West targets Russia’s defenses against ruble crash, bank run - POLITICO Europe

FRANKFURT — The West has tied the hands of Russia's central bank, rendering it powerless to prevent a catastrophic run on the ruble and the banking system when markets open Monday.

Two days after President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion Ukraine, the EU, the U.S., the U.K. and Canada all imposed sweeping restrictions on the Russian central bank that effectively prevent it from deploying its $630 billion in international reserves to mitigate the impact of other Western sanctions.

"This is a kind of financial nuclear bomb that is falling on Russia," said Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy finance minister and deputy central bank governor, in a video blog.

"The war came and the money ran out — the money ran out sooner than the war ended," said Aleksashenko.

According to the Biden administration, the new policies seek to undermine the central bank's ability to prop up its currency. That would stop Russia from using the playbook it tried Thursday, when it drew heavily on its reserves to avert a collapse of the exchange rate after it hit an all-time low of 89.60 against the dollar.

The new measures announced Saturday have already taken effect, according to Germany's central bank.

"If there were [Russian central bank] deposits at the Bundesbank, they are frozen now," Michael Best, the German central bank’s communications chief, said Sunday. "The decision has been decisively supported by the president of the Bundesbank."

Dropping like a rock

Once the foreign exchange markets open on Monday, the Russian currency is set to hit new records lows. With the currency losing value against foreign currencies, any imported goods and services will become extremely costly.

Russia can print more rubles, but that would spark runaway domestic inflation and an even sharper depreciation of the currency.

"When markets open, the ruble basically will drop like a rock," said Iikka Korhonen, the chief of the Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies. 

"If the central bank is not able to intervene to prop up the value of the currency, this will create a lot of uncertainty," he said, noting Russians were already queuing at ATMs to withdraw their cash from banks.

Commercial bank Tinkoff was quoting an exchange rate on Sunday night of 164 to the dollar for ruble sellers, and 92 for buyers — a massive spread that implies people’s savings in the Russian currency will effectively halve in value.

There are also warnings by Russian private banks that the digital payment apps Apple Pay and Google Pay no longer work, which means that people will be forced to rely on their local cards and, increasingly, on cash to meet their daily needs.

Meanwhile, retailers have reported a surge in sales of consumer electronics and durable goods as people rush to spend their savings before they are rendered worthless by inflation.

The shock on Monday morning will be so large that “some sort of closing of banks" is likely, Korhonen said, adding that restrictions on withdrawals to protect the banking sector's stability will follow.

The catch for Russia is that the foreign currencies that it could ordinarily use to prop up the ruble — which make up a sizeable share of the overall reserves — can no longer be tapped.

According to the latest available data, issued in June, euro-denominated assets made up almost a third of Russia’s reserves, with U.S. dollar assets less than one-sixth. If Canadian and U.K. currencies are added in, that is about 60 percent of the total.

All of that is now out of reach for the central bank.

Nowhere to run

Of the reserves that remain, Russia has $60 billion in Chinese yuan — but that wouldn't be acceptable as payment to the countries that supply Russia with consumer goods, said Aleksashenko.

And the $130 billion Russia has in gold would be hard to sell. It could try Switzerland, which has yet to join the Western financial sanctions, but with European countries blocking their airspace, it would probably be impossible to deliver it.

"Who can we sell it to?" asked Aleksashenko.

In a statement on Sunday, the Bank of Russia pushed back on talk of a financial doomsday, saying it had "the necessary resources and tools to maintain financial stability and ensure the operational continuity of the financial sector.” It also pledged "to continuously provide banks with cash and non-cash liquidity in rubles." 

The days of toothless sanctions certainly seem to be over. And the massive financial cost of Putin's gamble is coming into focus.

In an open letter, a group of émigré Russian economists urged Putin to stop the war immediately.

“We can predict with complete certainty the most serious negative consequences for the Russian economy — rising prices, falling incomes and investments, depreciation of savings, further cuts in social spending, and the accelerating loss of human capital due to emigration," read the letter.

Signatories included Aleksashenko and Sergei Guriev, professor of economics at Sciences Po in Paris and former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

“The economic cost to Russia will be an order of magnitude greater than the lost opportunities in the previous decade of economic stagnation," they wrote.

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2022-02-27 20:46:23Z
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Russia homes in on Kyiv and Kharkiv and pushes across Black Sea coast - Financial Times

Moscow’s hope for a lightning assault on Ukraine’s largest cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv has been hampered by fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops, raising fears of an all-out artillery assault on the urban centres.

