A general view shows the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said on Thursday that most of the Russian forces that occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power station after invading Ukraine had left the defunct plant, and only a “small number” remained, Reuters reported. Though Russian troops seized control of Chernobyl soon after the February 24 invasion, the plant’s Ukrainian staff continued to oversee the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and supervise the concrete-encased remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986. Energoatom said these workers had flagged earlier on Thursday that Russian forces were planning to leave the territory.
Russian forces in Ukraine are not withdrawing but regrouping, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, commenting on Moscow’s announcements about a scaling down of military operations around Kyiv. Stoltenberg also said the alliance is yet to be convinced that Russia was negotiating in good faith in peace talks in Istanbul because Moscow’s military objective since launching its invasion of Ukraine has not changed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s defense against the Russian invasion was at a “turning point” and again pressed the United States for more help, hours after the Kremlin’s forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy’s adviser has said that Russia has “destroyed practically all of Ukraine’s defence industry”, news agency Reuters reported. Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the east of the country as Moscow builds up its troops there after suffering setbacks near the capital Kyiv, Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
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
Russian forces have killed 148 children during shelling and air strikes, fired 1,370 missiles and destroyed 15 Ukrainian airports since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, Ukraine's defence ministry said on Thursday.
More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, it said in a statement. Reuters could not independently verify the information.(Reuters)
President Joe Biden on Thursday accused U.S. oil companies of enjoying record profits while Americans pay high gasoline prices and said they should use the money to produce more oil or restart idle wells rather than pay investors."This is not the time to sit on record profits, it's time to step up for the good of your country," he said. (Reuters)
"Putin seems to be self-isolating," US President Joe Biden said. "He seems to be self-isolated and there's some indicatio that he has fired or put under house arrest some of hi advisers," he said.
President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce the release of 1 million barrels of oil a day for the next six months from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to bring down gasoline prices, the White House said.
Biden’s aim is to try to bring down gasoline prices that have soared in recent months particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden is to make the announcement at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) event at the White House. Read More
Britain and its allies have agreed to send more lethal weapons to Ukraine to help defend it against Russia's invasion, British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday. "There'll be more lethal aid going into Ukraine as a result of today. A number of countries have come forward either with new ideas or indeed more pledges of money," Wallace told reporters after hosting over 30 international partners at a conference. He said the lethal aid included longer range artillery, ammunition, and more anti-aircraft weapons.
Russia said on Thursday it had greatly expanded the number of European Union officials, lawmakers, public figures and journalists barred from Russia for allegedly being responsible for sanctions and stoking anti-Russian feelings.
"The restrictions apply to the top leadership of the European Union, including a number of European commissioners and heads of EU military structures, as well as the vast majority of members of the European Parliament who promote anti-Russian policies," Russia's foreign ministry said.
The EU, the United States and numerous other Western countries have imposed sweeping economic and political sanctions on Russia, some Russian media and prominent or wealthy Russians in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Moscow said its blacklist also included representatives of some EU member states as well as public figures and journalists who it said were "personally responsible for promoting illegal anti-Russian sanctions, inciting Russophobic sentiments and the infringement of the rights and freedoms of the Russian-speaking population". (Reuters)
Britain respects India's decision to buy discounted oil from Russia, foreign minister Liz Truss said on Thursday, even as she pursued more sanctions against Moscow.
Truss's comments follow remarks by Daleep Singh, US Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics, who said Washington will not set any "red line" for India on its energy imports from Russia. "I think it's very important that we respect other countries' decisions about the issues that they face; India is a sovereign nation. I'm not going to tell India what to do," Truss told reporters.
Since Western sanctions were imposed on Russian entities after Moscow invaded Ukraine, India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude oil, compared with about 16 million barrels for all of last year, according to Reuters data. Russia is offering a discount of $35 a barrel to price levels prior to the start of the Ukraine crisis in February, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. (Reuters)
The United States on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on Russia, targeting the technology sector, a sanctions evasion network and what it called "malicious cyber actors" while paving the way to act against additional sectors in response to President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine.
"We will continue to target Putin's war machine with sanctions from every angle, until this senseless war of choice is over," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 21 entities and 13 people, including Joint Stock Company Mikron, Russia's largest chipmaker and manufacturer and exporter of microelectronics. Washington also determined that three new sectors in the Russian economy are subject to sanctions under an existing executive order, allowing the United States to slap punitive measures on any person or entity operating in the aerospace, marine and electronics sectors. Thursday's actions freeze any US assets of those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden will announce the release of 1 million barrels a day from oil stockpile in a bid to dampen prices, the White House said on Thursday. (AFP)
Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom on Thursday said many of the Russian forces occupying the Chernobyl nuclear plant had left and were headed for the Belarusian border, leaving just a few on the territory of the defunct plant.
