The Fort Worth Press - Ukraine marks 'Day of Unity' as Russia says ends Crimea drill

USD -
AED 3.673051
AFN 67.000198
ALL 92.450129
AMD 386.974854
ANG 1.802123
AOA 912.000177
ARS 1000.362898
AUD 1.543841
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.691881
BAM 1.857325
BBD 2.01886
BDT 119.48491
BGN 1.852673
BHD 0.37685
BIF 2897.5
BMD 1
BND 1.345641
BOB 6.908832
BRL 5.782302
BSD 0.999886
BTN 84.392794
BWP 13.725155
BYN 3.272208
BYR 19600
BZD 2.01548
CAD 1.402975
CDF 2866.000089
CHF 0.88797
CLF 0.035343
CLP 975.229905
CNY 7.230299
CNH 7.244025
COP 4483.25
CRC 510.721544
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.903343
CZK 23.953046
DJF 177.720183
DKK 7.06422
DOP 60.450092
DZD 133.619613
EGP 49.468904
ERN 15
ETB 122.050129
EUR 0.94716
FJD 2.275017
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.78725
GEL 2.724958
GGP 0.789317
GHS 16.049785
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000218
GNF 8630.99963
GTQ 7.721894
GYD 209.184836
HKD 7.781925
HNL 25.060355
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.382772
HUF 384.7675
IDR 15929.25
ILS 3.74008
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.46215
IQD 1310.5
IRR 42105.000021
ISK 137.989828
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.287592
JOD 0.709103
JPY 155.788976
KES 129.506089
KGS 86.376501
KHR 4051.000265
KMF 466.495264
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1403.499466
KWD 0.30742
KYD 0.833207
KZT 495.71708
LAK 21944.999806
LBP 89600.000301
LKR 292.121707
LRD 184.097004
LSL 18.249887
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.870249
MAD 9.958049
MDL 18.112322
MGA 4655.000126
MKD 58.237769
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.01546
MRU 39.874993
MUR 47.190157
MVR 15.449695
MWK 1735.99992
MXN 20.46769
MYR 4.480502
MZN 63.901556
NAD 18.250431
NGN 1679.859944
NIO 36.779633
NOK 11.10269
NPR 135.033904
NZD 1.702273
OMR 0.385021
PAB 0.999905
PEN 3.804497
PGK 3.93475
PHP 58.856502
PKR 278.04999
PLN 4.095903
PYG 7808.968491
QAR 3.64055
RON 4.712597
RSD 110.634002
RUB 99.304003
RWF 1365
SAR 3.755981
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.598198
SDG 601.498491
SEK 10.956202
SGD 1.343095
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.680291
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.504424
SRD 35.3565
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.749122
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.249753
THB 34.870301
TJS 10.658475
TMT 3.51
TND 3.151967
TOP 2.342098
TRY 34.327599
TTD 6.789045
TWD 32.579498
TZS 2660.000424
UAH 41.219825
UGX 3669.445974
UYU 42.477826
UZS 12824.999812
VES 44.994212
VND 25400
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.917458
XAG 0.032786
XAU 0.000389
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.753255
XOF 616.501263
XPF 113.349704
YER 249.849944
ZAR 18.199145
ZMK 9001.199107
ZMW 27.421652
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    -0.9400

    59.25

    -1.59%

  • CMSC

    -0.0600

    24.55

    -0.24%

  • RYCEF

    -0.3200

    6.79

    -4.71%

  • BCC

    -2.2000

    140.35

    -1.57%

  • NGG

    0.2500

    62.37

    +0.4%

  • AZN

    -0.2500

    65.04

    -0.38%

  • GSK

    -0.7200

    34.39

    -2.09%

  • RELX

    -0.1700

    45.95

    -0.37%

  • VOD

    -0.0700

    8.68

    -0.81%

  • RIO

    -0.1900

    60.43

    -0.31%

  • SCS

    -0.1000

    13.27

    -0.75%

  • CMSD

    -0.0050

    24.725

    -0.02%

  • BCE

    -0.3700

    26.84

    -1.38%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.21

    -0.23%

  • BTI

    0.0700

    35.49

    +0.2%

  • BP

    0.4800

    29.05

    +1.65%

Ukraine marks 'Day of Unity' as Russia says ends Crimea drill
Ukraine marks 'Day of Unity' as Russia says ends Crimea drill