Ukrainian troops repelled a Russian incursion into the eastern city of Kharkiv on Sunday as Moscow’s forces continued to slowly encircle the capital Kyiv, where defending troops have retained control despite four days of attacks.

Western intelligence officials said they had been surprised by the level of resistance from Ukrainian troops, particularly in cities, and their ability to slow the Russian advance and delay Moscow’s key objectives.

The resistance in Kyiv and Kharkiv came as Russian troops instead made significant gains on the country’s southern coast, as Moscow sought to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the province of Chechnya who commands some of Russia’s most feared units, said Russia’s tactics were not working and should be intensified by using more weapons.

“They’re armed to the teeth with new weaponry and ammunition, new generation heavy artillery, and we’re still placing our hopes on the Ukrainians’ coming to their senses,” Kadyrov wrote on messaging app Telegram. “I’ve developed tactics and strategy against terrorists many times and fought in battle. In my understanding the tactics we’ve chosen in Ukraine are too sluggish.”

“We have to change . . . That’ll be more convincing for them,” Kadyrov said, calling on Russian president Vladimir Putin to “give all special forces the order to finish off the Nazis and terrorists” in Ukraine. Putin has described the leadership in Kyiv as “terrorists” and “neo-Nazis”.

A senior US defence official said Russia had deployed two-thirds of the combat forces it had amassed on the border before the invasion — an estimated total of 150,000 troops.

“Despite the shortcomings they’ve had with logistics and sustainment and in some of their manoeuvres, they still have an awful lot of combat power that is viable and arrayed in and outside Ukraine,” he added.

Russia’s focus on encircling Kyiv has raised fears of a fierce bombardment of the city and its residents as their ability to flee is curtailed. People there have sought refuge in cellars, underground garages and metro stations as they brace themselves for a full-scale assault.

“The Russian military’s default setting when they get stuck, as happened in Grozny, is to destroy, destroy, destroy,” said another western defence source, referring to the capital of Chechnya.

One of Putin’s first acts as president was to oversee a bombardment of Grozny as part of a war on Islamist separatists in early 2000 that left much of it in ruins and killed up to 8,000 civilians, before installing Kadyrov’s father as head of the republic.

Overnight on Saturday, Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the country’s second-largest city, with 1.4mn inhabitants, was subjected to “intensive exchanges of artillery”, the UK defence ministry said.

On Sunday afternoon, Kharkiv’s mayor said Ukrainian forces were back in full control of the city, after repelling a Russian incursion involving special forces and light vehicles. Citizens were warned to stay in their homes.

While the invasion has been obstructed by logistical struggles and a failure to capture and hold some strategic sites, officials cautioned that Russia’s superior military capabilities and its ability to continue to ramp up deployments would tell over time.

“The conflict began as a choice made by Putin, and the problem is that now having committed himself, it has become a war of necessity,” said a western official. “So Putin needs to win and in order to win Russia may turn to indiscriminate force . . . and I will be very concerned about what they do.”

Meanwhile, in southern Ukraine, Russia’s assault by troops assembled in Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, has seen it take control of a number of key locations, such as Melitopol close to the coast.

Russia’s blockage of port cities Berdyansk and Mariupol has in effect created a Russian-controlled land bridge from Crimea to areas of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists, according to Rohan Consulting, a conflict analyst.

Russian forces destroyed an oil depot on the outskirts of Kyiv as the assault on the city continued on Sunday © Alisa Yakubovych/EPA/Shutterstock

Separatist forces from the self-declared Russia-backed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk also claimed to have made advances west, into towns north of Mariupol, but these were unable to be independently verified.

If Russia is able to capture or blockade Odesa, a major port to the west of Crimea, it could seal off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea — the critical export route for the country’s economy.

There were also unconfirmed reports of Russian airborne troops landing in western Ukraine.

But the Russian military’s key strategic objective still appeared to be the capital.

Russia is “prioritis[ing] the encirclement and isolation of Kyiv”, the UK defence ministry said, bypassing other towns as columns of troops sent from Russia and Belarus race towards the city.

Russian troops, which have already taken control of areas north and west of the capital, were fighting for control of Vasylkiv, to Kyiv’s south-west, in the early hours of Sunday morning, Ukrainian officials said.

