Firefighters work amid the debris of residential houses that were destroyed during shelling in a settlement outside Kharkiv as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine, March 28, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Ukraine reacted with scepticism to Russia’s promise in negotiations to scale down military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv as some Western countries expected Moscow to intensify its offensive in other parts of the country. Talks took place in an Istanbul palace more than a month into the Russian invasion.
“Ukrainians are not naive people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Tuesday. “Ukrainians have already learned during these 34 days of invasion, and over the past eight years of the war in Donbass, that the only thing they can trust is a concrete result.” Britain’s Ministry of Defence in an intelligence update said: “It is highly likely that Russia will seek to divert combat power from the north to their offensive in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east.”
US President Joe Biden is sending his top advisor and key person leading his administration’s economic sanctions on Russia to India, which so far has refused to toe the American line and maintained its own independent strategic position. The Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh, an Indian American, will be in New Delhi on March 30 and 31, the White House said Tuesday.
A woman holds a child next to a destroyed bridge during evacuation from the Irpin town, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine March 28, 2022 | Reuters
The first glimmer of hope for Ukraine may have emerged from Istanbul, but no one’s taking any chances in Rzeszow. This small town in southeastern Poland, with a population of just 2 lakh and a city about 10 km wide, continues to be the hub of a massive military transfer operation that has enabled Ukraine to put up an unexpectedly resolute defence against Russia.
At the heart of Rzeszow is City Hall, which has Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag in the front along with the white-and-red of Poland. And, it’s through Rzeszow’s civil airport, barely 100 km from the border, that weapons shipped from the West are transported to Ukraine, which then make their way to the frontlines — from Kyiv to Mariupol.
Marek Swierczynski, a top military analyst in Poland, told The Indian Express that Rzeszow “has become the main spot” for the transfer of weapons that have stalled Russia’s advances across the front. Once military equipment lands at Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, it is loaded onto trucks and other local vehicles, and taken to Ukraine through E40, the longest east-west highway in Europe.
➡️ Share markets and global borrowing costs surged on signs of progress in talks. Ukrainian bonds and Russia's roubles also benefited, while the oil price dropped.
➡️ Russia retaliated in what it has called an "economic war" with the West by offering to buy back $2 billion Eurobonds maturing next month in roubles rather than dollars.
➡️ Holcim, the world's biggest cement-maker, said it was exiting the Russian market; Japan will ban the export of high-end cars and luxury goods to Russia; Germany wants to end all fossil fuel imports from Russia.
➡️ Moscow's invasion has been halted on most fronts by strong resistance, with Ukrainians recapturing territory.
➡️ A Russian rocket hit an administration building in Mykolaiv, killing at least 12 people.
➡️ Russia said it destroyed a fuel depot.
➡️ Defence Minister Shoigu said Russia had degraded Ukraine's military and would respond if Nato supplied planes and air defence systems.
➡️ Russia is promising to scale down military operations around the capital Kyiv, while Ukraine for its part is mooting the adoption of neutral status, in confidence-building steps that may help de-escalate the five-week war.
➡️ Ukraine proposed not joining alliances or hosting bases of foreign troops.
➡️ The talks in Istanbul began with a "cold welcome" and no handshake. They are set to continue today.
➡️ Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was there.
➡️ The United States is sceptical of Russia's seriousness in pursuing peace.
➡️ Russian President Putin and French counterpart Macron talk again by phone.
➡️ Ukrainian President Zelenskiy will address Australia's parliament on Thursday.
US Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh, who has been the architect of sanctions against Russia, is likely to visit India on Thursday for bilateral meetings, sources said on Tuesday.
South Block sources said that Singh, one of the key officials crafting the sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, will brief the Indian establishment on the “scale and scope” of the sanctions.
“The Americans and the Europeans have been asking the Indian officials to make sure that Russia is not able to circumvent the sanctions… Singh will be able to convey the urgency of the implementation of sanctions,” a source said.
Ukraine reacted with scepticism to Russia's promise in negotiations to scale down military operations around Kyiv and another city as some Western countries expected Moscow to intensify its offensive in other parts of the country.
"Ukrainians are not naive people," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Tuesday."Ukrainians have already learned during these 34 days of invasion, and over the past eight years of the war in Donbass, that the only thing they can trust is a concrete result."
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said that Russia's promise to curtail military operations in some areas was "probably a rotation of individual units and aims to mislead." (Reuters)
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. (AP)
US President Joe Biden Tuesday appeared to be unconvinced on the Russian announcement that it is scaling back its operations in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.
"We'll see. I don't read anything into it until I see what their actions are," Biden told reporters at the White House when asked about the Russian announcement on Tuesday that it will fundamentally scale back its military operations near Kyiv and another northern city in Ukraine.
"We'll see if they follow through on what they're suggesting. There are negotiations that have begun and continued today. One in Turkey and others," he said, adding that he had a meeting with the heads of state of France, Germany and the Great Britain. (PTI)