Flee now before Russia attacks in east, Ukraine tells its people

KYIV: Ukraine on Wednesday urged its citizens in the east of the country to flee their homes before Russia began a major new offensive in the region.
Russian forces in northern Ukraine have been driven back after failing to capture the capital, Kyiv, but are now thought to be regrouping before a redeployment in Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk.
Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged people there to leave immediately and seek refuge in safer areas to the west. “It has to be done now because later people will be under fire and face the threat of death,” she said.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces were continuing preparations for an eastern offensive to take full control of Donetsk and Luhansk. The main focus was Donetsk, where Russian troops were still trying to seize all of Mariupol, it said.
Tens of thousands of people remain trapped in the southern port city without food, water or power. “The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,” British military intelligence said. The Red Cross said its team had led a convoy of buses and private cars with more than 500 Mariupol residents to nearby Zaporizhzhia after the civilians fled on their own.
As Russian artillery bombarded other key Ukrainian cities on Wednesday, the US imposed new sanctions, including penalties targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters, and more evidence emerged that Russian troops murdered Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha before it was recaptured from the invaders.
Pope Francis described the killings as a “massacre” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the West needed to do more to rein in Russia. “I can’t tolerate any indecisiveness after everything that Russian troops have done,” Zelensky said. Some Western leaders “still think that war and war crimes are not something as horrific as financial losses.”
The US imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Russian banks and Kremlin officials, and banning Americans from investing in Russia. The sanctions hit Sberbank, which holds a third of Russia’s banking assets, and Alfabank, the country’s fourth-largest financial institution.
Washington also imposed sanctions on Putin’s two adult daughters, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s wife and daughter, and members of Russia’s security council. “I made clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha,” President Joe Biden said.
Britain also froze Sberbank’s assets, and said it would ban imports of Russian coal by the end of the year.
Russia edged closer to defaulting on its international debt as it paid dollar bondholders in roubles and said it would continue to do so while its foreign exchange reserves were blocked by sanctions.