Zelensky To Address British Parliament From Heart of Kiev; Second Russian General Killed

ATHENS — As Ukraine heads into its 13th day of war, with its southern cities battered and Russian tanks on the edge of Kiev, the country’s unflappable president, Volodymyr Zelensky, says he will not be leaving the capital. He made the announcement Instagram official, posting a video to the popular social media platform overnight in which he said, “I stay in Kyiv. On Bankova Street. I’m not hiding. And I’m not afraid of anyone. As much as it takes to win this Patriotic War of ours.” Until the post dropped — the first part of which shows a nighttime view of Kiev rooftops apparently filmed by Mr. Zelensky himself with his phone — his exact whereabouts in Kiev were not publicly known. His official residence is the Mariinskyi Palace, in another part of the city. From somewhere in the heart of Kiev, Mr. Zelensky is scheduled to address the British Parliament on Tuesday afternoon. Ukrainian resistance, which seems powered as much by national pride as by weapons flowing in overland from the West, is paying dividends in terms of casualties on the Russian side. A major general in Russia’s 41st army, Vitaly Gerasimov, was reported killed along with other senior Russian officers in fighting around Kharkiv, according to the Guardian. Ukrainian intelligence made the claim, which if accurate it would make Gerasimov the second general the Russian army has lost in Ukraine in a week. Ukrainian newspaper Expres reported that Gerasimov had received a medal for his role in Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.Additionally, the Guardian reports, the intelligence arm of the Ukrainian defense ministry broadcast “what it claimed was a conversation between two Russian FSB officers discussing the death and complaining that their secure communications were no longer functioning inside Ukraine.” Over the weekend, the British defense secretary, Ben Wallace, hinted that Ukrainian resistance fighters may be intercepting some battlefield communications due to the Russian’s poor radio equipment.Minor progress has been made on establishing safe corridors to allow civilians to escape the ongoing fighting, AP reports. A top Ukrainian official says both sides agreed to a 12-hour cease-fire Tuesday for the evacuation of civilians from the key eastern city of Sumy.Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said those being evacuated from Sumy include foreign students from India and China. For its part, the Russian defense ministry has said civilians will be allowed to leave Sumy, Kiev, and Mariupol, the port city that has come under some of the the harshest bombardment by Russian forces to date. Ukrainian officials said Russian aircraft continued to bomb cities in eastern and central Ukraine overnight, with shelling pounding the suburbs of Kiev, according to AP.Le Figaro asks: “Did NATO ever promise Russia not to expand east?” In exploring the answer to that question, the report cites a remark Vladimir Putin made at a speech in Munich in 2007: “We have the right to ask the question: against whom is this expansion directed? And what happened to the assurances our Western partners gave us after the breakup of the Warsaw pact?” In any event, the French newspaper considers that to be the decisive moment of the Russian leader’s anti-Western pivot.The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, tweeted yesterday that the EU body will be discussing Ukraine’s membership application “in the coming days,” but an article in Politico notes that the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as recently as Sunday declined to say whether and when Ukraine would be given European Union membership. Ms. Von der Leyen also refused to answer whether the EU would contemplate a total ban on the import of Russian oil and gas.Amid reports that Moscow may cut gas supplies to Europe if the West bans Russian oil, the economic fallout from the war continues apace, with energy prices already soaring in Europe. A BBC headline says: “War in Ukraine: Crisis is unleashing ‘hell on earth’ for food prices.” It’s a consumer calamity reverberating across many financial newspapers: “Wheat Settles at All-Time High as War Paralyzes Ukraine Trade,” Bloomberg reports in a story specifying that yesterday, “Chicago wheat settled at the highest price on record as Russia’s intensifying war in Ukraine cuts off supplies from one of the world’s leading breadbaskets. Benchmark futures climbed by the exchange limit of 85 cents, or 7%, to close at $12.94 a bushel. That builds on a massive surge of 41% last week, the biggest gain in data spanning six decades.” Surging prices for the food staple will pile pressure on government budgets and add to global hunger, Bloomberg reports.Nikkei Asia reports, “China says Moscow relations solid,” and accuses America of building an “Indo-Pacific version of NATO.” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, has not addressed “earlier calls from his Ukrainian counterpart to broker a cease-fire between Moscow and Kyiv,” Nikkei reports, “and there was little sign that Beijing was changing its cautious stance toward a bloody conflict that has seen hundreds killed in fierce fighting.” That assessment seemed to be shared by the Financial Times, which ran this recent headline: “China’s Xi sits pretty amid carnage of Putin’s murderous assault.” As the FT has it, Beijing lacks the diplomatic chops to broker a compromise between Russia and Ukraine.

Zelensky To Address British Parliament From Heart of Kiev; Second Russian General Killed

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