Meanwhile, top Indian-American US advisor and a key architect of Washington's punitive economic sanctions against Moscow, Daleep Singh, has had productive conversations with his Indian counterparts, the White House said Thursday. At a separate news conference, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, responding to a question on the India visit of the Russian Foreign Minister said that every country has their own relationship.
Russia announced Tuesday it will significantly scale back military operations near Ukraine's capital and a northern city, as the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war came into view at the latest round of talks.
Ukraine's delegation at the conference, held in Istanbul, laid out a framework under which the country would declare itself neutral and its security would be guaranteed by an array of other nations. Moscow's public reaction was positive, and the negotiations are expected to resume Wednesday, five weeks into what has devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with thousands dead and almost 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the country.
Amid the talks, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Moscow has decided to "fundamentally ... cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv" to "increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations."
The announcement was met with scepticism from the US and others. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia cannot be trusted. Although the signals from the talks are "positive," they "can't silence explosions of Russian shells," he said in a video address.
Zelenskyy said it was Ukrainian troops who forced Russia's hand, adding that "we shouldn't ease our guard" because the invading army still "has a great potential to continue attacks against our country."
This live blog is closed. Follow latest updates here.
Talks to stop the fighting in Ukraine resumed Friday, as another attempt to rescue civilians from the shattered and encircled city of Mariupol broke down and Russia accused the Ukrainians of a cross-border helicopter attack on an oil depot.
monthly limit of free stories.
with an Express account.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said an airstrike on Russian soil by a pair of helicopter gunships caused fires and wounded two people. Several nearby businesses were also reported hit. Read more
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says Russian forces' departure from the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant is "a step in the right direction" and the UN nuclear watchdog plans to be there "very, very soon". IAEA director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi says he will head a support mission to Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, and that further nuclear safety missions to Ukraine will follow. Grossi spoke Friday after visits to Ukraine and Russia. He said Russian nuclear and foreign ministry officials didn't discuss with him why Russian forces left Chernobyl. --AP
Emergency relief and evacuation convoys for the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol remained in doubt Friday following reports of Russian interference, while Russian officials accused Ukraine of flying helicopter gunships across a border between the two countries and striking an oil depot.
The governor of Russia's Belgorod region said the alleged airstrike caused multiple fires and two people were injured. A Kremlin spokesman said the incident on Russia's territory could undermine negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives that resumed by video link Friday.
"Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied when asked if the strike could be viewed as an escalation of the war in Ukraine. --AP
Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out an air strike against a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod on Friday, an incident the Kremlin said set an unfavourable tone for peace talks with Kyiv.
Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he could not confirm or deny reports of Ukrainian involvement in the strike as he did not have military information. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry and the general staff did not respond to requests for comment. --AP
Europol, the European Union police agency, has sent teams to countries bordering Ukraine in an effort to protect refugees from criminals. The Hague-based agency said on Friday its teams are supporting local authorities by running secondary security checks and seeking to "identify criminals and terrorists trying to enter the EU in the refugee flow and exploit the situation". The Europol teams are operating in Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova and are planning to deploy to Romania, too. The agency says they also are gathering intelligence to feed into criminal threat assessments across Europe. The United Nations says that more than 4 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24. --AP
Russia's central bank said Friday it was softening restrictions on foreign fund transfers for individuals for a six-month period.
The bank said the measures, which raise an earlier limit on funds that can be transferred abroad, did not apply to residents and non-residents from countries that had imposed sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.
"Within a calendar month, individuals have the right to transfer no more than 10,000 US dollars or the equivalent in another currency from the Russian Federation from their account in a Russian bank to their account or to another person abroad," the bank said in a statement. (Reuters)
Russian gas was still flowing to Europe Friday despite a deadline set by President Vladimir Putin to cut it off unless customers start paying in roubles, Moscow's strongest threat to retaliate for sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.
?? Member states of the International Energy Agency are set to convene an extraordinary meeting (1200 GMT) to discuss stabilizing global oil markets roiled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including a possible coordinated stocks release.
?? One of Putin's allies warned that Russia, a major global wheat exporter, could limit supplies of agriculture products to "friendly" countries only.
?? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began meetings with India's leaders in New Delhi after seen his Chinese counterpart earlier in the week, as Moscow tries to keep the Asian powers on its side.