An oil depot there was set alight, sending flames billowing into the dawn sky, while air-raid sirens blared on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

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2022-02-27 16:32:49Z
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Russian airlines cut off from growing swath of European airspace - Financial Times

Russian airlines will be cut off from most of European airspace as more than 20 countries announced flight bans following the invasion of Ukraine.

EU officials expect a bloc-wide ban to be announced later on Sunday, after countries including France, Italy, Germany and Finland announced they would stop Russian airlines from using their airspace or landing at their airports. The UK announced its own similar restrictions on Friday.

“Our European skies are open skies. They’re open for those who connect people, not for those who seek to brutally aggress,” Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Twitter.

The bans apply to all Russian airlines, including flag carrier Aeroflot.

The wave of restrictions came as the latest round of EU sanctions against Russia prompted Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa and KLM to suspend flights to the country for the next seven days.

KLM said the decision had been made because the sanctions, which were announced late on Friday, prohibited sending any spare aircraft parts to Russia, even if they were intended for the airline’s own use.

“This means KLM can no longer guarantee that flights to Russia can return safely,” KLM said.

Air France has suspended flights to Russia and through Russian airspace until further notice. As a result, all flights to China, South Korea and Japan are temporarily suspended while the carrier considers alternative routes bypassing Russia.

The bans from European governments leave Russian airlines with dwindling options for flight paths into western Europe.

Tracking data from Flightradar24 showed an Aeroflot carrier took a significant detour over northern Europe and the Baltic Sea on a Saturday morning flight between Moscow and Budapest, adding 70 minutes to its journey. It made the trip before several Baltic states announced their decisions to seal off their airspace.

You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.

Moscow has responded with tit-for-tat flight bans for airlines from many countries, leaving European airlines rushing to reroute aircraft and facing longer journey times to many parts of Asia.

About 600 flights per day that take off or land in Europe would normally fly through Russian airspace, according to data from Cirium.

Many airlines would typically use Russian airspace when flying the “great circle route” over northern Russia and into parts of Asia, including China and Japan.

European airlines have different levels of exposure to Asia, which is still closed to many visitors because of coronavirus. At the extreme, Finnair has built its long-haul business model on routes east over Russia.

Finnair warned it faced “significant consequences” and the loss of many of its routes to Asia.

“For many of our North-East Asia flights, rerouting would mean considerably longer flight time, and operations would not be economically feasible,” the airline said on Sunday.

Virgin Atlantic has suspended a route that transported cargo between London and Shanghai, while British Airways confirmed it would reroute to avoid Russian airspace, leading to longer flight times and higher fuel costs.

Speaking before the rapid set of flight bans, one European airlines executive predicted bans from Russian airspace would be “catastrophic” for the industry.

However, the damage is so far mitigated by very weak demand for flights to Asia.

BA was not currently flying any services to China or Japan, while it would normally operate multiple flights a day, its chief executive Sean Doyle said on Friday, as he played down the impact of the bans.

Azerbaijan Air Navigation Services said it had opened up alternative air traffic routes for airlines looking to avoid Russian airspace without adding huge diversions to flights.

Additional reporting from Richard Milne in Oslo, Valentina Pop in Brussels, Jude Webber in Dublin, Nastassia Astrasheuskaya in Moscow, Joshua Oliver in London, Sarah White in Paris and Joe Miller in Frankfurt

Video: Russia's invasion of Ukraine: what next? | FT Live

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2022-02-27 13:22:55Z
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Italy move adds to EU momentum for cutting Russian banks from Swift - Financial Times

The US and western allies will place sanctions on Russia’s central bank and remove some of the country’s lenders from the Swift global payments system, in their harshest response yet to the invasion of Ukraine.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the European Commission said they would prevent the Russian central bank from using its international reserves to undermine broader sanctions.

“[Vladimir] Putin’s government is getting kicked off the international financial system,” said a senior US official, who added that the measures would push the Russian currency “into freefall”.

The leaders said they would eject some unnamed Russian banks from Swift, ensuring they are “disconnected from the international financial system” and harming their ability to operate. They also vowed to crack down on “golden passports” that let wealthy Russians buy citizenship, and to impose sanctions on officials and elites close to the government.

The move came as Russian troops appeared to make some headway in its invasion of Ukraine. With battles raging for a fourth day, a Russian column entered Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the east of the country.

“The enemy’s light vehicles broke into the city of Kharkiv, including the central part of the city,” said Oleg Synegubov, head of the military-civil administration in the region, adding that Ukraine’s military was “eliminating the enemy”.

