One month on, Ukraine troops though outnumbered battle the Russian forces relentlessly, talks continue worldwide to end the biggest offensive Europe has witnessed since World War II, life continues under relentless bombardment for the everyday Ukrainian with “nowhere to go”.
Russian bombardment of the southern port city of Mariupol continues unabated, with some 100,000 people said to be trapped there.
With Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Russia is faced with an increasingly costly, uncertain and grinding military campaign, with untold numbers of dead, no immediate end in sight, and encircled by western sanctions biting hard on its economy and currency. U.S. President Joe Biden and key allies meeting in Brussels and Warsaw this week will discuss possible new sanctions and additional military assistance for Ukraine.
With his military-olive tops, rugged and resolute look and impassioned appeals to governments across the world for help, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been transformed into a wartime communicator and No. 1 thorn on the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky on Wednesday while addressing the Japanese parliament, put the number of people who lost their lives at thousands including 121 children. He also said that 100,000 civilians remain in the city of Mariupol from the pre-war population of 430,000.
Members of Japan's lower house Parliament applauded on Wednesday in Tokyo as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a virtual address to them.
China backs Putin to stay in G20
Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia later this year and received valuable backing from Beijing on Wednesday in a pushback to suggestions by some members that Russia could be barred from the group.
The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters.
Russia's ambassador to Indonesia, which currently holds the rotating G20 chair, said Putin intended to travel to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the G20 summit in November.
More sanctions await Russia
Russia is facing an onslaught of international sanctions led by Western countries aiming at isolating it from the global economy. Plans to shut it out of the SWIFT global bank messaging system and to restricting dealings by its central bank also looks likely.
On Tuesday, Poland said it had suggested to U.S. commerce officials that it replace Russia within the G20 group, and that the suggestion had received a "positive response".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said G20 members would have to decide but the issue was not a priority now.
US President Joe Biden (left), Chancellor Angela Merkel and her likely successor Olaf Scholz (right) met on Saturday
Talks to end the fighting have continued by video. Zelenskyy said negotiations with Russia are going “step by step, but they are going forward.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he saw progress “coming into view on several key issues,” and that the gains are enough to end hostilities now.
Nato's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is speaking to reporters ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit for talks with fellow leaders of the military alliance.
Stoltenberg says Russia's invasion of Ukraine is brutal, and the human suffering is terrible to watch. Stoltenberg says, Nato has a "responsibility" to ensure the war does not escalate beyond Ukraine, he adds.
Nato leaders will agree to the deployment of four new Nato battlegroups in eastern Europe at an emergency summit later, Nato's secretary general said.
-Reuters/AP/BBC