KYIV, Ukraine — The first cease-fire since Russia invaded Ukraine nine days earlier fell apart within an hour Saturday when Russian forces resumed shelling two besieged southern cities.
As hospitals filled with bloodied civilians and Ukrainian protesters in multiple Russian-occupied cities defiantly waved blue and yellow national flags, Russian President Vladimir Putin destroyed any hope of immediate deescalation, threatening in a televised speech to strip Ukraine of its statehood and likening a series of sweeping Western sanctions to a “declaration of war.”
“If they continue to do what they are doing, they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood,” Putin said of Ukrainian leaders during a meeting with flight attendants from Russian airline Aeroflot, which has grounded nearly all of its international flights in the face of withering Western sanctions that have sent the ruble tumbling. “If this happens, it will be entirely on their conscience.”