Russia’s army also gained ground in the country’s south, with troops rolling in from the Crimean peninsula that Moscow occupied in 2014. But in Kyiv, the capital, Russian forces faced strong resistance and failed for a fourth day to make significant incursions in to a city that is locked down under martial law.

Russian and Ukrainian military claims cannot be independently verified.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky invited foreign combatants to join the country’s armed forces to help repel the invasion and “save Europe and its values”.

“Anyone who wants to join the defence of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals,” his office said in a statement on Sunday.

The joint action on sanctions is an escalation in the west’s financial and economic response to Russia’s invasion. “We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin,” the leaders said in their joint statement.

The Biden administration official said Putin had turned Russia into a “global economic and financial pariah”.

“What we are committing to do here is to disarm the central bank,” the official said, adding that the action would affect all of the institution’s roughly $630bn in foreign reserves.

“Without being able to buy the rouble from western financial institutions . . . Putin’s central bank will lose the ability to offset the impact of our sanctions,” he said. “The rouble will fall even further, inflation will spike and the central bank will be left defenceless.”

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she would propose to EU leaders that they should “paralyse the assets of Russia’s central bank” to freeze its transactions and make it impossible to liquidate assets.

Josh Lipsky, director of the Atlantic Council’s Geoeconomics Center who previously worked at the IMF, said before the announcement that hitting the central bank would be an “extraordinarily significant and damaging move” to Russia’s economy.

“A G20 central bank has never been sanctioned before. This is not Iran. This is not Venezuela,” said Lipsky.

Edward Fishman, a former US official now at the Center for a New American Security, said it could present a “devastating blow” to the Russian economy that would eclipse the significance of a Swift ban. The US has previously sanctioned the central banks of only Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.

A US official declined to say if Washington would sanction the central bank further by adding it to the Treasury’s “Specially Designated Nationals” list, which Fishman described as “the single most impactful sanction that you could apply to Russia, and you could do it with a stroke of the pen”.

“It would render a sizeable chunk of their foreign exchange reserves unusable overnight,” Fishman said.

Such a move would ban US entities from dealing with the central bank, which would mean institutions would be “skittish about moving any assets on behalf of the Russian central bank”, he said.

Zelensky had pleaded with Western capitals to use Swift to pressure Russia. Cutting banks out of the network will make it more difficult for Russians to make cross-border transactions.

Swift said on Saturday that it was “engaging with European authorities to understand the details of the entities that will be subject to the new measures, and . . . preparing to comply upon legal instruction”.

The body has found itself in the spotlight during international crises, most notably over Iran’s nuclear programme. In 2012 and 2018, it was pushed to shut out Iranian banks targeted by sanctions. The US official said the new move against Russia was the “Iran model”.

The goal will be to avoid undermining mechanisms for western economies to purchase energy from Russia.

The allies have not finalised the details, but will either carve out certain energy-focused banks or use product definitions in the Swift system to permit energy-related transactions.

Follow Demetri Sevastopulo, Colby Smith and Sam Fleming on Twitter

Video: Missile strikes Kyiv apartment block

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2022-02-27 08:29:42Z
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Russian airlines cut off from growing swath of European airspace - Financial Times

Russian airlines were cut off from an increasing swath of European airspace on Saturday, as tit-for-tat flight bans disrupted commercial aviation and forced some planes on long detours.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia all announced bans on Russian airlines using their airspace or landing at their airports, joining the UK, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Poland in sealing off their skies. The bans apply to all Russian airlines, including flag carrier Aeroflot.

Romania also announced a ban on Russian carriers over its airspace, Reuters reported.

Kaja Kallas, Estonia’s prime minister, said: “There is no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies.”

Moscow earlier this week warned it would retaliate against countries that imposed flight restrictions. As of Saturday, the Kremlin had banned airlines from the UK, Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic from flying over or landing on its territory.

The moves came as Dutch airline KLM ordered two planes en route to Russia to turn round mid-flight in order to comply with the latest package of EU sanctions announced late on Friday.

KLM said the decision had been made because the sanctions prohibited sending any spare aircraft parts to Russia, even if they were intended for the airline’s own use.

“This means KLM can no longer guarantee that flights to Russia can return safely,” KLM said. As a result, the carrier said it had cancelled all flights to Russia for the next seven days as well as any that pass through the country’s airspace.

The bans from Baltic states and eastern European governments leave Russian airlines with dwindling options for flight paths into western Europe.

