On Friday, the Russian military extended its violence in Ukraine by targeting Western areas of the country, while Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, approved the recruitment of Syrians and other countries willing to join Ukrainians in their fight for their survival. In addition, Europe escalated the economic burden on Putin’s Russia, as America and its allies and partners downgraded Russia’s MFN status – the newest in attempts to further detach Russia for the large-scale incursion.

A senior US Defense official confirmed Moscow had started targeting spots in Ukraine’s Western areas, hitting Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk airfields on March 11, part of a salvo of over eight hundred missiles launched since the start of Feb. 24 incursion.

Russia-Ukraine war has compelled over 2.5M people to leave Ukraine, while others seek shelter in subway stations, basements, and underground shelters. Additional departures were anticipated, though repeated efforts to permit people to leave the port city of Mariupol in the Southern region have failed under sustained shelling by Russian forces.

The Ukrainian leader said from Kyiv that it is impossible to say how much time they’ll need to free their land, but it’s likely to say that they’ll do it. On the other hand, the Russian President has called for foreign volunteers to be able to combat against Ukrainian security forces.

We will:

1. Deny Russia the status of Most-Favored Nation in our markets, revoking important WTO benefits.⁰

We’ll also work to suspend its membership rights in multilateral financial institutions like the IMF & World Bank – so no more loans or benefits from these institutions.

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 11, 2022

Strategic Turning Point

Furthermore, Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Minister of Defense, said there’re sixteen thousand people in the Middle East willing to fight combined with the Russian-backed military. American officials said these could include Syrian volunteers skilled in urban warfare.

Russia is a long-standing partner of Syria, and the Russian President has been a key supporter of Mr. Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, in the civil war of the country. Vladimir Putin told Sergei Shoigu that if they observe that there’re these individuals who want of their own accord, not for money, to step forward to help people living in the Donbass region, then ‘we need to give’ them what they want and help get to the crisis region.

Ukrainian officials in the port city of Mariupol said that over 1500 people had lost their lives since Moscow started its assault on the city. However, it’s not possible to independently confirm the number. Moreover, Zelenskyy said via video that his armed force had reached a strategic turning point. He added that it’s impossible to express how many days they’ll still need to free Ukrainian land, but it’s probable to say they’d do it because they’ve reached a decisive moment.

The U.S. President proclaimed an agreement with other countries to revoke the ‘most favored nation’ status for Russia, which could permit for increased tariffs to be announced on imports from Russia. America also prohibited imports of Russian alcohol, diamonds, and seafood. European countries have been primarily united in increasing the economic burden on Russia.