At least two civilians were killed as a residential building in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was hit by a missile, said the Defense Ministry on Saturday. 

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement that at least two people were killed, and four injured.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service spokesperson earlier said a multi-floor building in Kyiv's Lobanovskiy neighborhood was hit by a missile at 8 a.m. local time (0600GMT).

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Svetlana Vodolaga, the spokeswoman of State Emergency Service in Kyiv said: "The flats between 16th and 20th floors of the building were damaged and six flats were completely destroyed. There was a fire in the building. A total of 80 people were evacuated from the building, and six people were injured."

She noted that the rescue efforts were underway at the scene.

The moment the building was hit by the missile was spotted by cameras.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, on Twitter, said: "Kyiv, our splendid, peaceful city, survived another night under attacks by Russian ground forces, missiles. One of them has hit a residential apartment in Kyiv. I demand the world: fully isolate Russia, expel ambassadors, oil embargo, ruin its economy. Stop Russian war criminals!"

Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine entered its third day Saturday with local media reports of Russian troops clashing with Ukrainian forces in the capital Kyiv throughout the night.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the military intervention Thursday, days after recognizing two separatist-held enclaves in eastern Ukraine. He claimed that Moscow had no plan to occupy the neighboring country but wanted to "demilitarize" and "denazify" Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to install a puppet government and said Ukrainians will defend their country against Russian aggression./aa

Turkey has said it will take the necessary measures to douse the economic impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and called on households to maintain confidence in the national currency.

The call came amid high volatility in financial markets after Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Thursday, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War II.

The Treasury and Finance Ministry urged citizens to avoid risky positions in the financial markets and continue to trust the Turkish lira.

The developments regarding Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and its possible economic and financial impacts are being monitored, it said in a written statement on Thursday.

The Turkish lira fell on Friday morning after recovering from a slide of as much as 5% a day earlier, when investors sought safe havens amid the conflict.

The lira weakened 0.6% to 14.07 against the dollar by 7:47 a.m. GMT. On Thursday, it slid as far as 14.62, its weakest level since a slide in late December, before staging a recovery and ending 1% weaker.

Istanbul’s main BIST 100 stock index, which dropped 8.2% on Thursday, was 1% higher on Friday.

Until Thursday’s slide, the lira had stabilized over the past two months, supported by a scheme that protects lira deposits against depreciation.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has forged good ties with both Russia and Ukraine, leaving Ankara in a difficult position as the conflict deepens.

He has said Turkey backs Ukraine’s territorial integrity and is “sincerely saddened” by Russia’s invasion.

Economists have said Turkey may see a drop in tourism and export income this year from Russia and Ukraine, two countries that account for a significant portion of its visitors.

“All necessary measures will be taken decisively in this process as it has been up to now,” the ministry said.

With its solid foundations, the Turkish economy has overcome many internal and external shocks in the past period, the statement said.

“We have further strengthened our country’s resilience against difficulties,” the ministry said, citing the steps that the government has taken as part of the new economic policy that aims for low interest rates to boost credit, exports and investments.

In the last two months, it added, important policies have been implemented to strengthen the lira and they have been successful in this regard.

“In this context, it is considered important in every respect that our citizens continue to trust the Turkish lira and Turkish lira-denominated assets.”/agencies

Russian forces attacked a kindergarten and an orphanage in an act of "war crimes" and in violation of the Rome Statute, Ukraine's foreign minister said Friday.

"Together with the General Prosecutor's Office we are collecting this and other facts, which we will immediately send to The Hague. Responsibility is inevitable," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter, referring to the U.N. International Court of Justice.

Tensions started escalating late last year when Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine.

They claimed Russia was preparing to invade its western neighbor, allegations consistently rejected by Moscow.

Defying threats of sanctions by the West, Moscow earlier this week officially recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, followed by the start of a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the operation aims to protect people "subjected to genocide" by Kyiv and to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine while calling on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms./aa

Russia's economy is unlikely to withstand the onslaught of coordinated sanctions from the West in the long run, although it has spent the past seven years building up formidable financial defenses.

Europe and the United States are raining down reprisals after President Vladimir Putin sent tanks into Ukraine, adding to sanctions already pledged in response to his decision to recognize the independence of two breakaway Ukrainian provinces.

"The view Russia will be unaffected is wrong. The negative effects may not be felt up front but sanctions will hobble Russia's potential in the longer run," said Christopher Granville, managing director at the consultancy firm TS Lombard and a veteran Russia watcher.

Steps by the West include sanctions and asset freezes on more Russian banks and businesspeople, a halt to fundraising abroad, the freezing of an $11 billion gas pipeline project to Germany and limiting access to high-tech items such as semiconductors.

