Russia-Ukraine Conflict updates: 'We must stop the aggressor as soon as possible', says Volodymyr Zelensky

Russia-Ukraine Conflict updates: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said in a tweet that they must stop the aggressor as soon as possible. His tweet comes in the backdrop of his conversation with Joe Biden.

Zelenskyy tweeted:

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday said out of an estimated 20,000 Indian citizens in Ukraine, 60 per cent have left the country since the first advisory was issued by the government.

Modi's meeting on Ukraine began with condolences for an Indian student who died in Kharkiv.

Russian Ministry of Defence said in a statement that to prevent information attacks against Russia, high-precision weapons would strike at the technological facilities of the SBU and the 72nd main PSO centre in Kyiv

If Russian President Vladimir Putin achieves his goal of ousting the government in Kyiv, the humanitarian and rights crises in Ukraine 'will only get worse', Antony Blinken warned Tuesday

The second round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine may take place on 2 March, Ukraine's Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing Ukrainian diplomatic sources.

NATO's chief said Tuesday that, despite Russia's threats about nuclear weapons, the alliance sees no need to change its nuclear weapons alert level.

The alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, spoke to The Associated Press following talks on European security with Polish President Andrzej Duda at an air base in Lask, central Poland, where NATO’s Polish and U.S. fighter jets F-15 and F-16 are based.

Scores of diplomats have walked out of two meetings at the United Nations in Geneva in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was beamed in for a video statement, as a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lavrov spoke by video to the Conference on Disarmament and the Human Rights Council, which he had planned to attend before closure of airspace to Russian planes by several European countries prevented his travel to the Swiss city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday called in a live video address to the European Parliament for the EU to "prove" it is with Ukraine as it resists Russia's invasion.

Russia Ukraine crisis LIVE news Updates: Russian shelling pounded the central square in Kharkiv on Tuesday as Ukraine’s embattled president accused Moscow of resorting to terror tactics to press Europe’s largest ground war in generations

Ukraine president says missile attack on central square of Kharkiv is an act of 'outright, undisguised terror' and says that 'Russia has become a terrorist state'.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to end the war in Ukraine and withdraw all its forces, adding the alliance would not send troops or combat jets to support Kyiv as it does not want to become part of the conflict.

“The Russian assault is totally unacceptable and it is enabled by Belarus,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday after meeting Polish president Andrzej Duda “NATO is a defensive alliance, we do not seek conflict with Russia. Russia must immediately stop the war, pull all its forces from Ukraine and engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts,” said Stoltenberg, according to a report in The Guardian.

An Indian student on Tuesday lost his life in Ukraine’s Kharkiv as a result of shelling, confirmed the Ministry of External Affairs in a tweet.

“The deteriorating situation in Kharkiv is a matter of grave concern. The safety and security of Indian nationals in that city is of utmost priority to the government. We had already taken up with the Russian and Ukrainian embassies the pressing requirement of safe passage for Indian nationals, including students, from Kharkiv and other cities in conflict zones. This demand has been repeatedly made of Russia and Ukraine since the beginning of this conflict on February 24. It has been conveyed to both their Ambassadors in New Delhi as well as taken up in their capitals,” a source, who is aware of the development, told News18.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe is simply unacceptable for Moscow.

In the current situation, Lavrov argued, it is important to prevent a new round of the arms race, and said that Russia calls upon the United States and its allies to join a moratorium on the deployment of short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe.

"It is unacceptable for us that, contrary to the fundamental principles of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, US nuclear weapons are still present on the territory of some European countries," the Russian foreign minister said while addressing the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva via a video call.

According to Sputnik News, Swiss-based Nord Stream AG, the company in charge of building Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, has fired all its employees in the city of Zug. The layoffs were introduced amid the freezing of the project's certification in Germany and the imposition of US sanctions on the firm.

"With profound sorrow we confirm that an Indian student lost his life in shelling in Kharkiv this morning. The Ministry is in touch with his family. We convey our deepest condolences to the family," the Ministry of External Affairs tweeted.

YouTube blocks channels linked to Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe - including the UK - amid the invasion of Ukraine.

"Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately," YouTube said.

Russia will face the collapse of its economy as a result of Western sanctions punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info radio on Tuesday as per The Guardian.

“We are going to deliver a total economic and financial war against Russia,” said Le Maire. “We are going to provoke the collapse of the Russian economy.”

Ukraine’s Mariupol mayor said on Tuesday morning that the southern port city was under constant shelling that had killed civilians and damaged infrastructure.

“We have had residential quarters shelled for five days. They are pounding us with artillery, they are shelling us with GRADS, they are hitting us with air forces,” Vadym Boichenko said in a live broadcast on Ukrainian TV, according to The Guardian.

“We have civilian infrastructure damaged - schools, houses. There are many injured. There are women, children killed.”

