Large Russian Convoy Moving Toward Capital Kyiv: Ukraine Update

(Bloomberg) — Russia said it would press forward with its invasion of Ukraine until its goals are met, as troops were seen moving in a large convoy toward the capital, Kyiv. In the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, the mayor said residential areas were being bombed in what he called “a war to destroy the Ukrainian people.”

As penalties against Russia continued, the European Union identified seven Russian banks it’s considering excluding from the SWIFT messaging system. Meanwhile, a United Nations agency reported more than 100 civilian deaths, and said the actual number of casualties could be much higher.

Russia banned residents from transferring hard currency abroad, as President Vladimir Putin sought to counter the fresh sanctions walloping the economy. The European Union and Switzerland approved measures against some of Russia’s wealthiest tycoons, and Britain told ports not to service Russian-flagged vessels. Stocks in Europe tumbled and U.S. equity futures slipped.

Banks the EU is considering excluding from SWIFT include VTB Bank, the country’s No. 2 lender, and Bank Rossiya, according to a draft list of the proposal.

The other institutions on the list are Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank PJSC, Sovcombank PJSC and VEB.RF, according to the list, which is still subject to change. The list currently doesn’t include GazpromBank and Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender. 

EU finance ministers will hold an emergency video call Wednesday to discuss the economic impact of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia.

The European Commission’s vice president for the economy, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on Monday that Kyiv’s needs “will be massive, so our support must be massive too.” The EU has already approved an emergency package of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

Reports of civilian casualties and civilian infrastructure damage continue to increase across Ukraine, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

The government-controlled areas of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions in eastern Ukraine are among the hardest hit, with several cities, towns and villages on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe, the OCHA said.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed at least 406 civilian casualties, including 102 deaths, with “the real figures feared to be much higher.” The agency estimates more than half a million people have fled to neighboring countries and 100,000 have been displaced within Ukraine in below-freezing temperatures.

Russia’s armed forces will continue their “military operation” in Ukraine until they meet their goals, Interfax quoted Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying. He said Russia isn’t occupying Ukrainian territory and is attacking Ukrainian military infrastructure with high-precision weapons.

Ukraine has reported dozens of civilian deaths and shared video clips that it says are of bombardments from non-guided munitions that have devastated residential areas in cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Stocks in Europe tumbled, with utilities and travel shares leading the decline as Russia intensified its attack. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also slipped.

Bonds gained as investors sought havens, with the yield on 10-year German debt falling more than 5 basis points. The 10-year Treasury yield ticked lower. Brent crude oil pushed above $101 a barrel, and industrial metals including aluminum, iron ore and copper climbed.

Google said its YouTube platform will immediately block Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik in Europe. The announcement comes after Facebook, Instagram and TikTok restricted the state-funded Russian media channels. The EU announced a ban on the platforms Sunday, which member states will likely approve Tuesday.

“It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up,” Google Europe said in a tweet. YouTube said this week it would stop running advertisements on Russian state-backed media.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Putin’s move Sunday to set his nuclear arsenal on high alert requires a “swift, firm, united reaction.”

Speaking in parliament in Rome, Draghi also said that he is open to further sanctions, and that the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements should participate in sanctions against Russia’s central bank.

EU leaders on a call with U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday they expect Russian retaliation for sanctions they have imposed, including cyber attacks and economic measures, according to an EU official familiar with the discussion.

The leaders said that eastern European countries like Poland could become a particular target. Poland may become a central hub for arms deliveries to Ukraine under an EU military spending scheme.

They also discussed possible economic counter-sanctions, possibly including the energy sector and import bans by Russia on EU and other goods, the official said. There was a consensus among participants about the likelihood of retaliatory measures, the official said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a tweet that governments that rely on the U.S. and Europe should know that their support is a “mirage and not real,” according to a tweet. “Today’s Ukraine is yesterday’s Afghanistan. Both countries’ presidents said they relied on US & Western govts but were left alone,” Khamenei said.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose country has also been targeted with sanctions, says Russia has never asked the country to join its armed conflict in Ukraine.

Lukashenko told his Security Council that the former Soviet republic bordering Ukraine to the north, which the Russian military is using as a staging location for the invasion, is ready to speak to anybody to restore peace, according to state news service Belta. His government hosted Russian-Ukrainian talks on Monday on the border with Ukraine.

The presidents of eight eastern EU members sent an open letter to the bloc calling for it to immediately grant an accession path to Ukraine. The letter was signed by the presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Furthering that effort, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will travel to Brussels Tuesday afternoon to ask European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for “systemic support for Ukraine in the context of its membership in the EU,” his spokesman said. Hungary’s government also backs Ukraine’s bid for European Union membership, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook.

The ruble stabilized after its worst plunge on record Monday as investors weighed the impact of sanctions against Russia and Moscow’s countermeasures. Russia’s stock market remains closed for a second day.

Index providers are assessing the country’s accessibility, with MSCI Inc. seeking feedback on whether to remove Russia from its stock and bond indexes. Intercontinental Exchange Inc. said it will remove debt issued by sanctioned Russian entities from its fixed-income indexes at a rebalancing exercise on March 31.

Elsewhere, stocks in Europe fluctuated and U.S. Index futures gained. The dollar was steady and Treasuries dipped. Oil pushed higher as traders balanced the possible release of emergency stockpiles against fears of disruption to Russian energy exports.

Two former Eastern Bloc nations that are now part of NATO and the EU denied they’re gifting Russian-made fighter jets to Ukraine. According to a tweet from the official account of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada assembly, the donations include 56 Mig-29s from Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria, which was also said to be donating 14 Su-25 fighters.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad both denied that their countries are sending any fighters. Poland isn’t sending fighter jets into Ukrainian airspace “at the moment,” according to President Andrzej Duda.

The Swiss National Bank said its may sell security holdings connected to Russia, which are valued in the low triple-digit millions.

“The SNB is currently examining in compliance with the sanctions whether these securities will be held or sold,” a spokesman said in a written response to questions from Bloomberg. The value of the holdings amounts to less than 0.05% of its currency reserves, he said.

The head of Ukraine’s nuclear-power utility called on international monitors to intervene by erecting a 30-km (19 mile) safe zone around the country’s four nuclear power plants as Russian troops and heavy weapons move nearby, according to a statement.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will convene an emergency session on Wednesday in Vienna to assess the situation. They’ve been warning for days that the escalating war threatens to trigger an even wider tragedy by damaging nuclear-power infrastructure.

“It is extremely important that the nuclear power plants are not put at risk in any way,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said late Monday in a statement. “An accident involving the nuclear facilities in Ukraine…