Russian President Vladimir Putin waves during a concert marking the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia March 18, 2022. (RIA Novosti Host Photo Agency via Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Vladimir Putin appeared at a huge flag-waving rally at a packed Moscow stadium Friday and lavished praise on his troops fighting in Ukraine, three weeks into the invasion that has led to heavier-than-expected Russian losses on the battlefield and increasingly authoritarian rule at home.
US President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday of ‘consequences’ if Beijing gave material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House said, while both sides stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. While the White House did not detail what those consequences could be, or how the US would define “material support”, press secretary Jen Psaki indicated China’s massive trade flows could be impacted.
Meanwhile, India told the UN Security Council meeting that it attaches importance to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and stressed that any matter relating to obligations under the convention should be addressed through consultations and cooperation between the parties concerned. It reiterated the importance of prohibiting the use of biological weapons that could potentially turn the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict into a biochemical war, maintaining its stand from last week’s UNSC meeting.
Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Saturday called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise need generations to recover from losses suffered during the war.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had always offered solutions for peace and wanted meaningful and honest negotiations on peace and security, without delay.
"I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk," he said in a video address released in the early hours of Saturday. "The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia's losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover." (Reuters)
Norwegian authorities were searching Friday for a US Marine Corps aircraft that went missing during a training exercise.
Norway's military said in a statement that the Marine Osprey was reported missing Friday night when it did not make a scheduled arrival at the Arctic Circle municipality Bod. The civilian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Northern Norway launched a search and rescue operation.
Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, colors that appeared to match the Ukrainian flag. The men were the first new arrivals on the space station since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.
Video of Artemyev taken as the spacecraft prepared to dock with the space station showed him wearing a blue flight suit. It was unclear what, if any, message the yellow uniforms they changed into were intended to send.
When the cosmonauts were able to talk to family back on Earth, Artemyev was asked about the suits. He said every crew chooses their own. (AP)
In talks between Russia and Ukraine toward a possible cease-fire after three weeks of intense fighting, negotiators are exploring prospects of possible “neutrality” for Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that has been moving closer to NATO in hopes of membership — infuriating Moscow.
The discussions this week have brought a glimmer of hope of a possible way out of the bloody crisis in Ukraine — and followed an acknowledgement from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the most explicit terms yet that Ukraine is unlikely to realize its goal of joining the Atlantic alliance.
An official in Zelenskyy’s office said the talks have centered on whether Russian troops would remain in separatist regions in eastern Ukraine after the war and where borders would be. Ukraine also wants at least one Western nuclear power involved in the talks, and a legally binding document on security guarantees.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is arriving on Saturday for his first visit to India as Prime Minister, in what is going to be the first head of government visit to India in 2022.
Kishida, who has come to India as Japan’s Foreign Minister earlier, has met PM Narendra Modi four times in the past few years. But, this is also his first bilateral visit overseas — he visited Glasgow for CoP26 last year.
The summit between the Indian and Japanese PMs is taking place three and half years since the last Summit was held in Japan in 2018. (Read more)
Underlining that India’s “legitimate energy transactions should not be politicised”, Delhi hit out Friday at the West, saying countries with “oil self-sufficiency or those importing themselves from Russia cannot credibly advocate restrictive trading”.
India’s sharp reaction comes at a time when Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s top oil firm, has bought 3 million barrels of crude oil that Russia had offered at a steep discount on prevailing international rates. The purchase, made through a trader, is the first since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine that led to international pressure to isolate the Putin administration.
Russian oil exports to India, the third largest energy consumer, quadrupled in March, Financial Times reported Friday.
US President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping Friday there would be 'consequences' if Beijing gave material support to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the White House said, while both sides stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
In a video call that lasted just under two hours at a time of deepening acrimony between the world's two biggest powers, Biden detailed efforts of the United States and its allies to respond to the invasion, including by imposing costs on Russia. "He described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians," the White House said in statement, adding that Biden "underscored his support for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis."
China's foreign ministry said Xi told Biden the war in Ukraine must end as soon as possible and called on NATO nations to hold a dialogue with Moscow. He did not, however, assign blame to Russia for the invasion. (Reuters)