President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on high alert on Sunday, raising tensions to a new level just as Ukraine agreed to hold talks with Russian officials in Belarus, having initially rejected the idea.
In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and had agreed to meet with the Russians "without preconditions."
Zelenskyy had previously said his government would not attend negotiations in Belarus, a close Moscow ally where thousands of Russian troops were massed in the run-up to last week's invasion.
The delegations will meet at the Ukraine-Belarus border near the Pripyat River, Zelenskyy added.
It was unclear whether he would attend the talks himself or stay in Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a Security Council meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, February 21, 2022.Alexei Nikolsky/AP
Russia, like NATO and the United States, has thousands of nuclear warheads in its arsenal, and by putting them on high alert,
Putin, for the first time in this conflict, explicitly raised the global stakes to a much deadlier level.
In a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defense minister and the army's chief of staff to put the nuclear deterrence forces on a "special combat duty regime."
"Western countries are not only carrying out unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but senior officials from leading NATO members have made aggressive statements regarding our country," Putin said in televised remarks.
The order means Putin wants Russia's nuclear weapons ready for launch and
raises the threat that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and the West's response to it could escalate into nuclear war.
For her part, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Putin was resorting to a pattern he used in the weeks leading up to the launch of the Ukraine invasion, "which is to fabricate threats that don't exist to justify further aggression." .
The world community and the American people should look at him through that prism.
We've seen it done over and over again."
The announcements by Zelenskyy and the Russian president came after Ukrainian and Russian forces waged pitched battles in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to speak with a Russian delegation that has arrived in Belarus. this very Sunday.
As the fighting intensifies on the fourth day of clashes, the people of Kiev woke up to discover that the capital was still in Ukrainian hands.
"Anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come to fight side by side with the Ukrainians," Zelenskyy's office said in a statement. "There is no greater contribution that I can make for the sake of peace." ".
His Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed the appeal, inviting foreigners to contact Ukraine's diplomatic missions in their respective countries.
According to regional authorities, the Russian vehicles broke into Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people located about 12 miles from the Russian border.
Overnight, Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in the city, according to authorities.
Officials tried to reassure residents that it was not a nuclear attack after the blast sent a huge ball of fire into the sky.
"Now it is quite dangerous on the streets of the city," police chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said as he begged residents not to go out into the streets. "Because of the small groups of the enemy that broke into the city, the fighting continues." .
In a video message posted to his Instagram account on Sunday, Zelenskyy called the night "brutal" across the country.
Russian forces were attacking residential buildings, kindergartens and even ambulances, he said.
Russia has denied targeting civilians.
Kiev will remain under a strict curfew until 8 a.m. local time on Monday, complicating the task of assessing the intensity of the fighting as residents were told to avoid venturing onto the streets and seek shelter. .
With information from
NBC News
and
The Associated Press