?? Russia and Ukraine are due to resume peace talks online, a senior Ukrainian official said.
The governor of Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region said Russian troops are withdrawing from the region. (Reuters)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, a day after the US warned of consequences for countries attempting to "circumvent" American sanctions against Moscow.
The high-level talks took place in the backdrop of indications that India could buy greater volumes of discounted Russian oil and both sides were keen on having a rouble-rupee arrangement for bilateral trade.
An aide to the mayor of Mariupol said on Friday the besieged southern Ukrainian city remained closed for anyone trying to enter and was "very dangerous" for anyone trying to leave.
Petro Andryushchenko said Russian forces had since Thursday been preventing even the smallest amount of humanitarian supplies reaching trapped residents, making clear a planned "humanitarian corridor" had not been opened. (Reuters)
The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola is scheduled to visit Ukraine, she said in a message on Twitter.
British military intelligence said Friday Ukrainian forces have retaken the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka to the south of Chernihiv and located along main supply routes between the city and Kyiv.
"Ukraine has also continued to make successful but limited counter attacks to the east and north east of Kyiv," Britain's Ministry of Defence said.
Chernihiv and Kyiv have been subjected to continued air and missile strikes despite Russian claims of reducing activity in these areas, the ministry added. (Reuters)
To mark the death of children who died in the ongoing Ukraine war, activists in Georgia put 145 pairs of children’s shoes outside their parliament building in the capital Tbilisi.
This demonstration in Tbilisi took place on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
According to Nexta, a Belarusian media outlet, 145 pairs were used to represent the estimated number of children who have lost their lives since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in late February this year. (Read more)
Ukraine will soon be able to better protect its skies and cities from Russian attacks because it expects "super modern" military equipment from the United States and Britain, Ukraine's ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, said Friday.
"They still have superiority in air force, in airplanes and missiles, and we expect to begin to receive super-modern equipment from the United States and Britain to protect our skies and our cities," Korsunsky told a news conference.
"When they fire cruise missiles from long distance, we cannot get to the launch place. We have to intercept them. That's why we need this modern equipment." (Reuters)
After the invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a passionate speech about the historic injustice of Ukrainian independence. Earlier this year, he returned to that line of rhetoric, insisting that Ukraine was a part of Russia and lambasting it for its so-called “atrocities” against ethnic Russians.
On Thursday, Putin expanded upon his earlier sentiments, stressing that Russia’s actions were justified as the West continually threatened Moscow’s strategic interests. (Read more)
A fire broke out at a fuel storage facility in the Russian city of Belgorod located close to the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, two days after the province was rocked by blasts at an arms depot.
Two people were hurt in Friday's fire, Gladkov said on Telegram, and residents of three city streets were being evacuated.
Gladkov said this week that the arms depot explosions were believed to be a result of another fire, although he said the regional authorities were awaiting confirmation from the defence ministry. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for any of the incidents. (Reuters)
It was 11.25 pm in Lviv when a message popped up: “Air alarm: Lviv, Rivne!!!” No, this wasn’t a government-issued notification to warn Ukrainians of a missile strike. This was a post on the UkraineNOW telegram channel that has around a million people who have been dependent on it since the war started.
And this is not the only channel alerting people about the war. As Russian troops and tanks rolled into Ukraine over a month ago, various such channels on the messaging application have helped keep people safe, debunk potential Russian disinformation, and counter emerging threats.
The Ukrainian government, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, rely on the app for everything — from rallying global support to disseminating air raid warnings and maps of local bomb shelters. So do both the Russian government and Russian opposition channels, who now find themselves cut off from most mainstream social media. (Read more)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that Australia will send armoured Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically asked for them while appealing to Australian lawmakers for more help in Ukraine's war against Russia.
Zelenskyy addressed the Australian Parliament on Thursday and asked for the Australian-made, four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Morrison told reporters the vehicles will be flown over on Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport planes. He didn't specify how many would be sent or when. (AP)
??European governments rejected Putin's energy ultimatum, with the continent's biggest recipient of Russian gas, Germany, calling it "blackmail".
?? US President Joe Biden announced the largest release from the US emergency oil reserve to bring down gasoline prices that have soared during the war.
?? The war also threatens to disrupt global food supplies, with a US government official sharing images of what they said was damage to grain storage facilities in Ukraine, the world's fourth-largest gain exporter in the 2020/21 season.
