The Fort Worth Press - Western nations halt Russian oil as Ukrainians flee

USD -
AED 3.673018
AFN 67.93001
ALL 93.193946
AMD 386.923413
ANG 1.801781
AOA 912.999799
ARS 996.885698
AUD 1.546719
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.700271
BAM 1.857034
BBD 2.018544
BDT 119.466191
BGN 1.854223
BHD 0.376748
BIF 2951.893591
BMD 1
BND 1.345309
BOB 6.907618
BRL 5.789901
BSD 0.999734
BTN 84.379973
BWP 13.7232
BYN 3.271695
BYR 19600
BZD 2.015126
CAD 1.405715
CDF 2866.000263
CHF 0.88912
CLF 0.035356
CLP 975.579832
CNY 7.231797
CNH 7.23964
COP 4481.75
CRC 510.622137
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.696706
CZK 23.98495
DJF 178.02275
DKK 7.0737
DOP 60.463063
DZD 133.904275
EGP 49.533003
ERN 15
ETB 123.922406
EUR 0.94832
FJD 2.27485
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.788655
GEL 2.724949
GGP 0.789317
GHS 16.070301
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000583
GNF 8615.901679
GTQ 7.720428
GYD 209.156036
HKD 7.78302
HNL 25.243548
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.35034
HUF 385.269921
IDR 15874.45
ILS 3.743645
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.43315
IQD 1309.646453
IRR 42104.999732
ISK 138.190124
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.263545
JOD 0.7091
JPY 156.279004
KES 129.22003
KGS 86.376502
KHR 4060.610088
KMF 466.502199
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1400.865044
KWD 0.30758
KYD 0.833092
KZT 495.639418
LAK 21961.953503
LBP 89524.727375
LKR 292.075941
LRD 184.450901
LSL 18.299159
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.604889
LYD 4.883306
MAD 9.985045
MDL 18.109829
MGA 4683.909683
MKD 58.422784
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.014356
MRU 39.742695
MUR 47.189782
MVR 15.460143
MWK 1733.51184
MXN 20.46627
MYR 4.480247
MZN 63.849931
NAD 18.299159
NGN 1679.690032
NIO 36.789837
NOK 11.129985
NPR 135.008261
NZD 1.705655
OMR 0.386496
PAB 0.999729
PEN 3.809397
PGK 3.960922
PHP 58.832965
PKR 277.672857
PLN 4.100025
PYG 7807.745078
QAR 3.644486
RON 4.714397
RSD 111.069126
RUB 99.445746
RWF 1372.604873
SAR 3.756031
SBD 8.383384
SCR 13.614088
SDG 601.491069
SEK 10.980175
SGD 1.343875
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.700431
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.317344
SRD 35.356497
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.747751
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.306462
THB 34.862967
TJS 10.657058
TMT 3.5
TND 3.157485
TOP 2.342098
TRY 34.415475
TTD 6.787981
TWD 32.555974
TZS 2659.999991
UAH 41.213563
UGX 3668.871091
UYU 42.471372
UZS 12804.018287
VES 45.449682
VND 25387.5
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.834653
XAG 0.032743
XAU 0.000389
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.753148
XOF 622.834653
XPF 113.237465
YER 249.849753
ZAR 18.24465
ZMK 9001.197176
ZMW 27.416836
ZWL 321.999592
  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.21

    -0.23%

  • BCC

    -2.2000

    140.35

    -1.57%

  • RBGPF

    61.8400

    61.84

    +100%

  • SCS

    -0.1000

    13.27

    -0.75%

  • CMSC

    -0.0600

    24.55

    -0.24%

  • NGG

    0.2500

    62.37

    +0.4%

  • RIO

    -0.1900

    60.43

    -0.31%

  • CMSD

    -0.0050

    24.725

    -0.02%

  • BCE

    -0.3700

    26.84

    -1.38%

  • GSK

    -0.7200

    34.39

    -2.09%

  • RELX

    -0.1700

    45.95

    -0.37%

  • RYCEF

    -0.3200

    6.79

    -4.71%

  • AZN

    -0.2500

    65.04

    -0.38%

  • VOD

    -0.0700

    8.68

    -0.81%

  • BP

    0.4800

    29.05

    +1.65%

  • BTI

    0.0700

    35.49

    +0.2%

Western nations halt Russian oil as Ukrainians flee
Western nations halt Russian oil as Ukrainians flee

Western nations halt Russian oil as Ukrainians flee

The United States led a Western assault on Moscow's economic lifeline Tuesday, banning imports of Russian oil as civilians fled besieged Ukrainian cities in a desperate evacuation push blighted by Russian shelling.

