Putin says Ukraine’s future in doubt as ceasefire collapses

Lviv: Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that Ukrainian statehood is in jeopardy and likened the West’s sanctions on Russia to “declaring war,” while a promised cease-fire in the besieged port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror.

With the Kremlin’s rhetoric growing fiercer and a reprieve from fighting dissolving, Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities and the number of Ukrainians forced from their country grew to 1.4 million.

By nighttime Russian forces had intensified their shelling of Mariupol, while dropping powerful bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said. Bereft mothers mourned slain children, wounded soldiers were fitted with tourniquets and doctors worked by the light of their cellphones as bleakness and desperation pervaded. Crowds of men lined up in the capital to join the Ukrainian military.

The government has ordered men between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay and be available to fight. Some, like Volodymyr Onysko, have volunteered. “We know why we are here. We know why we defend our country,” Onysko told Britain’s Sky News.

“We know what we are doing, and that’s why we will win.” Putin continued to pin the blame for the war squarely on the Ukrainian leadership and slammed their resistance to the invasion. “If they continue to do what they are doing, they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood,” he said.

“And if this happens, it will be entirely on their conscience.” He also hit out at Western sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy and sent the value of its currency tumbling. “These sanctions that are being imposed, they are akin to declaring war,” he said during a televised meeting with flight attendants from Russian airline Aeroflot.

“But thank God, we haven’t got there yet.” Russia’s financial system suffered yet another blow as Mastercard and Visa announced they were suspending operations in the country. Ten days after Russian forces invaded, the struggle to enforce the temporary cease-fires in Mariupol and the eastern city of Volnovakha showed the fragility of efforts to stop the fighting across Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said Russian artillery fire and airstrikes had prevented residents from leaving before the agreed-to evacuations got underway. — AP