“A difficult night” a Russian veto against a UN resolution targeting it, and Zelensky warns of the fall of Kiev

In the UN Security Council, Russia vetoed a draft resolution condemning "in the strongest terms its aggression against Ukraine" and calling on it to withdraw its forces from the country "immediately", while the Ukrainian president warned that Russian forces would try tonight to seize Kiev.

Russia vetoed a draft resolution drafted by the United States and Albania in the UN Security Council on Friday, condemning "in the strongest terms its aggression against Ukraine" and calling on it to withdraw its forces from the country "immediately".

Eleven of the 15 council members voted in favor of the text, while the remaining three countries, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, abstained.

A diplomat said the language of the draft resolution was softened hours before the vote in order to "ensure" that these three countries abstain rather than vote against the text.

Thus, in the draft resolution on which the word "condemns" was voted, it was reduced to "condemns", and the reference to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, which authorizes the use of force, was also deleted.

In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday-Saturday night that Russian forces would try tonight to seize Kiev, where fierce battles are taking place, describing the night as going to be difficult.

"We cannot lose the capital. I turn to our defenders, men and women on all fronts: Tonight, the enemy will use all its forces to break through our defenses in the most vile, cruel and inhumane way. Tonight they will try to take" Kiev," Zelensky said in a video message posted on the presidential website.

At dawn on Thursday, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, which was followed by angry reactions from several countries in the world and calls for tougher sanctions against Moscow.

The invasion sparked protests in the United States, Europe and within Russia itself, where authorities arrested hundreds of protesters who took to the streets on Thursday.

"Severe recession shock" How will Russia's isolation affect the global economy?

"War, sanctions and the possibility of Russia's effective retaliation are likely to cause a severe global recession shock," the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in a note.

Western economic sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine are piling a new set of unknowns on a global economy already battered by the coronavirus pandemic and ten years of low-interest loans.

The attempt to exclude entire sectors of the Russian economy, which occupies the eleventh place in the world, from the trading system is unprecedented in the era of globalization, taking into account also that Russia is the supplier of one-sixth of all goods.

The sanctions revealed so far will affect the business of Russian banks that deal in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. US export restrictions will also limit Russia's access to electronics and computers while European capitals are adjusting similar export controls and procedures to target the energy and transportation sectors.

For now, Western countries will not impose anything like isolation on the Russian economy, the gas on which Europe depends will continue to flow and Russian banks will retain access to the global banking messaging system Swift.

But more punitive measures can still be taken, while the chaos of the conflict and anticipated countermeasures by Moscow make it likely that there will be some isolation of the Russian economy and its vast resources.

"War, sanctions and the possibility of an effective retaliatory Russia are likely to cause a severe global recession shock," the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in a note.

"Sanctions on Russian banks and trade are likely to cause serious disruptions in global trade and financial relations, with wide-ranging effects," she added.

The initial impact will be modest, particularly two years after COVID-19, which saw a global recession.

Oxford Economics said it now expects global inflation this year to reach 6.1%, up from 5.4%, based on the impact of sanctions, financial market turmoil and higher gas, oil and food prices.

Although this will add to concerns about the cost of living, Oxford lowered its forecast for global output growth by 0.2 point to 3.8% this year and just 0.1 point to 3.4% in 2023.

This small dose of “stagflation” is a problem for central banks trying to reduce stimulus and bring policy rates back to a near-normal after a decade near zero.

But for now, the consensus is that tightening can continue with caution.

Sino-Russian axis

More profound structural changes will depend on how the sanctions affect in time, particularly in the areas of goods, energy and finance.

One of the specialist lawyers told Reuters that even without excluding Russian banks from the SWIFT system, the mere impact of legal consequences on any Western bank found to have violated sanctions could have a "frightening effect on business".

The same is true for other financial services.

It remains unclear how sanctions will be applied to Russia's vast energy and commodity resources.

Russia produces 10 percent of the world's oil and supplies 40 percent of gas to Europe. It is also the world's largest exporter of grain and fertilizer, the largest producer of palladium and nickel, the third largest exporter of coal and steel, and the fifth largest exporter of timber.

US President Joe Biden said the sanctions are designed to have a long-term freezing effect on the Russian economy. How can Moscow respond to this creeping isolation?

Russia's Economy Ministry said on Friday it expects the sanctions pressure it has been exposed to intensify since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and plans to boost trade and economic ties with Asian countries.

Such an axis would particularly depend on Beijing seeing a benefit in the emergence of a Sino-Russian trading bloc as a viable alternative to Western channels.

After supply chain problems in a pandemic era, this could exacerbate price hikes and commodity shortages that are hurting the global economy.

“I did not stop saying it” The French Prime Minister claims that Jerusalem is the “eternal capital” of the Jews

French Prime Minister Jean Castix declared that “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” during his participation in the usual annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).

French Prime Minister Jean Castix considered that "Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people," saying he "did not stop saying it."

During his participation in the regular annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), the French minister added that he would like the fight against anti-Semitism to be included in all projects of French higher education institutions.

He considered that "anti-Semitism is often the work of extremist Islamists who make life difficult for French Jews and who are sometimes killed." As he claims.

Jan Castix called for a "general mobilization of the whole of society" to fight anti-Semitism, and promised to "continue the struggle unabated."