Russia-Ukraine live updates: Invasion meets fierce resistance; high-stakes talks on Belarus border to begin

President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put Russian nuclear forces on alert thrust the crisis over Ukraine into a more volatile phase on Sunday, fueling the potential for deadly miscalculation as the West’s campaign of economic reprisal increases the chances the Russian leader could see his survival and that of the Russian state at risk.

U.S. officials were scrambling in the hours following Putin’s order, issued as Russian troops face stiff resistance in the fourth day of their invasion of Ukraine, to decode what the enigmatic leader’s decision meant in practice. Experts said it was the first time the Kremlin, which has the world’s biggest nuclear stockpile, had made such an announcement since the Russian Federation was established in 1991.

Putin described the move as a response to what he called “aggressive statements” from the West and its escalating package of economic retaliation. The sanctions, including new steps unveiled Saturday that would cut off Russia’s financial institutions from the global economy and cripple its central bank, have already sent the ruble tumbling to a record low, raising questions about how Russia’s economy can hold on.

Biden administration officials condemned Putin’s order as a warning over Ukraine, where Putin has depicted his invasion as a security imperative rather than a signal of his intent to employ a nuclear device. They noted that Russia, just last month, was one of the nations signed on to a declaration saying that atomic war could not be won and should never be fought.

“This is just an attempt, an escalatory attempt, to justify further action on their part,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told MSNBC. “We have the ability, of course, to defend ourselves, as does NATO. But I think we all need to be very clear-eyed and call this out for what it is.”

MOSCOW — As casualties in Russia’s invasion mounted and tensions between the Kremlin and NATO escalated dangerously, Russian and Ukrainian delegations were due to hold talks about the conflict in southern Belarus near the Ukrainian border Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said on the Telegram app that his delegation had arrived, including Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, a close adviser to the president and the deputy foreign minister. “The key issue of the negotiations is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Ukraine,” Zelensky’s office said.

The Kremlin had said it was willing to talk — on the condition that Ukraine “demilitarize and denazify,” making it clear it expected Ukraine’s capitulation. A Russian delegation member, lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, said Sunday that Russia was “quite uncompromising in our position” and expected swift agreement from Ukraine.

Along with accepting the loss of the eastern Donbas region, recognized as two independent states by Russian President Vladimir Putin a week ago, Putin has demanded that Ukraine end its hopes of joining NATO, remove all its weapons and recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

The planned start of the talks was delayed several times for logistical reasons related to the travel of the Ukrainian delegation, according to the leader of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky. The Ukrainian delegation was flying to the talks on a helicopter provided by Poland, according to Belarusian state news agency BeITA. “We are interested in reaching some kind of agreement as soon as possible,” Medinsky said.

A day earlier, Zelensky expressed pessimism about the talks, saying said he did “not really believe in the outcome of this meeting” but said it was important that, as president, he tried to stop the war.

The talks came with Russia’s ruble crashing and uncertainty about the rapidly unfolding impact on its economy. Putin cited Western sanctions and “aggressive” statements Sunday when he put his nuclear forces on alert.

Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate from 9.5 percent to 20 percent on Monday, a significant hike designed to shore up the ruble as Western countries expand sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian ruble plunged after several nations, including the United States, moved over the weekend to block the Kremlin’s access to its sizable foreign currency reserves in the West and cut off some Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system.

The ruble fell nearly 30 percent in early Asian trading, trading as low as 119 per U.S. dollar.

In a statement, the Bank of Russia said the hike, one of the largest one-time increases in recent memory, was due to a drastic change in “external conditions for the Russian economy.”

“The increase of the key rate will ensure a rise in deposit rates to levels needed to compensate for the increased depreciation and inflation risks,” the bank said. “This is needed to support financial and price stability and protect the savings of citizens from depreciation.”

In an attempt to stem the market rout, Russia’s central bank also banned nonresidents from selling securities.

But without access to its overseas reserves, Russia’s central bank “can’t defend the [ruble] from free-fall,” said Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank in Sydney, in a Monday note.

“Russia’s central bank (CBR) has been sanctioned with the intention of denying it unfettered access to its ($643bn worth) of [foreign exchange] reserves. If successful, then Russia becomes impotent in defending the Rouble,” Attrill said.

The United States and its Western allies stepped up punitive financial measures on Saturday, announcing they would bar several major Russian banks from SWIFT, crack down on Russian oligarchs and prevent Russia’s central bank from bailing out the domestic economy.

The moves led Russians to crowd ATMs in a desperate bid to withdraw cash and sparked a furious response from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called the measures “illegitimate” and ordered his nuclear forces to a higher state of alert.

