As the war entered the fourth week, the United States voiced concern that China might assist Moscow with military equipment. US President Joe Biden is scheduled to call Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday evening and is expected to tell Beijing that it will pay a price if it supports Russia's military operations in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, India told UNSC that it is deeply concerned over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine. This comes as several Indian-American lawmakers urged India to speak out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The lawmakers, led by Congressman Joe Wilson and Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, had a call with India's top envoy to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu where they discussed the matter.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invoked 9/11 during an urgent appeal to the US Congress for more weapons to stem the Russian assault. US President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million for Ukraine's military.
Meanwhile, the United States remains in touch with Indian leaders and continues to encourage them to work closely with it to stand up against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House said Wednesday. Observing that India walks a difficult middle ground on the Ukraine crisis, two Democratic lawmakers urged India to condemn Russian military operations against Ukraine which they said have no place in the 21st century.
The White House said that India taking up Russia's offer of discounted crude oil would not be a violation of American sanctions. However, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that we should "think about where you want to stand when history books are written at this moment in time." India has not supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. New Delhi has consistently asked all stakeholders to resolve differences through dialogue. It has, however, abstained in all United Nations resolutions against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will virtually address the US Congress at 9 am (1300 GMT) on Wednesday, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint letter to US lawmakers.
“The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression, and to passing legislation to cripple and isolate the Russian economy as well as deliver humanitarian, security and economic assistance to Ukraine,” they wrote on Monday.
Aleksander, 41, presses his palms against the window as he says goodbye to his daughter Anna, 5, on a train to Lviv at the Kyiv station. (AP)
Meanwhile, the United Nations chief has warned that Russia's war on Ukraine is holding "a sword of Damocles" over the global economy, especially poor developing countries that face skyrocketing food, fuel and fertiliser prices and are now seeing their breadbasket "being bombed".
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that 45 African and least developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia, and 18 of them import at least 50 per cent.
Ukraine War Update, March 14: A reporter is killed, and foreigners join the fighting
In other news, the Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin had another call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to talk about Ukraine. Bennett told Putin about his contacts with other heads of states, and Putin shared his assessments of talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives via video calls, the Kremlin said in a statement.
A senior Israeli official said Bennett's conversation with Putin lasted 90 minutes, with discussions focusing on cease-fire talks and humanitarian issues. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic matters.
Smoke rises from a factory building near Lviv airport, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Lviv, Ukraine, March 18, 2022. (Reuters)
Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova on Friday said 130 people had been rescued so far from the rubble of a theatre hit by an air strike on Wednesday in the besieged eastern city of Mariupol.In a televised address, Denisova said rescue work was ongoing at the site, where many people were sheltering underground before the building was hit, according to the Ukrainian authorities. --Reuters
Russia has lost any illusions about ever relying on the West and Moscow will never accept a world order dominated by the United States, which is acting like a sheriff seeking to call all the shots in a saloon bar, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Western nations have imposed sweeping sanctions across Russia's financial and corporate sectors in response to Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, plunging Russia's economy into its gravest crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. --Reuters
Russian forces Friday launched new missile strikes and shelling on the capital city of Kyiv and the outskirts of the western city of Lviv, as world leaders pushed for an probe of the Kremlin’s repeated attacks on civilian targets, including schools, hospitals and residential areas. --Reuters
Ukraine human rights ombudsman says 173,500 people in total have evacuated from front line towns, reported Reuters.
India's legitimate energy transactions shouldn't be politicised, say govt sources on country's crude oil imports, energy ties with Russia. Countries with oil self-sufficiency or those themselves importing from Russia cannot credibly advocate restrictive trading, say govt sources. --PTI
Facing global sanction over its invasion of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country will adjust its economy to the sanctions. He also stated that Russia has lost all illusions about relying on the West and Moscow will never accept a view of the world dominated by a United States that wants to act like a global sheriff. (Reuters)
Britain's media regulator said Friday it has revoked Russian-backed television channel RT's licence to broadcast in the UK with immediate effect after a probe into the impartiality of its coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The regulator, Ofcom, said in a statement it was not satisfied that RT could be a responsible broadcaster.
RT responded by saying the regulator had shown itself to be nothing more than a tool of the British government. (Reuters)
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said Friday on Telegram that several missiles hit a facility used to repair military aircraft and damaged a bus repair facility, though no casualties were immediately reported.
The plant had suspended work ahead of the attack, the mayor said.
The missiles that hit Lviv were launched from the Black Sea, but two of the six that were launched were shot down, Ukrainian air force's western command said on Facebook. (AP)
Bread is a staple food in the Middle East, eaten with most meals. Researchers suggest that, depending on the country, bread and grains make up to half of the average local’s diet there, compared to up to a quarter of the average European’s.
“In these countries, affordable bread for the working masses is a social contract,” Michaël Tanchum, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who specialises in political economics of the Middle East and Africa, explained. Many Middle Eastern countries subsidise bread for low-income families.
In the past, rising bread prices have been a catalyst for political change in the region.
Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that separatists in eastern Ukraine with help from Russia's armed forces were "tightening the noose" around the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The defence ministry added that fighting was ongoing in the centre of Mariupol. (Reuters)
One person was killed and 4 wounded after parts of a Russian missile fell on a residential building in the northern part of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday morning, emergencies services said.
The services said in a statement that 12 people were rescued and 98 were evacuated from the 5-storey building. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s government is “openly neo-Nazi” and “pro-Nazi,” controlled by “little Nazis,” President Vladimir Putin of Russia says.
US officials led by President Joe Biden are responsible for the “nazification” of Ukraine, one of Russia’s top lawmakers says, and should be tried before a court. In fact, another lawmaker says, it is time to create a “modern analogy to the Nuremberg tribunal” as Russia prepares to “denazify” Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden took office with the idea that this century’s struggle would be between the world’s democracies and autocracies.
But in waging war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been driven by a different concept, ethno-nationalism. It is an idea of nationhood and identity based on language, culture and blood — a collectivist ideology with deep roots in Russian history and thought.
Underlying the war is a clash of political systems, “a war against liberal democracy” and Ukraine’s right to self-determination, said Nathalie Tocci, the director of Italy’s International Affairs Institute. But that is just part of a larger conflict, she said, as Putin tries to change the meaning of what it is to be sovereign.
Russian missiles struck an area near the airport of Ukraine's western city of Lviv Friday, its mayor Andriy Sadovy said, though he added that the airport itself had not been attacked.
Authorities are assessing the situation and will issue updates, he said. Earlier, television station Ukraine 24 said at least three exposions had been heard in the city. (Reuters)
To an independent filmmaker in Hanoi, Vietnam, President Vladimir Putin of Russia is a “wise leader.” In Rio de Janeiro, a former restaurant owner said he was convinced that Ukraine had hired actors to fake war injuries. And a 27-year-old doctor living near Nairobi in Kenya questioned how Americans could be outraged over the Russian invasion when “for so long, they had a monopoly over anarchy.”
Most of the world has loudly and unequivocallywith Ukraine. But in countries where governments have remained neutral, tacitly supported Russia or encouraged the dissemination of false or sanitized accounts of the war, citizens are voicing a much more complicated and forgiving narrative of Putin’s invasion.
US President Joe Biden is expected to tell Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday that Beijing will pay a price if it supports Russia's military operations in Ukraine, a warning that comes at a time of deepening conflict between the nations.
Biden and Xi will speak by phone, scheduled for 9 am Eastern time (6.30 pm IST), and Washington has already threatened lower-level Chinese government officials privately and publicly that greater support for Russia risks isolation for Beijing.
The conversation between Biden and Xi, their first since November, will be loaded with tension.Biden "will make clear that China will bear responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia's aggression, and we will not hesitate to impose costs," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
"We're concerned that they're considering directly assisting Russia with military equipment to use in Ukraine," he said. China has denied such plans. (Reuters)
At least three blasts were heard in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday morning, Ukraine 24 television station reported through the Telegram messenger.
It published a short video in which a mushroom-shaped plume of smoke could be seen rising on the horizon. (Reuters)
India, which ensured the safe return of about 22,500 of its citizens from Ukraine, also assisted in the evacuation of nationals from 18 other countries, India's top envoy at the UN has said, as he voiced concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the war-torn country.
Speaking at the UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine on Thursday, Tirumurti said there was an "urgent need" to address the humanitarian needs of the affected population.
He underscored that it is important that humanitarian action is always guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. "These measures should not be politicised" he asserted. (PTI)
The West in its continuous support to Ukraine has been supplying the besieged country with military aid in the form of arms as well as anti-aircraft and anti-tank defence systems.
MANPADS are “short-range surface-to-air missiles used to intercept fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft in flight.” They are designed to be fired while mounted on a person’s shoulder or a tripod. Among such weapons, Stingers – made by the US – have an infrared seeker which detects the target through its radiation emissions. They can be used to shoot down aircraft and drones. Another example of such missiles is the Russian Igla-S.
A US citizen who had been caring for his partner in a Ukrainian hospital was killed by Russian fire as he waited in a bread line after briefly stepping out to buy food, his family said on Thursday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the death of an American, identified by his sisters as Jimmy Hill and mourned as 'the helper that people could find in a crisis'.
➡️ Who is he? Hill's Facebook profile identified him as a teacher at universities in Kyiv and Warsaw. He was a native of Minnesota.
➡️ Why did he remain in Ukraine? One of his sisters, Katya Hill, told CNN he had stayed in the hospital in Chernihiv, the site of heavy Russian bombardment during its invasion, to be alongside his Ukrainian partner as she battled multiple sclerosis.
➡️ What else do we know? Another of his sisters, Cheryl Hill Gordon, wrote on Facebook that her brother was waiting in a bread line with several others on Wednesday when they were gunned down by Russian forces.
Hill's own Facebook posts gave a glimpse of the situation on the frontline as he repeatedly wrote about explosions, food shortages and intense bombing during the Russian assault. 'Intense bombing! still alive. Limited food. Room very cold,' Hill said in his last Facebook post on Tuesday. In another post on the same day, he wrote that 'bombing has intensified'.