The European Union will apply direct economic sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The information was confirmed by an authority of the block. The intention is to freeze the assets held in Europe by Putin and Lavrov.
European Union envoys are meeting today in Brussels, Belgium, to work out the details of sanctions against Moscow.
This meeting is a follow-up to the meeting between the leaders of the bloc, which took place on Thursday (24).
Ukraine expects a Russian tank attack on its capital Kiev later on Friday, in what could prove to be the most difficult day of the war, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. Kiev are ready with anti-tank missiles supplied by foreign allies.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said air assault troops blew up a bridge over the Teteriv River, located about 50 kilometers north of Kiev, in an effort to stop Russian troops from advancing towards the capital.
In a new video posted on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for resistance to the Russian invasion and criticized Ukraine’s allies. “This morning, we are defending our country alone. Just like yesterday, the most powerful country in the world looks from afar,” Zelensky said, seeming to refer to the United States.
“Russia was hit yesterday by sanctions, but they are not enough to get foreign troops off our soil. At 4 am, Russian forces resumed their missile attacks on the territory of Ukraine,” he declared.
According to reports from an adviser to the Ukrainian government, the bombings in the country continue this Friday. During the early morning in the country, the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, said that the capital Kiev was the target of explosions earlier in the day.
“You attacks on Kiev with ballistic or cruise missiles continued,” Gerashchenko told reporters via text message. A team from CNN at the scene reported hearing two large explosions in the center of Kiev. Hours later, three more explosions were heard in the southwest of the capital.
Reporters from CNN in Kiev and Lviv, a city in the west of the country, heard air raid sirens for several minutes around 7 am local time (2 am GMT).
Russian forces that entered Ukraine via Belarus are about 20 miles from the capital, Biden administration officials told US lawmakers at a briefing on Thursday, according to two sources in the conversation.
Officials described another Russian element who entered Ukraine from Russia a little further afield, but that both are heading to Kiev with the aim of besieging the city and potentially toppling the Ukrainian government, according to the lawmaker on the call.
understand the conflict
After months of military escalation and intemperance on the Ukrainian border, Russia attacked the Eastern European country. At dawn this Thursday (24), Russian forces began to bomb several regions of the country – follow the repercussion live on CNN.
Hours earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a “special military operation” in the Donbas region (eastern Ukraine, where the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk are located, which he recognized as independent).
What was seen in the following hours, however, was an attack on almost the entire Ukrainian territory, with explosions in several cities, including the capital Kiev.
According to Ukrainian officials, dozens of deaths have been confirmed in the armies of both countries.
In his speech before the attack, Putin justified the action by saying that Russia could not “tolerate threats from Ukraine”. Putin urged Ukrainian soldiers to “put down your weapons and go home”. The Russian leader further stated that he will not accept any kind of foreign interference.
This attack on the former Soviet neighbor threatens to destabilize Europe and involve the United States.
Russia has been tightening its military grip around Ukraine for the past year, amassing tens of thousands of troops, equipment and artillery at the country’s gates.
In recent weeks, diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions have been unsuccessful.
The escalation in the years-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine has triggered the continent’s biggest security crisis since the Cold War, raising the specter of a dangerous confrontation between Western powers and Moscow.
(From Sarah Marsh and Madeline Chambers of Reuters and Eliza Mackintosh of CNN)
Source: CNN Brasil
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