Societe Generale has made its choice. The French bank announced on Monday “to cease its activities” in Russia and will sell all of its stake in Rosbank, a heavyweight in the Russian banking sector, as well as its insurance subsidiaries in the country, according to a press release. This “envisaged transaction should lead” to a negative impact in its accounts of 3.1 billion euros, specifies the bank.
In the field of war, Russia has made its priority the total conquest of Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, part of which has been controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists. “Next week will be no less important than this or the previous ones. Russian troops will move on to even more important operations in the east of our state,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a statement on Sunday evening.
Austrian Chancellor meets Putin
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is to become the first European leader to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the chancellery told AFP on Sunday.
The conflict in Ukraine will also be on the menu of a virtual exchange between Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the White House announced.
EU: new sanctions discussed
EU foreign ministers will discuss a sixth package of sanctions against Moscow on Monday in Luxembourg, but the end of oil and gas purchases to stop financing the Russian war effort divides the 27.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to ask his European interlocutors “for the adoption of powerful sanctions”. He calls for a halt to oil and gas purchases and the supply of heavy weapons to resist the announced offensive in the Donbass region.
45.1% contraction of Ukrainian GDP
Ukraine’s economy will shrink by 45.1% this year due to the war waged by Russia whose GDP is itself expected to collapse by 11.2%, according to the latest World Bank forecasts published on Sunday.
The entire region is suffering the economic consequences of this conflict: the institution is thus counting on a contraction of 4.1% of GDP for the emerging and developing countries of Europe and Central Asia. Eastern Europe alone is expected to suffer a 30.7% recession.
Ten civilians killed and eleven injured near Kharkiv
Ten civilians were killed and at least 11 injured in strikes on Saturday around and southeast of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, the region’s governor announced on Sunday evening.
5,600 war crimes investigations
Ukraine has opened 5,600 investigations for alleged war crimes on its territory since the start of the Russian invasion, the country’s attorney general Iryna Venediktova told British channel Sky News on Sunday. More than 1,200 bodies have been discovered so far in the kyiv region, partly occupied for several weeks by Russian forces, she said, without specifying whether these bodies were exclusively those of civilians.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba for his part called on scientists to study the effects of Russian propaganda which, according to him, prepared the ground for the atrocities of Boutcha, northwest of kyiv.
Evacuation of Kramatorsk
Two days after the massacre at Kramatorsk station (East), where 52 civilians including five children who were preparing to flee were killed in a strike attributed to a Russian missile, the evacuation of the population continues. On Sunday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also indicated that 4,532 civilians had been evacuated the day before from areas threatened by fighting.
Pro-Russian protests in Germany
Several controversial pro-Russian rallies were held this weekend in Germany at the initiative of the country’s large Russian-speaking community, which considers itself to be the victim of discrimination since the invasion of Ukraine by troops from Moscow.
The proliferation of demonstrations denouncing “Russophobia” in this country, which has 1.2 million people from Russia and which is said to have reached Germany, has provoked a lively debate in the country, because the authorities see it as a danger of instrumentalization and of propaganda for the theses defended by Moscow in the war.
The pope calls for a truce
Pope Francis called from St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for an “Easter truce” in Ukraine “to achieve peace through genuine negotiations”.