REUTERS WORLD NEWS:Ukraine Fighting Intense, War Crimes by Russia?, Markets Hit Hard, More

The Reuters Daily Briefing

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

by Linda Noakes

Hello

Here’s what you need to know.

Human rights groups say Russia has used cluster and vacuum bombs
Visa and Mastercard block Russian financial institutions
The exodus of Western companies continues.

Today’s biggest stories

A satellite image shows the northern end of a convoy of logistics and resupply vehicles, southeast of Ivankiv, Ukraine, February 28

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

A huge Russian armored column bore down on Kyiv, after the lethal shelling of civilian areas in Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv raised fears that frustrated Russian commanders could resort to more devastating tactics.
Here’s a timeline of the events leading up to Russia’s invasion, and here’s what you need to know right now.
Nearly a week since Moscow launched war on its neighbor it has failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city after running into unexpectedly fierce resistance. See our most compelling images from inside the battle for Ukraine, and our graphic tracking the war on the ground.
Human rights groups and Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States accused Russia of attacking Ukrainians with cluster bombs and vacuum bombs, weapons that have been condemned by a variety of international organizations.
EU lawmakers will call Russia a “rogue state” and urge the 27-nation bloc to agree even tougher sanctions, in an emergency debate on the war during which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address lawmakers via video-link.
Ruptly, a Russian state-owned news agency based in Berlin, is facing a staff exodus that is part of a broader contraction of Russia’s global news empire. YouTube is blocking channels connected to Russian state-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe effective immediately.

A man uses his smartphone near a board showing currency exchange rates in Saint Petersburg, Russia February 28, 2022

BUSINESS & MARKETS

Shipping giant Maersk will temporarily halt all container shipping to and from Russia, deepening the country’s isolation as its invasion of Ukraine sparks an exodus of Western companies. Here’s how corporate ties to Russia have been uprooted.

U.S. payment card firms Visa and Mastercard have blocked multiple Russian financial institutions from their network and major investors, including hedge fund Man Group and British asset manager abrdn, said they were cutting their positions in Russia.

Bitcoin has leapt since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bolstered by people in those countries looking to store and move money in anonymous and decentralized crypto. Bitcoin trading denominated in the Russian rouble went into overdrive when the invasion began on Thursday, with daily volumes rising 259% from a day earlier.

Global supply chains, already hit hard by the pandemic, are facing further disruption and cost inflation as airspace closures affect the air freight industry. Transport between Europe and north Asian destinations like Japan, South Korea and China has become particularly problematic.

Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven said they would contest the “spurious and unfounded basis” of European Union sanctions. The EU said “Aven is one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs” and that Fridman had been “referred to as a top Russian financier and enabler of Putin’s inner circle.”

U.S. President Joe Biden steps from Marine One upon his return to the White House, February 28, 2022

IN OTHER NEWS

U.S. President Joe Biden, who has earned praise for his efforts to rally European allies and other nations against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will turn to uniting Americans in the State of the Union speech today. Public opinion polls have shown Biden out of favor with the majority of Americans for months.

A delegation of former senior U.S. defense and security officials sent by Biden arrived in Taipei on a visit denounced by China. The visit, led by one-time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, comes at a time when Taiwan has stepped up its alert level, wary of China taking advantage of a distracted West to move against it.

Hong Kong residents braced for a city-wide lockdown, emptying supermarkets and pharmacies, even as leader Carrie Lam called for calm and appealed for the public not to worry over a compulsory mass COVID-19 testing plan.

Military helicopters airlifted stranded people from rooftops of flooded neighborhoods in eastern Australia and a tenth victim was found following days of torrential rain as the wild weather slowly shifts south toward Sydney.

Iran said efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal could succeed if the United States took a political decision to meet Tehran’s remaining demands, as months of negotiations enter what one Iranian diplomat called a “now or never” stage. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticized the U.S. over the Ukraine crisis and described homosexuality as part of the “moral deprivation” widespread in Western civilization, during a televised speech.