Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russians ‘withdraw billions’ from banks amid fears Putin could seize money

Fedorov, 35, is the last remaining minister to have held positions in all of Zelensky’s governments, with the tech-savvy reformer remaining close to the president since his election in 2019.

Parliament is now set to vote on his replacement by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, with it unclear as to whether Fedorov will be given another government job.

His supporters pointed to his role in turning battlefield momentum in Ukraine’s favour this year, through ramping up drone purchases and a crucial intervention to cut Russian units off from Starlink internet services.

Authorities were trying to put out a small fire after a drone fell in an industrial area in the city of Ufa in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, the republic’s head Radiy Khabirov said on the messaging app Telegram.

Khabirov ⁠added that one of the drones hit an apartment building and a few ‌cars in ​Ufa, an ‌oil ⁠refining hub, leaving ⁠one person injured.

Widespread bank withdrawals in Russia are causing liquidity problems, according to a former senior Russian finance official who spoke to the Washington Post.

“Drones are flying. Things are burning down. Nervousness is growing. And people’s everyday wisdom may be kicking in that they need to have cash under their pillow and not somewhere in banks where it may never be returned,” said a former finance official.

“For some banks this really is a problem,” the former official added.

“They didn’t expect this, and they invested all the cash elsewhere, and yet people are coming and taking out half a trillion rubles a month.”

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser to the Russian Central Bank, said the withdrawals illustrated that the Russian public are scared.

“It means people have no trust in the Russian banking system or in the Russian financial system,” Prokopenko said.

“This is all a consequence of the fear that the government will do something with the banking system, that it could nationalise deposits.”

The ⁠European Union has welcomed the decision by Albania, Bosnia, ⁠Iceland, ​Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North ⁠Macedonia, Norway and ⁠Ukraine to ​align with ⁠its restrictive ‌measures against Belarus, EU foreign policy ‌chief Kaja Kallas ‌said in a statement ⁠on Tuesday.

In July, the EU Council decided to impose restrictive measures against the country “in ‌view of ​the involvement ‌of Belarus ⁠in the ⁠Russian aggression against ‌Ukraine”.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had the right to regard the direct involvement of Britain in strikes on Russian territory as participation in the war in Ukraine.

His comments came after the Times ⁠newspaper reported on Saturday that ​British-made ⁠drones had been ‌used for long-range strikes against Russia for the first ‌time.

Following the report, Russia’s ‌embassy in London warned Britain of unspecified “consequences” for supplying ⁠drones to Kyiv.

PM Andy Burnham said on Tuesday that Britain would support Ukraine “100%” in its fight against Russia and stand by Kyiv “in ‌its hour of ​need”.

Moscow has previously ‌accused British specialists ⁠of involvement in attacks ⁠on Russian territory, saying Britain’s role ‌would ​be taken “into account” ‌in its response.

A thermal power plant in central Ukraine halted operations yesterday after it suffered significant damage from a Russian strike, power firm DTEK said.

The company ‌declined to name the ‌plant involved.

It ‌said in a statement ⁠on Telegram that its thermal plants have been attacked more than 230 times ‌by Russia ​since ‌the start ⁠of the full-scale ⁠invasion in 2022.

Estonia is investigating whether Russia was involved in an arson attack last week on a building housing a defence contractor, the Baltic country’s prime minister said in a statement.

The building used by Milrem Robotics, a maker of unmanned military weapons systems deployed in Ukraine and elsewhere, was targeted late on Friday, a prosecutor ⁠earlier told public broadcaster ​ERR.

“The suspects have been identified. One of the lines of investigation is a possible act of sabotage and the involvement of Russia,” Estonian prime minister Kristen Michal said on X.

Moscow has regularly denied accusations of planning or carrying out sabotage and other attacks on countries outside Ukraine, saying such reports are part of an anti-Russian propaganda campaign.

European countries ⁠bordering or near Russia are concerned that the war in Ukraine is spilling over into Nato’s northern borders.

Ukraine’s former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for wartime elections in a bombshell address, arguing the nation faced a crisis of governance, in the biggest internal challenge yet to president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Fedorov issued his ⁠call for elections in a video address posted on YouTube, the first such demand by a major Ukrainian political figure since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

In what appeared to be an open challenge to Zelensky, Fedorov said Ukraine faced a “systemic crisis of governance”.

“The old system lives by its own rules too often. It protects itself. It is scared of change,” he said.

“Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” Fedorov said.

“We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to renew its full democratic process even in the conditions of a long war.”

While Fedorov did not say in his address that he would compete in any election, a recent poll indicated the ex-minister would comfortably beat Zelensky in a runoff vote, where the top two presidential candidates go head-to-head.