?? Russia and Ukraine are to resume peace talks online on April 1, a senior Ukrainian official said.
?? The Russian defence ministry said it would open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on Friday, Tass news agency reported.
Russian troops began leaving the Chernobyl nuclear plant after soldiers got 'significant doses' of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site, Ukraine's state power company said as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
Energoatom gave no details on the condition of the troops or how many were affected. But it said the Russians had dug in in the forest inside the exclusion zone around the now-closed plant, the site in 1986 of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
The troops 'panicked at the first sign of illness,' which 'showed up very quickly,' and began preparing to leave, Energoatom said. There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. (AP)
Negotiations aimed at ending the five-week war were set to resume even as Ukraine braced for further attacks in the south and east.
Peace negotiations are set to resume by video conference on Friday. Seeking to bolster its position, Moscow is redeploying forces from Russian-backed breakaway regions in Georgia to Ukraine, Britain's defence ministry wrote on Twitter. (Reuters)
European buyers of Russian gas faced a deadline to start paying in roubles Friday, while negotiations aimed at ending the five-week war were set to resume even as Ukraine braced for further attacks in the south and east.
?? Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks on the Donbas region in the southeast after they repelled Russia's assault on the capital Kyiv, Zelenskyy said.
?? Zelenskyy said the situation in the south and the Donbas remained extremely difficult and Russia was building up forces near the besieged southern port of Mariupol.
?? Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in Mariupol, the mayor's office estimates, and about 170,000 people remain trapped amid ruins without food, heat, power or running water.
?? Russian forces have killed 148 children during shelling and air strikes, fired 1,370 missiles and destroyed 15 Ukrainian airports since the start of the invasion, Ukraine's defence ministry said.
?? The Ukrainian state nuclear company said all of the Russian forces occupying the Chernobyl nuclear power station had withdrawn from the territory of the defunct plant. (Reuters)
Hours before Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Delhi, United States Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh, the chief architect of the sanctions imposed on Russia, said that there will be “consequences” to countries that “actively attempt to circumvent the sanctions”.
Red-flagging the China-Russia relationship which both sides have termed as one with “no limits,” Singh said that had implications for India.
“No one should kid themselves — Russia is going to be the junior partner in this relationship with China. And the more leverage that China gains over Russia, the less favourable that is for India,” he said. (Read more)
An unscripted sharp exchange Thursday between External Affairs minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart, visiting British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, highlighted the divergences between New Delhi and London on the issue of sanctions on Russia.
With Secretary Truss listening, Jaishankar said that talk of sanctions “looks like a campaign” and it was Europe that was buying more oil from Russia than before the war.
While the British Foreign Secretary repeatedly talked about Russian aggression, Jaishankar did not name Russia in his statements during the 45-minute panel discussion at the first India-UK Strategic Futures Forum, jointly organised by Indian Council of World Affairs and Policy Exchange. This followed a bilateral meeting. (Read more)
Top Indian-American US advisor and a key architect of Washington's punitive economic sanctions against Moscow, Daleep Singh, has had productive conversations with his Indian counterparts, the White House said Thursday.
Singh was in India on March 30 and 31 to discuss the consequences of Russia's "unjustified war" against Ukraine and the development of an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
"Daleep Singh, the deputy national security adviser for international economics, had really good discussions with his counterparts. And I know that the conversation was productive," White House Director of Communications Kate Bedingfield told reporters at her daily news conference. (Read more)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a rare sign of internal dissent, said in a video address that he had sacked two senior members of the national security service on the grounds they were traitors.
Zelenskyy also said he had fired two top officials at the national security service — the overall head of internal security as well as the head of the agency's branch in the Kherson region.
"I do not have time to deal with all the traitors, but they will gradually all be punished," he said, adding that the two men had betrayed their oath to defend Ukraine. He did not give specific details. The occasion marked the first time Zelenskiy has announced high-profile sackings of those involved in Ukraine's defence. (Reuters)
The Ukrainian government said Russian forces blocked 45 buses that had been sent to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol, and only 631 people were able to get out of the city in private cars.
Twelve Ukrainian trucks were able to deliver humanitarian supplies to Mariupol, but the supplies were seized by Russian troops, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said late Thursday.