Tracking data from Flightradar24 showed an Aeroflot carrier took a significant detour over northern Europe and the Baltic Sea on a Saturday morning flight between Moscow and Budapest, adding 70 minutes to its journey. It made the journey before several Baltic states announced their decisions to seal off their airspace.

The restrictions Moscow has already imposed have presented operational difficulties for UK airlines, which would typically use Russian airspace when flying the “great circle route” over northern Russia and into parts of Asia including China and Japan.

Virgin Atlantic has suspended a route that just transported cargo between London and Shanghai, while British Airways confirmed it would reroute to avoid Russian airspace, leading to longer flight times and higher fuel costs.

European airlines expect to be banned from Russian airspace if EU leaders hit Russian carriers in future rounds of sanctions, a scenario one executive described as “catastrophic” for the industry.

Airlines have held planning calls and were expecting to have to resort to “massive rerouting” if banned from the Russian skies, the person said.

European airlines have different levels of exposure to Asia, which is still closed to many visitors because of coronavirus. At the extreme, Finnair has built its entire long-haul business model over routes to Asia over Russia.

However, the damage is so far mitigated by very weak demand for flights to Asia.

BA does not currently fly any services to China or Japan but would normally operate multiple flights a day, its chief executive Sean Doyle said on Friday as he played down the impact of the bans.

Azerbaijan Air Navigation Services said it had opened up alternative air traffic routes for airlines looking to avoid Russian airspace without adding huge diversions to flights.

Additional reporting from Nastassia Astrasheuskaya in Moscow and Joshua Oliver in London and Sarah White in Paris

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2022-02-26 17:38:02Z
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Ukraine invasion: Putin urges Ukrainian military to overthrow country's leaders - Sky News

Vladimir Putin has appealed directly to Ukrainian troops and told them "it will be easier for us to agree if you take power in your own hands".

During the address, the Russian president said it was "easier to negotiate with you" than the "gang of Nazis that has captured Kyiv" - an apparent reference to Ukraine's leadership in the capital.

"I once again appeal to the military personnel of the armed forces of Ukraine: do not allow neo-Nazis and (Ukrainian radical nationalists) to use your children, wives and elders as human shields," he said at a televised meeting with Russia's security council.

"Take power into your own hands, it will be easier for us to reach agreement."

The quotes were seen by some in Western capitals that the Russian president's goal is to install a puppet government in Ukraine.

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On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was Russia's "number one target".

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Man tries to stop military vehicles in Ukraine

Putin claims Ukrainian military is using civilians as shields

Mr Putin went on to say Russian servicemen in Ukraine were acting "bravely, professionally and heroically".

He claimed most Ukrainian military units were reluctant to engage the Russian forces.

Those units offering resistance are mostly volunteer battalions made up of right-wing Ukrainian nationalists, he claimed, providing no evidence for his claims.

Image: Members of the Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine receive weapons to defend the city of Kyiv

Echoing an earlier Russian military statement, he accused Ukrainian forces of deploying heavy weapons in urban areas in several big cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, to use civilians as shields.

Kremlin says Putin has agreed to organise negotiations

It comes as the Kremlin said Mr Putin had called Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to organise sending a delegation to the Belarusian capital Minsk for talks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to discuss Ukraine's neutrality.

Image: Members of the Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine

Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin was ready to send the delegation in response to Mr Zelenskyy's offer, which indicated he would be willing to negotiate dropping his country's bid to join NATO as Russia has demanded.

Mr Putin has claimed the refusal to discuss keeping Ukraine out of NATO prompted him to order military action to "demilitarise" it.

Analysis: Russian government offers barbed olive branch

Dominic Waghorn

International Affairs Editor

@DominicWaghorn

The Russian government appears to be offering a barbed olive branch.

It says it is prepared to send a delegation to the Belorussian capital Minsk to discuss peace with the Ukrainians and in particular the possibility of Ukraine offering neutrality in return for peace.

There have been reports as yet unconfirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser Mikhail Podoliak has said the president is prepared to countenance such an offer.

This may be a false report, contrived by Russia to set hares running. We are seeking clarification from the Ukrainians.

But the Russian offer may be a non-starter anyway.

Russia says before talks begin Ukraine needs to fully demilitarise. This is another way of saying fully surrender.

It is hard to think of any government accepting those sorts of terms before negotiations have even begun. Especially Ukraine.

