Sunday, February 27th

Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to send a delegation of the Ukrainian government to conduct peace talks with Russian officials in Belarus. Although Belarus is a Russian ally, Ukraine still agreed to meet with Russia near the Pripyat River. The President did not specify when the talks would take place.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, over 368,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Hungary. This number does not include adult men under the age of 60 because Ukraine has banned them from leaving the country.

The number of refugees from Ukraine who have crossed to Poland, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and other countries is escalating and is now 368,000.

The governments and people of those countries are welcoming refugees. It is now urgent to share this responsibility in concrete ways.

— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) February 27, 2022

President Putin ordered his minister of defense and the chief of the General Staff to place Russian Army Deterrent Forces on combat alert. Experts conclude this combat-readiness also applies to Russia’s salvo of nuclear weapons. US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, condemned this move in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.

For the first time in history, the EU agreed to buy and deliver weapons to a country under attack. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also announced that the EU would ban Russian aircraft or Russian-affiliated aircraft from flying above its member states, as well as banning Russian media outlets.

Additionally, reporters announced that Russian troops had blown up a natural gas pipeline in Kharkiv, a major oil city in Ukraine. Despite this event, gas still continues to flow from Russia through Ukraine to the rest of Europe, as agreed upon by a previous contract. On Monday, European energy ministers plan to discuss soaring gas and fuel prices as a result of concerns due to fighting. Economic advantages due to oil remain Russia’s biggest leverage over Europe, and it remains to be seen whether Russia will cut off the Ukrainian passage.