Vereshchuk said about 45,000 Mariupol residents have been forcefully deported to Russia and areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists. (AP)
Russian forces have killed 148 children during shelling and air strikes, fired 1,370 missiles and destroyed 15 Ukrainian airports since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, Ukraine's defence ministry said on Thursday.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, it said in a statement. Reuters could not independently verify the information.(Reuters)
President Joe Biden on Thursday accused U.S. oil companies of enjoying record profits while Americans pay high gasoline prices and said they should use the money to produce more oil or restart idle wells rather than pay investors."This is not the time to sit on record profits, it's time to step up for the good of your country," he said. (Reuters)
"Putin seems to be self-isolating," US President Joe Biden said. "He seems to be self-isolated and there's some indicatio that he has fired or put under house arrest some of hi advisers," he said.
President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce the release of 1 million barrels of oil a day for the next six months from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to bring down gasoline prices, the White House said.
Biden’s aim is to try to bring down gasoline prices that have soared in recent months particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden is to make the announcement at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) event at the White House. Read More
Britain and its allies have agreed to send more lethal weapons to Ukraine to help defend it against Russia's invasion, British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday. "There'll be more lethal aid going into Ukraine as a result of today. A number of countries have come forward either with new ideas or indeed more pledges of money," Wallace told reporters after hosting over 30 international partners at a conference. He said the lethal aid included longer range artillery, ammunition, and more anti-aircraft weapons.
Russia said on Thursday it had greatly expanded the number of European Union officials, lawmakers, public figures and journalists barred from Russia for allegedly being responsible for sanctions and stoking anti-Russian feelings.
"The restrictions apply to the top leadership of the European Union, including a number of European commissioners and heads of EU military structures, as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament who promote anti-Russian policies," Russia's foreign ministry said.
The EU, the United States and numerous other Western countries have imposed sweeping economic and political sanctions on Russia, some Russian media and prominent or wealthy Russians in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Moscow said its blacklist also included representatives of some EU member states as well as public figures and journalists who it said were "personally responsible for promoting illegal anti-Russian sanctions, inciting Russophobic sentiments and the infringement of the rights and freedoms of the Russian-speaking population". (Reuters)
Britain respects India's decision to buy discounted oil from Russia, foreign minister Liz Truss said on Thursday, even as she pursued more sanctions against Moscow.
Truss's comments follow remarks by Daleep Singh, US Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics, who said Washington will not set any "red line" for India on its energy imports from Russia. "I think it's very important that we respect other countries' decisions about the issues that they face; India is a sovereign nation. I'm not going to tell India what to do," Truss told reporters.
Since Western sanctions were imposed on Russian entities after Moscow invaded Ukraine, India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude oil, compared with about 16 million barrels for all of last year, according to Reuters data. Russia is offering a discount of $35 a barrel to price levels prior to the start of the Ukraine crisis in February, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. (Reuters)
The United States on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, targeting the technology sector, a sanctions evasion network and what it called "malicious cyber actors" while paving the way to act against additional sectors in response to President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine.
"We will continue to target Putin's war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 21 entities and 13 people, including Joint Stock Company Mikron, Russia's largest chipmaker and manufacturer and exporter of microelectronics. Washington also determined that three new sectors in the Russian economy are subject to sanctions under an existing executive order, allowing the United States to slap punitive measures on any person or entity operating in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors. Thursday's actions freeze any US assets of those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden will announce the release of 1 million barrels a day from oil stockpile in a bid to dampen prices, the White House said on Thursday. (AFP)
Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom on Thursday said many of the Russian forces occupying the Chernobyl nuclear plant had left and were headed for the Belarusian border, leaving just a few on the territory of the defunct plant.
"The occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the exclusion zone, have set off in two columns towards the Ukrainian border," it said in a statement. It said Russian forces had also retreated from the nearby town of Slavutych, where Ukrainian workers at Chernobyl live. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said thousands of people had been killed in Mariupol since Russian forces started laying siege to the strategic port city. "Everyone knows there is a humanitarian catastrophe there," Zelenskiy told Belgian lawmakers in an address via video link. (Reuters)
Ukraine's president said his country's defense against the Russian invasion was at a “turning point” and again pressed the United States for more help, hours after the Kremlin's forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.