Ukrainian forces continue to stymie Russia’s advance toward major cities, allowing local governments to resume some level of normal activity Monday, at least temporarily. Russian forces remained about 19 miles to the north of Kyiv, according to the British government. Ukrainian forces have managed to hold on to the airfield at Hostomel, a key strategic priority for the Russian advance.

The British Ministry of Defense said that heavy fighting continued around the cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv, but that both cities remained in Ukrainian hands. It credited “staunch Ukrainian resistance” for the slow pace of the Russian campaign, which had been predicted to take the capital within days.

Ukrainian officials hailed their success so far but said they expected the fight to continue as delegations from Ukraine and Russia prepared to meet in Belarus. “The Russian occupiers have reduced the pace of the offensive, but are still trying to develop success in some areas in the offensive against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday.

Kyiv’s municipal government reported a relatively calm night Sunday and early Monday, with the exception of isolated skirmishes that it blamed on Russian “sabotage and reconnaissance groups.”

The city advised residents to stay home unless they urgently needed to buy food or visit a pharmacy but also said grocery stores and the transit system would open for business Monday. Trains would run on a reduced schedule. The government warned that residents who ventured out after being restricted to their homes for more than a day should brace for a city getting on its war footing. “You’ll see fortifications, tank traps, and other defensive structures that have appeared on the streets of Kyiv,” the statement said.

Facebook’s services, which include WhatsApp and Instagram, continued to be blocked or slowed down over the weekend in Russia, causing users there to switch to Telegram, according to reports by locals.

Netblocks, a civil society group that monitors Internet traffic worldwide, reported late Sunday that Facebook’s content servers had been severely restricted by Russian Internet providers, making it so that content either no longer loads or loads extremely slowly, the group said. People can use special software to bypass some of the restrictions, Netblocks said, but most people do not have access to such software.

Twitter’s services were also restricted, Netblocks said.

Facebook’s president for global affairs, Nick Clegg, tweeted Sunday that the Russian government was already “throttling our platform” to prevent people from using the company’s services to “protest and organize against the war and as a source of independent information.”

NEW DELHI — Indian students stranded in Ukraine are posting desperate appeals for evacuation on social media as the government steps up efforts to bring them back via neighboring countries like Romania, Hungary and Poland.

Hundreds have reached Ukraine’s borders on foot, in inclement weather, without many supplies. A video posted by New Delhi Television reportedly shot by a student at the Romanian border shows dozens of people stuck in freezing temperatures.

Another video shared by the Economic Times shows students at the Polish border seeking to enter.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on the crisis Monday, and four ministers are likely to head to Ukraine’s neighboring countries to step up and coordinate evacuation efforts, New Delhi Television reported.

On Sunday, India abstained from voting on a resolution calling for a U.N. General Assembly session on the invasion of Ukraine. Last week, India was one of three countries, including China and the United Arab Emirates, to abstain from voting on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the invasion, in a bid to strike a balance between its alliance with Russia, its largest arms supplier.

Opposition parties criticized Modi and the ruling party for focusing on state election campaigns even as students were stuck in bunkers in areas where fighting has intensified in Ukraine, including Kharkiv.

About 18,000 Indian students are enrolled in Ukrainian universities, primarily studying medicine and engineering, according to the Indian Embassy in Kyiv. So far, five evacuation flights have brought back hundreds of students.

“We are running out of food and water,” a student stuck in a college hostel in the Mykolaiv region told the News Minute.

Another student, who spoke to the Indian Express, described spending two nights at the Polish border before moving to a nearby shelter home. “There is no response from the Indian Embassy yet,” the student said.

“We are surrounded from all sides,” a female student says in a viral video on social media.

In tears, she says she is stuck in Kyiv and is not safe.

“Please send someone by air to help us.”

China’s embassy in Kyiv said it is starting to check key information of Chinese citizens in Ukraine, even as evacuation plans remain on hold until conditions are safer.

As of Friday afternoon, 6,580 people had registered with the Chinese Embassy for evacuation from Ukraine, according to China’s Changjiang Daily newspaper. Those whose file was missing key information such as passport number or location would receive a call, the embassy said in a statement on its website on Sunday.

China’s ambassador to the Ukraine, Fan Xianrong, posted a lengthy message early Sunday to reject rumors that he had left the country. He said that the embassy could not evacuate Chinese citizens immediately because it could not guarantee their safety, but that it would do so as soon as possible.

“We must wait until it is safe to go,” he wrote. “But our waiting is not passive. We will do it whenever conditions are available, and whichever way is the safest.”

China’s state-run Global Times reported that some Chinese nationals in Ukraine were trying to drive out of the country but were stuck in long traffic jams. The Chinese Embassy was also trying to help some Chinese-operated factories and farms in the Ukraine to protect their property, Global Times reported.