Ukraine marks 'Day of Unity' as Russia says ends Crimea drill

Ukrainian leaders were to stage a "Day of Unity" on Wednesday to rally patriotic support and defy fears of a Russian invasion, as Moscow announced an end to military manoeuvres in occupied Crimea.

Text size:

Russia's huge build-up of troops, missiles and warships around Ukraine -- which US intelligence warns could turn quickly into an invasion -- has been called Europe's worst security crisis since the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine be forbidden from pursuing its ambition to join NATO and wants to redraw the security map of eastern Europe, rolling back Western influence.

But, backed by a threat of crippling US and EU economic sanctions, Western leaders have launched a drive to seek a negotiated settlement, and Moscow has signalled it will start to pull forces back.

In the latest such move, on Wednesday the Russian defence ministry said military drills in Crimea -- a Ukrainian region Moscow annexed in 2014 -- had ended and that troops were returning to their garrisons.

Washington has demanded more verifiable evidence of de-escalation and NATO defence ministers were meeting Wednesday in Brussels to discuss a crisis that US intelligence still warns could see a Russian invasion.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has downplayed threats of an immediate Russian invasion, but is attempting to rally his people with "Day of Unity" celebrations under Ukraine's blue and gold banner.

On Wednesday, he was to inspect military drills in the west of the country, before travelling southeast to Mariupol, a frontline port city near a breakaway region held by Russian-backed separatists.

In an Instagram video, the 44-year-old former television actor turned crisis leader declared that the flag would fly across the country and that the national anthem "Ukraine has not yet died" would be sung.

"Great people of great Ukraine! This day is ours," he declared.

"Those who live on the right and left banks of the Dnipro, in cities and villages, near the Carpathians and the slag heaps, on the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas."

- Richest man -

In another sign of Ukraine's most powerful figures coming together, some wealthy business leaders who had been urged to come back to the country announced their return.

Ukraine's richest man, 55-year-old billionaire industrialist Rinat Akmetov, who was born in Donetsk in an area now held by separatists, was to be in Mariupol, his press secretary said.

Southwest of the port across the Azov sea, in Crimea, Russian state television showed images of military units crossing a bridge linking the Russia-controlled peninsula to the mainland.

A defence ministry statement said tanks, infantry vehicles and artillery were leaving Crimea by rail.

It comes a day after Moscow said it was pulling back some of the troops deployed on its neighbour's borders, and with Belarus saying Wednesday that "not a single" Russian soldier would remain on its territory at the end of joint military drills later this month.

On Tuesday, there were hopes for a breakthrough as Putin met Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz to explore a route to a negotiated solution.

But US President Joe Biden -- who has ordered Washington's embassy in Kyiv closed and urged Americans to leave Ukraine -- demanded Russia prove its good intentions with a verifiable withdrawal.

"Analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position," Biden said, in an address on the crisis. "The United States is prepared no matter what happens. We are ready with diplomacy," he said.

"And we are ready to respond decisively to Russian attack on Ukraine, which is still very much a possibility," he said, warning of "powerful sanctions".

In Brussels, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of his meeting with allied ministers that, while there was not yet "any sign of de-escalation on the ground", there were "grounds for cautious optimism".

- 'Dirty tricks'? -

On Tuesday, Ukraine said the websites of the country's defence ministry and armed forces as well as two banks had been hit by a cyberattack that could have Russian origins.

"It cannot be excluded that the aggressor is resorting to dirty tricks," Ukraine's communications watchdog said, in reference to Russia.

In a separate move likely to anger Kyiv, Russian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to urge Putin to recognise two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as "sovereign and independent states".

burs-dc/mm/bp

M.McCoy--TFWP