Russian bombardment of areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks elsewhere in the country further undermined hopes for progress toward ending the bloody conflict that has devolved into a war of attrition. Civilians trapped in besieged cities have shouldered some of the worst suffering, though both sides said Thursday they would attempt another evacuation from the port city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the case directly to US President Joe Biden.
“If we really are fighting for freedom and in defense of democracy together, then we have a right to demand help in this difficult turning point. Tanks, aircraft, artillery systems. Freedom should be armed no worse than tyranny,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation, which he delivered standing in the dark outside the dimly lit presidential offices in Kyiv. He thanked the US for an additional $500 million in aid that was announced Wednesday. (AP)
The British government said on Thursday it had made 14 additions to its list of sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including media organisations and senior figures within them.
Britain is acting in concert with Western allies to try to cripple the Russian economy as punishment for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and has sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and businesses, including in industries like shipping and defence, and wealthy elites close to President Vladimir Putin.
Among those santioned on Thursday were senior figures from media outlets including RT's managing director Alexey Nikolov, Sergey Brilev, a prominent news anchor at the state-owned Rossiya Television and Radio network, and Sputnik's Editor-in-Chief Anton Anisimov.
On Wednesday Britain put in place new legal powers to prohibit maintenance on aircraft and ships belonging to specific sanctioned Russian oligarchs or their businesses. (Reuters)
The talks between Ukraine and Russia will resume on Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia.
The delegations met in-person on Tuesday in Istanbul, after two weeks of meeting by video, and the faint outlines of a possible peace agreement seemed to emerge.
The Ukrainian delegation offered a framework under with the country would declare itself neutral - dropping its bid to join NATO, as Moscow has long demanded - in return for security guarantees from a group of other nations. Russian diplomats responded positively to Ukraine's proposal. (AP)
The White House has pledged an additional $500 million in direct aid for Ukraine as the Russian invasion grinds on. U.S. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a 55 minute call Wednesday that the additional aid was on its way.
The leaders also reviewed security aid already delivered to Ukraine and the effects that weaponry has had on the war, according to the White House. Zelesnkyy has pressed the Biden administration and other Western allies to provide Ukraine with military jets. (PTI)
Demoralised Russian soldiers in the Ukraine were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft, a U.K. intelligence chief said on Thursday.
Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ electronic spy agency, made the remarks at a speech in the Australian capital Canberra. Russian President Vladimir Putin had apparently "massively misjudged" the invasion, he said.
"It's clear he misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people. He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanise. He underplayed the economic consequences of the sanctions regime, and he overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory," Fleming said. (AP)
The Ukrainian president said his country's defence against the Russian invasion is at a "turning point" and again pressed the United States for more help in the hours after the Kremlin's forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.
Russian forces bombarded areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks in other parts of the country Wednesday, adding to already deep doubts about any progress toward ending the punishing war.
Talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia. Meanwhile, a delegation of lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament visited Washington to push the US for increased assistance, saying their nation needs more military equipment, more financial help and tougher sanctions against Russia.
Professor of International Relations and Security, University of Bradford London, Mar 31 (The Conversation) Even before the Russian military machine entered Ukrainian territory on February 24, the potential threat of escalation to a nuclear conflict had been raised.
In the days before the invasion, Russia conducted a large-scale exercise involving simulated long-range conventional and nuclear strikes in response to a nuclear attack.
Then, as his troops poured across the border into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin issued a chilling threat to Nato and the west, saying they would face "consequences greater than any you have faced in history" if they interfered. Just days later, on February 27, the Russian president declared that he had ordered his country's nuclear forces into a state of "special combat readiness". (The Conversation)
Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the east of the country as Moscow builds up its troops there after suffering setbacks near the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
Russia's invasion of its neighbour, now in its fifth week, has driven around a quarter of Ukrainians from their homes and brought Russian-Western tensions to their worst point since the Cold War.
Tough resistance by Ukrainian forces has prevented Russia from capturing any major city, including Kyiv, where a Russian armed column was held back for weeks. At peace talks this week in Istanbul, Russia said it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to build trust.
But Ukraine and its Western allies, including the United States, dismissed Russia's pledge as a ploy to stem its losses and prepare for other attacks. (Reuters)
A black and white, melancholy alternative to Instagram that asks users to post sad pictures of themselves may launch in Russia this week, its creators said, to express sadness at the loss of popular services such as the U.S. photo sharing platform.
