In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, March 3, 2022, a view from the window of a Russian military helicopter as it flies over an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)Russia Ukraine Crisis Live: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday said that Moscow is ready for talks to end the fighting in Ukraine but will continue to press its effort to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure. Lavrov said that the Russian delegation submitted its demands to Ukrainian negotiators earlier this week and is now waiting for Kyiv’s response in talks set for Thursday. He added that the West has continuously armed Ukraine, trained its troops and built up bases there to turn Ukraine into a bulwark against Russia.
Meanwhile, The International Criminal Court prosecutor has launched an investigation that could target senior officials believed responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide amid a rising civilian death toll and widespread destruction of property during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced the probe late Wednesday night after dozens of the court’s member states asked him to take action. After informing the court’s judges of his decision to open an investigation that covers all sides in the conflict, Khan said, “Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced.”
Russian shelling and attacks on civilian populations killed 34 civilians in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region in the past 24 hours between March 2-3, the emergency services said Thursday. Separately, the governor of the Ukraine-controlled eastern Donetsk region said the port city of Mariupol, one of the first targets of the Russian invasion, was without electricity or water supplies.
People sleep in the Kyiv subway, being used as a bomb shelter. (AP)
Shovelling sand into bags and collecting bottles to make Molotov cocktails, volunteers in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro are preparing for an onslaught from invading Russian troops. (AFP)
The UN's emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths on Thursday pleaded for humanitarians to be allowed to work unhindered in Ukraine, adding in an interview with AFP that with $1.5 billion raised for urgent aid "we have the resources".
Russia's foreign minister says that Moscow is ready for talks to end the fighting in Ukraine but will continue to press its effort to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian delegation submitted its demands to Ukrainian negotiators earlier this week and is now waiting for Kyiv's response in talks set for Thursday.
Lavrov said that the West has continuously armed Ukraine, trained its troops and built up bases there to turn Ukraine into a bulwark against Russia. Russia says that made Ukraine a threat to its security. (AP)
China on Thursday denounced a report that it asked Russia to delay invading Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics as “fake news” and a “very despicable" attempt to divert attention and shift blame over the conflict.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin also repeated China's accusations that Washington provoked the war by not ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine.
“We hope the culprit of the crisis would reflect on their role in the Ukraine crisis, take up their responsibilities, and take practical actions to ease the situation and solve the problem instead of blaming others,” Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.
“The New York Times report is purely fake news, and such behaviors of diverting attentions and shifting blames are very despicable," Wang said.
The Times article cited a “Western intelligence report” considered credible by officials. “The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge about Russia's war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week," the Times wrote. (AP)
It would be difficult for India to continue buying military hardware from Russia after US financial sanctions on that country in response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a senior official of the US State department told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing on US-India relations on Wednesday. The official appeared to imply that the US would not need to invoke sanctions against “an important security partner” for the purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence system.
“It’s my view that it’s going to be very hard for anyone to buy major weapon systems from Moscow in the coming months and years, given the sweeping financial sanctions that the administration with the support of Congress has levelled on Russia, the Russian banking system,” said Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu at the hearing. Read more
Dozens of anti-war demonstrators were detained in Saint Petersburg late on Wednesday after jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on Russians to protest against President Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor has launched an investigation that could target senior officials believed responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide amid a rising civilian death toll and widespread destruction of property during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced the probe late Wednesday night after dozens of the court's member states asked him to take action. “An investigation by the International Criminal Court into Russia's barbaric acts is urgently needed and it is right that those responsible are held to account,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. “The U.K. will work closely with allies to ensure justice is done.”
After informing the court's judges of his decision to open an investigation that covers all sides in the conflict, Khan said: “Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced.”
Ukraine's State Emergency Service has said that more than 2,000 civilians have died since the Russian invasion, a claim that was impossible to verify. There also have been reports of the use by Russian troops of cluster bombs, with a preschool and a hospital both reportedly hit.
President Vladimir Putin's “military machine is targeting civilians indiscriminately and tearing through towns across Ukraine,” Truss said.
Rights groups on Thursday welcomed the nations' request for an investigation. “The request for an ICC investigation reflects the growing alarm among countries about the escalating atrocities and human rights crisis that has gripped Ukraine,” said Balkees Jarrah, interim international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “These governments are making clear that serious crimes will not be tolerated and that the court has an essential role to play in ensuring justice.” (AP)
The opposition stands united with the government, several leaders said on Thursday after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the consultative committee of his ministry on Russia's attack on Ukraine and the evacuation of students from the war-hit nation.
The meeting of the 21-member committee, chaired by Jaishankar, was attended by nine MPs from six parties and came in for fulsome praise from some leaders.
"We all are united," Tharoor told reporters after the meeting that was also attended by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his party colleague Anand Sharma.
"Excellent meeting of the Consultative Committee on External Affairs this morning on #Ukraine. My thanks to @DrSJaishankar & his colleagues for a comprehensive briefing & candid responses to our questions &concerns. This is the spirit in which foreign policy should be run," he added in a tweet. "... Frank discussions took place in an amicable atmosphere, a reminder that when it comes to national interests we are all Indians first and foremost," Tharoor said. (Reuters)
As Russia continues its advance into Ukraine, reports have surfaced that the Moscow administration is backing exiled former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych as the man to take charge of the nation if the current regime falls.