Remember it gave up all its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from Russia in the past which it now sees as worthless. It is hard to see it falling for the same again.

It is also worth bearing in mind that Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, have both sounded like they will stop short of nothing but regime change.

They claim to see the Ukrainian government as a clique in the pocket of oligarchs and the west and riddled with Nazi philosophy.

We are seeking further clarification from the Russians too.

In my exchange with her this afternoon Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova did not shed much more light on what the Russians want before talks can begin.

A tense exchange with Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson

During an at-times tense exchange, Sky News diplomatic editor Dominic Waghorn asked Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova how it could be acceptable for Mr Zelenskyy to surrender before he even begins negotiations.

Ms Zakharova replied: "It is true such work can start anytime, the only question is whether the other side - under the influence of the West - will start trying to weasel out of lie, or you yourselves, the representatives of the Kyiv regime, would start contradicting and debunking each other."

Mr Waghorn pushed her further on the question, asking: "Can you explain how you're describing this as the end of the war when it could be the beginning of the biggest military offensive we have seen in Europe since World War Two?"

She said: "Well no, I'm not going to fantasise this. This has nothing to do with the situation at hand. We are pursuing a stage by stage approach. The operation is ongoing, it has stated objectives, (the) Ministry of Defence is making its comments.

"We have recently seen the statement by Zolodymyr Zelneskyy and we have responded to it. We are not going to fantasise again, there was a request, we responded to a request, end of story."

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2022-02-25 18:49:53Z
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Man who fled Ukraine on foot says men were dragged from families to conscript - Metro.co.uk

Fighting-age men were said to have been forced out of their cars (Picture: Manny Marotta/PA Wire)

An American who walked for 20 hours with thousands of Ukrainian refugees has revealed how fighting-age men were dragged from their screaming families to join the increasingly vain fight against Russia.

Manny Marrotta, 25, from Pennsylvania, said he had been in the western city of Lviv working as a freelance journalist for 10 days when Putin announced his invasion on Thursday.

He joined a mass of civilians fleeing to the Polish border 43 miles away in the afternoon after waking up to the sound of an air raid siren and hearing rumours of an impending bombing.

With trains fully booked and car hires and public buses suspended, he made a ‘desperate’ decision to begin walking west on what would prove to be a ‘harrowing’ treak.

For the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war, visit our live blog: Russia-Ukraine live

He described scenes amounting to a ‘humanitarian nightmare’ as men, women and children packed the roads in buses, cars and on foot.

Mr Marrotta said: ‘You had elderly people walking alone on the side of the road with these sticks, hobbling along.

‘There was one grandmother that told me she was going to Poland – Poland was far away, it’s amazing the result of these people (trying) to escape.’

‘It was about 10, 15 kilometres from the border and Ukrainian army soldiers started coming out onto the streets with speakers, announcing “no Ukrainian man aged 18 to 60 is allowed to leave the country – you must go east and fight”‘.

Lviv Station was awash with stranded refugees after trains became fully booked (Picture: PA)

A vast queue of cars is crawling towards the Polish border (Picture: PA)

The Ukrainian government has announced conscription, meaning healthy adult men must enlist in the armed forces.

‘They were saying, “say goodbye to your girlfriend, to your wife, say goodbye to your mothers and daughters, you’re going east”.

‘I started seeing these surreal scenes of fathers saying, ” don’t want to leave my family,” and Ukrainian soldiers yanking them away … Mothers were protesting, they were screaming: “Why are you doing this?”

‘There was this guy standing up on a box saying “forget your wives, forget about your girlfriends – you need to defend your country. Don’t be a coward.”‘

Refugees were served tea as they arrived in Poland (Picture: PA)

The journalist described the ‘heartbreaking’ moment a 24-year-old Ukrainian man he had befriended was dragged away, adding: ‘He had no choice, he gave me this look that I’ll never forget, it was a sad sort of smile … I hope he’s okay.’

‘When I got to the border, I made friends with this 18-year-old Ukrainian kid … they conscripted him on the spot, it was just very brutal to see the terror in his eyes knowing he was going to go east and fight the Russians.’

The UN has warned Europe faces a wave of up to 4 million refugees if the conflict continues on its current footing.

Mr Marrotta said he was ‘inconsolably happy’ after reaching Poland but warned many Ukrainians were still ‘suffering dismally’ on the road.

He added: ‘The Western world should be should be aware of how terrifying this is for the Ukrainian people.’

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2022-02-25 18:31:00Z
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