PARIS (Dispatches) -- French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire declared an “all-out economic and financial war” against Russia to bring down the its economy as punishment, before rowing back on language he later said was inappropriate.
The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia’s central bank, oligarchs and officials, including President Vladimir Putin himself, and barred some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire described the sanctions packages as proving “extremely effective”.
“We’re waging an all-out economic and financial war on Russia,” Le Maire told France Info radio. “We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy.”
Le Maire later told French news agency AFP he had misspoken and that the term “war” was not compatible with France’s efforts to de-escalate tensions surrounding the Ukraine conflict.
“We are not in a battle against the Russian people,” the minister added.
Le Maire’s initial remarks drew an angry riposte from Russia’s former president and prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
“Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones,” Medvedev tweeted.
On Tuesday, Russia said it was placing temporary curbs on foreigners seeking to exit Russian assets, putting the brakes on an accelerating investor exodus driven by the sanctions.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia will continue the offensive in Ukraine until its “goals are achieved”.
“Russian armed forces will continue to conduct the special military operation until set goals are achieved,” Shoigu told at a
press conference aired on state television. He said Moscow aims to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” Ukraine, as well as protect Russia from a “military threat created by Western countries”.
A 40-mile (64-kilometer) convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks and other vehicles advanced on the capital, Kiev, in what the West feared was a bid to topple Ukraine’s pro-Western government. And Russian forces pressed their attack across the country, including at or near the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, with a population of about 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the region’s Soviet-era administrative building was hit. Explosions tore through residential areas, and a maternity ward was moved to an underground shelter.
Kharkiv’s Freedom Square was struck with what was believed to be a missile.
In an emotional appeal to the European Parliament, President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We are fighting also to be equal members of Europe. I believe that today we are showing everybody that is what we are.”
Speaking via video link, Zelensky urged the EU to “prove that you are with us” in Ukraine’s war with Russia, a day after Kiev officially asked to join the bloc.
As he spoke, a Russian armored column was bearing down on Ukraine’s capital.
The presidents of eight central and eastern European nations on Monday published an open letter calling for Ukraine to be granted immediate EU candidate status and for the start of formal membership talks. But Ukraine is well aware that any membership process will be long and difficult, even if it manages after the war to avoid falling back under Moscow’s domination.
Human Rights Watch claimed it documented a cluster bomb attack outside a hospital in Ukraine’s east in recent days. Local residents also reported the use of the weapons in Kharkiv and the village of Kiyanka, though there was no independent confirmation.
The Kremlin denied it has used such weapons.
The first talks Monday between an outgunned Ukraine and nuclear-armed Russia yielded no stop in the fighting, though the two sides agreed to another meeting in the coming days.
Throughout the country, many Ukrainians spent another night huddled in shelters, basements or corridors. More than a half-million people have fled the country, and the UN human rights office said it has recorded the deaths of 136 civilians. The real toll is believed to be far higher.
A Ukrainian military official said Belarusian troops joined the war Tuesday in the Chernihiv region in the north, without providing details. But just before that, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country had no plans to join the fight.
Russian troops continued their advance toward the capital, a city of nearly 3 million. The convoy was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city and stretched about 40 miles (65 kilometers), according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced it will target transmission facilities in the capital used by Ukraine’s intelligence agency with unspecified strikes, and urged people living near such sites to leave their homes.