Having the rare distinction of being ousted twice from the presidency, reports have emerged that Russia wants to install Yanukovych as the next president of Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent tweeted, citing a report by the Ukrayinska Pravda, an online newspaper, that the former president was being prepared by the Kremlin for a special occasion. Read more
More than 400 Indian medical students who are stuck in Sumy University in Sumy, a northeastern city in Ukraine near the Russian border, have alleged that no help has come their way since the war broke out. The Indian embassy has asked them to stay put but the students wonder if the government has any evacuation plans for them.
Eight students from the university, through a video on social media, requested the Indian government to rescue them. One of them, Shaikh Namira, a Mumbai resident, is seen saying in the video: “We are stuck on the eastern side of Ukraine. We are surrounded by the Russian border on three sides and Kharkiv on one side. If we have to travel to the western border (where evacuation is carried out by the Indian government), it is not at all safe. Throughout the day bombardments and shelling are taking place on the eastern side and we are very unsafe.”
The Supreme Court Thursday asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to look into a plea that some Indian students trying to flee Ukraine were stuck on the Romanian border as they were being prevented from crossing over, and see if they can be helped.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana directed that the case file be sent to the AG through a special messenger. Justice Ramana told the AG that there are many students in Ukraine and “some have come… Please use your good offices… We will send a copy by special messenger to AG. See if you can do some help”.
Moscow warned the West against further escalating tensions with it, Interfax news agency quoted Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying Thursday.
Russian shelling and attacks on civilian populations killed 34 civilians in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region in the past 24 hours between March 2-3, the emergency services said Thursday.
Separately, the governor of the Ukraine-controlled eastern Donetsk region said the port city of Mariupol, one of the first targets of the Russian invasion, was without electricity or water supplies. (Reuters)
Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be able to compete at the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said Thursday, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine for which Belarus has been key staging area.
The decision comes a day after the IPC gave athletes from the two countries the green light to participate as neutrals, saying that the governing body had followed its rules and that "athletes were not the aggressors".
"Following a specially convened meeting, the IPC Governing Board has decided to refuse the athlete entries from the RPC and NPC Belarus for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games," the IPC said in a statement. (Reuters)
Russia's advance on the Ukrainian capital has made little progress over the past three days and the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain in Ukrainian hands, according to British military intelligence.
Around 5,75,100 people have entered Poland from Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion of the country on February 24, the Polish border guard said Thursday.
The Border Guard said that on Wednesday around 95,000 people entered and that as of 0600 GMT on Thursday about 27,100 people had crossed the frontier. (Reuters)
Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been rapidly deploying troops to member countries across eastern Europe but has clarified that it has no plans of sending them to Ukraine itself. Last week, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced that the alliance was launching its Rapid Response Force for the first time ever to bolster its defence against Russia.
The conflict could potentially escalate if NATO invokes Article 5, an agreement that ensures “collective defence”, which means that an attack on one ally will be considered an attack on all allies. This could happen if Russia shifts its target to some of Ukraine’s neighbours that are members of NATO.
🔴 Kherson is one of at least three cities that Russian troops had encircled, along with the coastal city of Mariupol and Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine. While Russia claimed that the city is under them, Ukraine President has pushed back against this saying that fighting is ongoing.
🔴 Russia's assault on Kharkiv, which has nearly 1.5 million residents, continued with a strike on the regional police and intelligence headquarters, and a university building across the street, according to the Ukrainian emergency services and government officials. A central square near other government buildings, including the city council's, was also hit by explosions.
🔴 Moscow's 64-km-long convoy of tanks and other vehicles remained outside the capital city of Kyiv as of now. Zelenskyy's office reported a powerful explosion Wednesday night between the Southern Railway Station and the Ibis hotel in Kyiv. Ukraine's Defense Ministry is located near that area. Ukrainian Railway Service said at the time of the strike, thousands of women and children were being evacuated from the station, which suffered only minor damage.
🔴 Two cruise missiles hit a hospital in the northern city of Chernihiv, the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN quoted the city's chief health administrator, Serhiy Pivovar, as saying. The hospital's main building was damaged and authorities were working to determine the casualty toll, he said.
🔴 In Mariupol, at least one teenager died and two more were wounded by apparent Russian shelling. The boys' families said they had been playing football near a school.
Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia said 3,726 Indians are scheduled to reach India today in 19 separate evacuation flights from Bucharest, Suceava, Kosice, Budapest and Rzeszow.
German authorities have seized a nearly $600 million luxury yacht owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov who has faced European Union sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Forbes reported, citing sources in the yacht industry.
The 512-foot yacht, Dilbar, was taken in the northern port of Hamburg, the Forbes website reported.
The yacht had been undergoing a refit in shipyards of Blohm + Voss, Forbes reported, adding that the German government had frozen the asset and employees working on the ship did not appear for work on Wednesday. (Reuters)