Russia restricted access to Instagram from March 14 and subsequently found its owner Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) guilty of "extremist activities". read more Moscow is battling with Big Tech to control information flows after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Instagram said the decision to block it would affect 80 million users in Russia. Although people can still sometimes access the photo-sharing platform using a Virtual Private Network, domestic alternatives have started appearing, the latest being 'Grustnogram', or 'Sadgram' in English. What began as a joke among friends quickly became something that could work, one of Grustnogram's creators Ivan Semkin told Reuters on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Russian hackers have recently attempted to penetrate the networks of NATO and the militaries of some eastern European countries, Google's Threat Analysis Group said in a report published on Wednesday.
The report did not say which militaries had been targeted in what Google described as "credential phishing campaigns" launched by a Russian-based group called Coldriver, or Callisto.
"These campaigns were sent using newly created Gmail accounts to non-Google accounts, so the success rate of these campaigns is unknown," the report said. (Reuters)
The United Nations chief launched an initiative Monday to immediately explore possible arrangements for “a humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine” in order to allow the delivery of desperately needed aid and pave the way for serious political negotiations to end the month-long war.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he used his “good offices” and asked Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths, the head of the U.N.’s worldwide humanitarian operations, to explore the possibility of a cease-fire with Russia and Ukraine. He said Griffiths has already made some contacts.
“I hope that he will be able to go to both Moscow and Kyiv as soon as that becomes possible,” Guterres said. “It’s very important to establish a serious dialogue with both parties in relation to the possibility of this humanitarian cease-fire.”
The 193-member U.N. General Assembly, by an overwhelming majority of about 140 nations, has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Ukraine twice -- on March 2 and on March 24 -- and Guterres told reporters he thinks “this is the moment” for the United Nations “to assume the initiative.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the secretary-general said, there has been a “senseless loss of thousands of lives,” displacement of 10 million people, systematic destruction of homes, schools, hospitals and other essential infrastructure, “and skyrocketing food and energy prices worldwide.” (AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin was misled by his advisers about how poorly the war in Ukraine is going and how damaging Westerns sanctions have been to Russia's economy, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, citing declassified intelligence.
"We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth," the official said on condition of anonymity. (Reuters)
Russia’s Putin signs decree banning state purchases of foreign equipment for critical infrastructure without approval from March 31, reports Reuters citing RIA.
Artillery rocked Kyiv's suburbs and a besieged city in northern Ukraine, a day after Russia promised to scale down operations there. Ukraine's government and Western allies said the pullback was a ploy to regroup by invaders taking heavy losses.
* Russian forces in Ukraine are regrouping and preparing for renewed offensive operations, Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said.
* The mayor of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, Vladyslav Astroshenko, said Russian bombardment had intensified over the past 24 hours, with more than 100,000 people trapped with supplies to last about a week. Bombings were also reported in the west of the country.
* Russia is shelling nearly all cities along the frontline separating Ukrainian government-controlled territory from areas held by Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk region, the regional Donetsk governor said.
* Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said he felt optimistic after the talks in Istanbul at which Moscow said it would scale down military operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv.
* Russia's lead negotiator at the Istanbul talks, Vladimir Medinsky, said Kyiv had stated a willingness to meet core Russian demands, but that Moscow's position on the Donbas region and annexed Crimea remained unchanged.
* Moscow and Beijing are "more determined" to develop bilateral ties and boost cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, after talks in China with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, as the Ukraine crisis rages.
* President Vladimir Putin is being misled by his advisers about how damaging Western sanctions have been to Russia's economy, a U.S. official said, citing declassified intelligence.
* All Russia's big exports could soon be in roubles, the Kremlin signalled
* Germany triggered an emergency plan to manage gas supplies that could see Europe's largest economy ration power if a standoff over a Russian demand to pay for fuel with roubles disrupts or halts supplies.
* The number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad is now 4,019,287, the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.
* Russia's bombardment of Ukrainian cities could amount to war crimes, said the top U.N. human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, adding her office had received "credible allegations" that Moscow had used cluster munitions in populated areas at least 24 times. (Reuters)
Britain on Wednesday published new Russia-related sanctions legislation which included a ban on providing technical assistance for ships and planes that would benefit a person who has been sanctioned.
The government is acting in concert with Western allies to try to cripple the Russian economy as punishment for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. It has targeted Russia's access to the international financial system, key industries like shipping and defence, and wealthy elites close to President Vladimir Putin.