Text size:

President Joe Biden heralded the US embargo as a hit on "the main artery of Russia's economy" targeting President Vladimir Putin's most crucial source of revenue -- and vowed Ukraine would "never be a victory" for Putin.

As the invasion approached its third week, Britain said it would phase out Russian oil by the end of the year while oil giants BP and Shell announced an immediate halt to Russian oil and gas purchases and the European Union planned to slash gas imports by two-thirds.

More than two million civilians have flooded across Ukraine's borders to escape towns devastated by shelling and air strikes, according to the United Nations, in Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.

After days of heavy fighting in the northern city of Sumy, the first convoy of 22 buses evacuating families along a humanitarian corridor arrived in central Ukraine under a deal with Moscow to hold fire in cities targeted by its forces, with a second convoy on the way.

Kyiv said 21 people, including two children, had been killed in air strikes in Sumy on Monday.

Attempted evacuations from the blockaded port town of Mariupol -- where aid workers said tens of thousands were living in "apocalyptic" conditions -- have failed on several occasions however, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of attacking fleeing civilians in an act of "genocide".

Authorities in the southern hub, which has had no water, power or heating since Friday, said a six-year-old girl identified only as Tanya died from dehydration under the rubble of her destroyed home.

"In the last minutes of her life she was alone, exhausted, frightened and terribly thirsty," Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on the city's Telegram channel.

- 'Nobody left' -

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky told British lawmakers he would "fight to the end" in a defiant speech invoking former prime minister Winston Churchill's resistance against Nazi Germany.

But he complained that he was not receiving desperately needed air support, telling lawmakers: "It's been 13 days we've been hearing promises, 13 days we've been told we'll be helped in the air, that there will be planes."

Governments on both sides of the Atlantic have balked at the idea of a no-fly zone to defend Ukraine's skies, with Putin warning it would be considered as "participation in the conflict" with nuclear-armed Russia.

Poland said Tuesday it was "ready" to hand its Mig-29 fighter jets to the United States under a scheme that would see the planes given to Ukraine.

The offer caught Washington off guard, however, with Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland telling lawmakers there had been no coordination beforehand.

The Pentagon estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian soldiers had been killed so far. Russia said on March 2 that 498 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine.

Russian troops are slowly encroaching on Kyiv despite intense efforts by outgunned Ukrainian forces, and moving faster through the east and north of the country.

Despite the sound of nearby shelling in the suburb of Irpin, seen as a critical point for the advance on the capital, civilians fled in icy wind and thick snowfall, AFP reporters witnessed.

People waited in a long line to cross over the Irpin river on makeshift walkways of planks and mangled metal, after the Ukrainians blew up the bridge leading into the capital to hamper any Russian advance.

"I didn't want to leave, but there's nobody left in the homes around us, no water, no gas and no electricity," Larissa Prokopets, 43, told AFP.

- 'Someone could kill him' -

Many of Kyiv's men have joined the military, leaving thousands of women to raise young children alone, some spending their nights sheltering from bombing in the concrete tunnels of the underground metro system.

According to the UN Population Fund, 81 babies were born in Kyiv's bunkers and makeshift bomb shelters at the weekend, five of them in metro stations.

Taria Blazhevych, a 27-year-old mother of two boys aged under six, told AFP she hoped her children had no real grasp of the horror of their situation.

"I tell them that all will be good, that their father will come back for them, but they understand that someone could kill him or shoot him," she said.

On Tuesday evening to the northwest of Kyiv, Ukrainian emergency services said an airstrike in the town of Malyn destroyed seven houses and killed five people including two babies born last year.

Russia's assault on its ex-Soviet neighbour and the plight of civilians caught up in the bloodshed has fueled global outrage.

At least 474 civilians have been killed so far, according to the UN, although it believes the real figures to be "considerably higher".

The onslaught has created a huge refugee crisis for European countries that have taken in Ukrainians fleeing the conflict, particularly Poland.

"It doesn't stop," Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said as he announced that two million people had fled.

As Western nations look to tighten the economic screws on Moscow, faced with the snowballing humanitarian crisis, Russia has warned that oil sanctions would have "catastrophic consequences".

But the United States led the push for energy sanctions -- partly because Russia accounts for less than 10 percent of US imports of oil and petroleum products, which means the impact on the world's largest economy would be easier to bear.

Biden said the US -- which last year imported $17.5 billion in crude, fuel oil and petroleum products from Russia according to Census data -- decided the ban "in close consultation" with allies, especially in Europe, who depend on Russia for 40 percent of their gas needs.

The pressure has also grown day by day on businesses and sports to sever ties with Moscow.

The Premier League announced it would suspend its deal with its Russian broadcast partner, while McDonald's and Starbucks joined the exodus of companies from Russia on Tuesday.

L.Rodriguez--TFWP