According to RT, all major streaming services making a profit in Russia are required by law to include them on their platform.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called for more international sanctions against Russia after what he said was a “barbaric” attack on the city of Kharkiv.

Chechnya strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Tuesday that Chechens have been killed in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Kadyrov, a former rebel-turned-Kremlin-ally, has given his backing for President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine, sending his notorious fighters to the country.

“Unfortunately, there are already losses among the natives of the Chechen Republic. Two died, six more were injured to varying degrees,” Kadyrov said on Telegram. Kadyrov, in charge of Russia’s Chechnya Republic which he governs de-facto by his own set of rules, has posted videos of Chechen fighters in Ukraine.

The Guardian citing Ukraine’s operational command says Russian forces have fired a rocket at the regional administration building in Kharkiv.

The report claimed that the strike was an attempt to kill Kharkiv’s governor and his team leading the defence of the city. A second video showed extensive damage from the strike to a private flat, just across the road Kharkiv’s administration building.

"Russian forces have increased their use of artillery north of Kyiv and in the vicinities of Kharkiv & Chernihiv. The use of heavy artillery in densely populated urban areas greatly increases the risk of civilian casualties," tweets UK Ministry of Defence.

The Embassy of India in Ukraine has advised Indians to leave Kyiv urgently today.

In order to scale up the ongoing evacuation efforts under Operational Ganga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for the Indian Air Force to join the evacuation efforts, sources said. Leveraging the capacities of our Air Force will ensure that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame, they said, adding that it will also help deliver humanitarian aid more efficiently. Indian Air Force is likely to deploy several C-17 aircraft as part of Operation Ganga from today, sources said.

The AFP citing the mayor of the southern Ukrainian city Kherson said that the Russian army is on the outskirts of the city.

The Guardian citing BBC’s China correspondent Stephen McDonell reported that China’s embassy in Ukraine has announced that it has begun to evacuate citizens from the country.

The Guardian reported that Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya hails the end of Russia’s month-long term holding the presidency of the UN Security Council on Monday night, saying: “I’m looking forward to midnight when this abomination – occupation of the seat of the president of the security council by Russia – will be over.”

US Senator Mark Warner, the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says Russia's President Putin has been 'caught off guard by the size of the Ukrainian resistance', has 'isolated himself' and 'not been in the Kremlin very much', reports The Spectator Index.

In the wake of the situation in Ukraine, President Ram Nath Kovind has postponed his three-country visit that was scheduled from 2-13 March. He was supposed to travel to Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Serbia. Sources told News18 that the government’s priority is to evacuate and bring back the stranded Indians from Ukraine.

According to The Kyiv Independent citing Ukraine’s Air Force, Ukraine will receive 70 fighter jets from the EU. Bulgaria will provide 16 MiG-29s and 14 Su-25s while Poland will provide 28 MiG-29 units and Slovakia – 12 MiG-29s.

According to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia will send missiles as part of a $50 million package of lethal and non-lethal aid to assist Ukraine in repelling Russian forces.

Morrison stated at a press conference on Tuesday that anti-armour missiles have proven to be extremely effective for Ukrainian forces.

“We are responding to President (Volodymyr) Zelensky’s call: he said we need ammunition, not a ride, and that’s exactly what we’re doing… we’ll provide 50 million US dollars to support Ukraine, both lethal and non-lethal support… we’re talking missiles, we’re talking ammunition,” Morrison said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree temporarily lifting the requirement for entry visas for any foreigner willing to join Ukraine’s International Defence Legion and fight on Kyiv’s side against invading Russian troops

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday elaborated on his country's plans after revealing a day earlier that his government would provide Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with lethal military equipment.

Russia shelled the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as it pressed on with its invasion Tuesday, defying mounting global pressure that saw a war crimes probe opened against Moscow, sanctions smash its economy and FIFA ban it from the World Cup.

Russian forces shelled Ukraine's second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking.

The country's embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions.

“I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions “when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery.”

Amid ever-growing international condemnation, Russia found itself increasingly isolated five days into its invasion, while also facing unexpectedly fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine and economic havoc at home.

For the second day in a row, the Kremlin raised the specter of nuclear war, announcing that its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers had all been put on high alert, following President Vladimir Putin's orders over the weekend.

Stepping up his rhetoric, Putin denounced the US and its allies as an “empire of lies.”

Meanwhile, an embattled Ukraine moved to solidify its ties to the West by applying to join the European Union — a largely symbolic move for now, but one that is unlikely to sit well with Putin, who has long accused the U.S. of trying to pull Ukraine out of Moscow’s orbit.

A top Putin aide and head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the first talks held between the two sides since the invasion lasted nearly five hours and that the envoys “found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen.” He said they agreed to continue the discussions in the coming days.

As the talks along the Belarusian border wrapped up, several blasts could be heard in Kyiv, and Russian troops advanced on the city of nearly 3 million. The vast convoy of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city and stretched for about 40 miles, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.