Russia has dismissed sanctions as counter to the interests of those who imposed them. And they won't immediately dent an economy with $643 billion in currency reserves and booming oil and gas revenues.

Those metrics have earned Russia the "fortress" economy moniker, alongside a current account surplus of 5% of annual GDP and a 20% debt-to-GDP ratio, among the lowest in the world. Just half of the Russian liabilities are in dollars, down from 80% two decades ago.

Those statistics result from years of saving since sanctions imposed after Putin's 2014 Crimea annexation.

According to Granville, surging oil prices will offer Russia an extra 1.5 trillion ruble ($17.2 billion) windfall this year from taxes on energy companies' profits.

But this kind of autarky has a price – deepening isolation from the world economy, markets and investment, he noted.

"Russia will essentially be treated as a hostile state cut off from global flows, investment and other normal economic interactions that build living standards, incomes, productivity and company profitability."

Signs of economic vulnerability are already present. Russian household incomes are still below 2014 levels and in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, annual economic output was valued at $1.66 trillion, according to the World Bank, far below the $2.2 trillion in 2013.

Sergei Guriev, an economics professor at France's Sciences Po and former European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) chief economist, pointed out that Russian nominal per capita GDP, double China's in 2013, was now behind.

"In 2013 Russia was a high-income country and was actively negotiating OECD accession. Russia is now back to the middle-income status," he said.

Diminishing clout

Foreign investors in Russia are a dwindling tribe too.

A JPMorgan client survey showed foreign holdings of ruble bonds at the lowest in two decades; equity investment has never returned to pre-Crimea levels in absolute terms, Copley Fund Research estimated.

The premium demanded by investors to hold Russian dollar debt surged on Thursday to over 13 percentage points above the United States Treasury, almost triple the emerging markets average.

"Sanctions are going to force Russia to self-finance more and more activity, constraining investment in industry and the military," said Jeffrey Schott, a trade and sanctions expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Bigger assaults could include ending Russian access to the international payments system SWIFT and outright banning investment in Russia.

Losing access to SWIFT would complicate export and import payments, and could even prevent paying bond coupons, triggering technical default. JPMorgan projects sanctions will slice up to 3.5 percentage points from GDP growth in the second half of 2022.

Limited access to foreign capital leaves oil companies reliant on prepayment deals and facing significantly higher cost of capital, the bank added.

The slow erosion in living standards also risks fanning popular discontent, threatening an administration that has already faced sporadic protests. Spillover may be inevitable.

"Autarky is no recipe for progress," analysts at investment bank Berenberg wrote. "Coping with a heavily armed Russia mired in relative economic decline will remain a key challenge for Europe and the United States for the foreseeable future."/ REUTERS

A third "charity train" carrying 994 tons of emergency relief aid to Afghanistan under the coordination of Turkey's government departed from the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday.

Bound for a journey of 4,168 kilometers (3,590 miles), the latest shipment is carrying aid from 16 humanitarian groups in its 62 wagons, coordinated by the state-run Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

Among the attendees at the train’s sendoff were senior Turkish officials, including the deputy interior minister, along with representatives from humanitarian groups, the disaster agency, and Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate.

A disaster agency statement said the train is carrying 994 tons of food, clothing, blankets, health, personal care items and other critical aid.

On Jan. 27, two trains with 47 wagons carrying 750 tons of aid left Ankara and reached Afghanistan on Feb. 7.

On Feb. 11, a second train with 45 wagons carrying 921 tons of emergency aid also left Ankara and reached Afghanistan on Feb. 23.

According to UN humanitarian coordination office OCHA, half of Afghanistan's population now faces acute hunger, while over 9 million people have been displaced and millions of children are out of school.

The UN and its partners had previously launched a $4.4 billion funding appeal to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also warned that millions of Afghans are on the verge of death, urging the international community to release the conflict-torn country's frozen assets and jump-start its banking system./aa

Turkish Red Crescent will send a humanitarian aid convoy to Ukraine on Friday.

"We are sending a humanitarian relief convoy to #Ukraine to address urgent basic needs, coordinating with Red Cross Ukraine,” Kerem Kinik, the head of the charity, said on Twitter.

“Our teams are being deployed to the region with warehousing tents, family-type tents and mobile catering vehicles for evacuees and #IDPs (internally displaced people),” Kinik added.

Defying threats of sanctions by the West, Moscow officially recognized Ukraine's regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states earlier this week, followed by the start of a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday.

Tensions started escalating late last year when Ukraine, the US, and its allies accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine.

They claimed that Russia was preparing to invade its western neighbor, allegations that were consistently rejected by Moscow./YS