Russia accepts economy in 'shock' as tanks roll into Kyiv's outskirts

Kremlin to ask military for info on hospital strike

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia’s economy was experiencing a shock due to West’s sanctions, even as Ukraine said Moscow had ignored its plea for humanitarian access to rescue hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped under bombardment. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Service released a video showing “significant losses to personnel and equipment” caused to a Russian tank regiment in the village of Skybyn, Brovary on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday. 

The footage showed a large convoy of stationary tanks before several explosions were seen. The convoy was then seen moving in the opposite direction to Kyiv, as smoke rose from a number of damaged tanks. 

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group became the first major Wall Street bank to exit Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, on Thursday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western sanctions were illegitimate and Russia would calmly solve the problems arising from them.

Addressing a government meeting, Putin also said Moscow — a major energy producer which supplies a third of Europe’s gas — would continue to meet its contractual obligations.

“It is clear that at such moments people’s demand for certain groups of goods always increases, but we have no doubt that we will solve all these problems while working in a calm fashion,” he said.

Russia’s war in Ukraine entered its third week with none of its stated objectives reached, despite thousands of people killed, more than two million made refugees and thousands cowering in besieged cities under relentless bombardment.

After meeting Russia’s Sergei Lavrov in Turkey, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Lavrov had refused to promise to halt firing so aid could reach civilians, including Kyiv’s main humanitarian priority — evacuating hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the besieged port of Mariupol.

“I made a simple proposal to Minister Lavrov: I can call my Ukrainian ministers, authorities, president now and give you 100 per cent assurances on security guarantees for humanitarian corridors,” he said.

“I asked him ‘can you do the same?’ and he did not respond.” At his own simultaneous news conference in a separate room, Lavrov showed no sign of making any concessions, saying the operation was going to plan and repeating Russian demands that Ukraine be disarmed and accept neutral status.

Local officials in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port under siege for 10 days, said Russian warplanes were again relentlessly bombing the city, a day after destroying a maternity hospital, in what Kyiv and Western allies called a war crime. Moscow said the hospital was no longer functioning and had been occupied by Ukrainian fighters. 

Lavrov said the hospital struck on Wednesday had stopped treating patients and had been occupied by Ukrainian “radicals”. The Kremlin was more circumspect, saying the incident was being investigated. “We will certainly ask our military about this, since we don’t have clear information about what happened there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Credit Suisse said it had gross exposure to Russia of 1.6 billion Swiss francs ($1.73 billion) at end 2021, the latest European bank to reveal the size of potential losses. Italy’s UniCredit and France’s BNP Paribas have also disclosed billions of euros worth of Russia risk. Deutsche Bank said its credit risk exposure to Russia and Ukraine was 2.9 billion euros and that it had reduced its Russia exposure further.