russian soldiers and shot down six Russian fighter jets.
READ ALSO
Putin grants two Ukrainian states of Lugansk, Donetsk independence
Russia provoked the war when its hardliner President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognising separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine as sovereign republics. The states are Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).
Oleksiy Arestovych, one of the advisers in Ukrainian President’s Office, has argued that more than 40 soldiers and up to 10 civilians have been killed during Russian invasion. “As far as I know, at the moment there are a few civilian deaths — up to ten”.
Reacting to the Ukrainian claim that she shot down its six planes, the Russian military had denied the claims, according to state news agency TASS.
In her response according to CNN, the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised to “weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize” following the “barbaric attack” by Moscow against Ukraine.
“We will freeze Russian assets in the European Union and stop the access of Russian banks to European financial markets,” Von der Leyen told reporters on Thursday.
“We condemn this barbaric attack and the cynical arguments that are being used to justify it.”
Von der Leyen said she will present “massive and strategic” sanctions against Russia for approval later today.
“These sanctions are designed to take a heavy toll on the Kremlin’s interests and their ability to finance war. And we know that millions of Russians do not want war,” she said.
“We will not allow President [Vladimir] Putin to replace the rule of law, by the rule of force, and ruthlessness. Ukraine will prevail,” she said.
