The Western ban on imports of Russian oil could more than double the price of $ 300 a barrel and cause the closure of a major gas pipeline to Germany, Moscow warned on Monday, as talks on Ukraine continue unabated amid growing efforts to secure a safe haven for civilians.
The Russian invasion, the largest European invasion since World War II, has created 1.7 million refugees, massive sanctions in Moscow, and fears of widespread conflict in Western countries unimaginable for decades.
The siege and bombing continued as Kyiv rejected humanitarian efforts in Russia and Belarus, but said that limited progress had been made in approving civilian evacuation measures.
Moscow will give residents of the Ukrainian cities of Sumy and Mariupol the opportunity to choose to relocate to Ukraine on Tuesday, setting a deadline for Kyiv to agree, Russian media reported.
Wanting to end pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the United States has said Washington and its European allies are considering banning Russian oil purchases. Oil prices have risen sharply since 2008.
“The rejection of Russian oil will lead to catastrophic results in global markets,” said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who said the price could be more than double to $ 300 per barrel.
U.S. President Joe Biden held a video conference with leaders from France, Germany and Britain as he demanded their support for the ban.
But if necessary the United States is determined to move forward without European integration, two people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. Many countries on the continent rely heavily on Russian power.
Last month Germany suspended the Nord Stream 2 certification for gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.
“We have the right to make a corresponding decision and to restrict the flow of gas to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline,” said Novak.
Russia’s economy, banking system, and money have come under heavy pressure as punishment for the Ukrainian invasion. The country will not be included in all JPMorgan fixed income indicators, the bank said in a recent development.
SPEAKS ‘IT’S NOT EASY’
More than 1.7 million Ukrainians have fled Central Europe since the start of the war on February 24, the United Nations refugee agency said on Monday.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special mission” that it is not designed to take over but to undermine the military power of its southern neighbor and hold what it sees as dangerous nationalist extremists.
After a third attempt to stem the tide of bloodshed in negotiations in Belarus, the Ukrainian negotiator said that although little progress had been made in agreeing to the eviction plans had been made, things had not changed.
“From now on, no results will improve the situation,” said Mykhailo Podolyak.
Russian diplomat Vladimir Medinsky told reporters that talks were “not easy”.
“We hope that from tomorrow these corridors will be operational,” he said.
Russia has proposed two corridors within Ukraine, according to Interfax.
The escape routes to Russia and Belarus, closely related, were previously described as “absolutely dirty” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s spokesman.
The fourth round of talks is coming soon, Russian diplomat Leonid Slutsky told Russian state television.
“Our president is not afraid of anything, including a direct meeting with Putin,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said late Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters that Moscow would stop working if Ukraine stopped fighting, amended its constitution to declare neutrality, and accepted Russia’s Crimean occupation and independence from Russian-backed separatist regions.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has spoken with Putin several times last month during the attack, said he did not see anything stopping him.
“I do not think that in the coming days and weeks, there will be a real negotiating solution,” he said.
FAILURE TO GET OUT
General Ukrainian military personnel said Russian troops were “beginning to gather resources to invade Kyiv”, a city of more than three million people, after days of slow progress in its further south south from Belarus.
Outside the capital, the attacks continued.
A Russian strike in the bakery industry has killed 13 people in the town of Makariv in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials say. Reuters could not confirm the details. Russia denies identifying citizens.
In the southern port city of Mariupol, hundreds of thousands of people were left without food or water because of bombing raids.
Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told CNN that authorities were ready to evacuate 6,000 people on Saturday but Russians had blown up buses carrying them. Moscow has accused Ukrainian citizens of blocking public transport.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, police said the death toll from the Russian bombing was 143 since the start of the attacks. Couldn’t verify toll.
In Irpin, people choose their route over the twisted ruins of a large bridge.
“It’s like a disaster,” a young woman with her children told Reuters.
Ukraine said on Monday its troops recaptured the northeastern city of Chuhuiv after heavy fighting and Mykolayiv airport in the south. And it could not be immediately confirmed.
In a report on humanitarian action, the United Nations described one psychiatric hospital 40 miles (40 miles) from Kyiv running out of water and medicine with 670 people trapped inside, including in-bed patients with intensive care.
Negotiations with the US Congress on Monday were close to an agreement on a bill to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in emergency aid. Read the full story
A senior US defence official said Putin had now deployed into Ukraine nearly 100% of the more than 150,000 forces that he had pre-staged outside the country before the invasion.
Moscow has acknowledged nearly 500 deaths among its soldiers, but Western countries say the true number is much higher and Ukraine says it is many thousands.
Death tolls cannot be verified, but footage filmed across Ukraine shows burnt-out wreckage of Russian tanks and armour, and parts of Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble by Russian strikes.