Saturday, February 26th

March 1, 2022

Russian military forces met fierce resistance during their advance on the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, while several outside organizations continued to place financial, social and business sanctions and bans on the nation.

In Ukraine, explosions seen around Kiev late at night on Saturday. A civilian died in the city of Kharkiv as a residential building was attacked by Russian forces. Additionally, two explosions in Vasylkiv, a city about 18 miles from Kiev, resulted in heavy fires and shelling from ballistic missiles. However, Russia suffered losses in armor and aircraft after Ukrainian citizens and the airspace held their ground, performing better than United States intelligence anticipated.

As a result of the continued Russian aggression, several social media sites including Facebook and Youtube retaliated by blocking state media Russian ads on all of their platforms. Additionally, Twitter blocked all advertising in Ukraine and Russia. Russia’s communications regulator accused Meta of censoring Russian defense channels. In response, Meta’s Vice President of Global Affairs stated that Russia wished to remove the fact-checking and disclaimers on their posts, which the social media company refused to do. An anonymous hacker group also claimed to disable Chechnya’s official government site, but it currently remains accessible.

1/ We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.

— Nathaniel Gleicher (@ngleicher) February 26, 2022

The US and the EU decide to place grave economic sanctions on Russia through SWIFT (The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). SWIFT connects several financial institutions across the world, and by expelling certain Russian banks from the network, the organizations hope to place consequences for the Russian invasion. Additionally, talks began through President Biden to place sanctions on the Russian Central Bank in Moscow, the location of the majority of Russia’s war funds. The targets on Russia’s financial sector have resulted in several economic blows to the nation, as the value of the ruble fell to less than one U.S. cent, potentially creating untold consequences for its citizens.