An explanatory note accompanying the legal text published on a government website said: "The Regulations prohibit the provision to, or for the benefit of, a designated person of technical assistance relating to aircraft and ships. This includes a power to designate persons for the purposes of that sanctions measure. (Reuters)
Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of planting mines in the Black Sea and said some of those munitions had to be defused off Turkey and Romania as risks to vital merchant shipping in the region grow.
The Black Sea is a major shipping route for grain, oil and oil products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey as well as Ukraine and Russia.
Russia's military took control of waterways when it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, in what Moscow calls a "special operation".
In recent days Turkish and Romanian military diving teams have been involved in defusing stray mines around their waters. Ukraine's foreign ministry said Russia was using naval mines as "uncontrolled drifting ammunition".
"It was these drifting mines that were found March 26-28, 2022 off the coasts of Turkey and Romania," it said in a statement. (Reuters)
Norway and the rest of Europe should close their sea ports to Russian ships, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Norwegian parliament on Wednesday. "The European Union, and I do hope so Norway, need to introduce the ban on Russian vessels to use European ports for the time being while they are blocking our ports," Zelenskyy said via video link from Ukraine.
He added that Ukraine and Norway, Europe's second-largest gas supplier after Russia, had started talks over the supply of 5 billion cubic metres gas for next winter.
"You can make a decisive contribution to the energy security of Europe by providing the necessary resources both to the countries of the European Union and to Ukraine," he said. "We have already started the dialogue on the supply of about 5 bcm for the next heating season. I do hope this will be the basis for our long-time cooperation in this area." (Reuters)
Russian forces bombarded a besieged city in northern Ukraine on Wednesday, a day after promising to scale down operations there, and Kyiv and its Western allies dismissed a pullback near the capital as a ploy to regroup by invaders taking heavy losses.
Nearly five weeks into an invasion in which it has failed to capture any major cities, Russia said it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv "to increase mutual trust" for peace talks.
But Chernihiv's Mayor Vladyslav Astroshenko said Russian bombardment had only intensified over the past 24 hours, with more than 100,000 people trapped in the city with just enough food and medical supplies to last about another week.
"This is yet another confirmation that Russia always lies," he told CNN in an interview. "They actually have increased the intensity of strikes," with "a colossal mortar attack in the centre of Chernihiv" on Wednesday wounding 25 civilians. Reuters could not immediately verify the situation there. (Reuters)
The Kremlin on Wednesday welcomed the fact that Kyiv has set out its demands for an end to the conflict in Ukraine in written form, but said there was "no sign of a breakthrough" yet.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had not noticed anything really promising or that looked like a breakthrough, and said there was a long period of work ahead.
Ukraine presented its demands when negotiators from the two sides met in Turkey on Tuesday before adjourning to consult with their capitals.
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbour's military capabilities and root out people it says are dangerous nationalists. Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and so far prevented Russia seizing any major city. (Reuters)
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday it had detained 60 supporters of what it described as a Ukrainian "neo-Nazi" group and had seized weapons in 23 regions across Russia, news agencies reported.
The FSB has previously identified the alleged group as the MKU. State television in December said the abbreviation stood for the words "Maniacs. Cult of Murder". The FSB said the group had been set up by a Ukrainian under the patronage of Ukraine's intelligence services. Moscow has said "denazification" is one of the aims of its month-old military incursion into Ukraine, alleging that anti-Russian "Nazis" are influential in Kyiv. (Reuters)
Ukraine and its Western allies on Wednesday dismissed a Russian military pullback from near Kyiv as a ploy to refit troops after heavy losses, even as invading forces bombard cities elsewhere and press on with the obliteration of besieged Mariupol.
Nearly five weeks into an invasion in which it has failed to capture any major cities, Russia said it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv "to increase mutual trust" for peace talks.
But in an overnight address, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made clear he took nothing Moscow said at face value."Ukrainians are not naive people," he said. "Ukrainians have already learned during these 34 days of invasion, and over the past eight years of the war in Donbas, that the only thing they can trust is a concrete result."
Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said Moscow was shifting some forces from northern Ukraine to the east, where it was trying to encircle the main Ukrainian force there. Some Russians would stay behind near Kyiv to tie Ukrainian forces down, he said. (Reuters)