"The occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the exclusion zone, have set off in two columns towards the Ukrainian border," it said in a statement. It said Russian forces had also retreated from the nearby town of Slavutych, where Ukrainian workers at Chernobyl live. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said thousands of people had been killed in Mariupol since Russian forces started laying siege to the strategic port city. "Everyone knows there is a humanitarian catastrophe there," Zelenskiy told Belgian lawmakers in an address via video link. (Reuters)
Ukraine's president said his country's defense against the Russian invasion was at a “turning point” and again pressed the United States for more help, hours after the Kremlin's forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.
Russian bombardment of areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks elsewhere in the country further undermined hopes for progress toward ending the bloody conflict that has devolved into a war of attrition. Civilians trapped in besieged cities have shouldered some of the worst suffering, though both sides said Thursday they would attempt another evacuation from the port city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the case directly to US President Joe Biden.
“If we really are fighting for freedom and in defense of democracy together, then we have a right to demand help in this difficult turning point. Tanks, aircraft, artillery systems. Freedom should be armed no worse than tyranny,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation, which he delivered standing in the dark outside the dimly lit presidential offices in Kyiv. He thanked the US for an additional $500 million in aid that was announced Wednesday. (AP)
The British government said on Thursday it had made 14 additions to its list of sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including media organisations and senior figures within them.
Britain is acting in concert with Western allies to try to cripple the Russian economy as punishment for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and has sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and businesses, including in industries like shipping and defence, and wealthy elites close to President Vladimir Putin.
Among those santioned on Thursday were senior figures from media outlets including RT's managing director Alexey Nikolov, Sergey Brilev, a prominent news anchor at the state-owned Rossiya Television and Radio network, and Sputnik's Editor-in-Chief Anton Anisimov.
On Wednesday Britain put in place new legal powers to prohibit maintenance on aircraft and ships belonging to specific sanctioned Russian oligarchs or their businesses. (Reuters)
The talks between Ukraine and Russia will resume on Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia.
The delegations met in-person on Tuesday in Istanbul, after two weeks of meeting by video, and the faint outlines of a possible peace agreement seemed to emerge.
The Ukrainian delegation offered a framework under with the country would declare itself neutral - dropping its bid to join NATO, as Moscow has long demanded - in return for security guarantees from a group of other nations. Russian diplomats responded positively to Ukraine's proposal. (AP)
The White House has pledged an additional $500 million in direct aid for Ukraine as the Russian invasion grinds on. U.S. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a 55 minute call Wednesday that the additional aid was on its way.
The leaders also reviewed security aid already delivered to Ukraine and the effects that weaponry has had on the war, according to the White House. Zelesnkyy has pressed the Biden administration and other Western allies to provide Ukraine with military jets. (PTI)
Demoralised Russian soldiers in the Ukraine were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment and had accidentally shot down their own aircraft, a U.K. intelligence chief said on Thursday.
Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ electronic spy agency, made the remarks at a speech in the Australian capital Canberra. Russian President Vladimir Putin had apparently "massively misjudged" the invasion, he said.
"It's clear he misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people. He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanise. He underplayed the economic consequences of the sanctions regime, and he overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory," Fleming said. (AP)
The Ukrainian president said his country's defence against the Russian invasion is at a "turning point" and again pressed the United States for more help in the hours after the Kremlin's forces reneged on a pledge to scale back some of their operations.
Russian forces bombarded areas around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv and intensified attacks in other parts of the country Wednesday, adding to already deep doubts about any progress toward ending the punishing war.
Talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume Friday by video, according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia. Meanwhile, a delegation of lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament visited Washington to push the US for increased assistance, saying their nation needs more military equipment, more financial help and tougher sanctions against Russia.
Professor of International Relations and Security, University of Bradford London, Mar 31 (The Conversation) Even before the Russian military machine entered Ukrainian territory on February 24, the potential threat of escalation to a nuclear conflict had been raised.
In the days before the invasion, Russia conducted a large-scale exercise involving simulated long-range conventional and nuclear strikes in response to a nuclear attack.
Then, as his troops poured across the border into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin issued a chilling threat to Nato and the west, saying they would face "consequences greater than any you have faced in history" if they interfered. Just days later, on February 27, the Russian president declared that he had ordered his country's nuclear forces into a state of "special combat readiness". (The Conversation)
Ukrainian forces are preparing for new Russian attacks in the east of the country as Moscow builds up its troops there after suffering setbacks near the capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
Russia's invasion of its neighbour, now in its fifth week, has driven around a quarter of Ukrainians from their homes and brought Russian-Western tensions to their worst point since the Cold War.
Tough resistance by Ukrainian forces has prevented Russia from capturing any major city, including Kyiv, where a Russian armed column was held back for weeks. At peace talks this week in Istanbul, Russia said it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to build trust.
But Ukraine and its Western allies, including the United States, dismissed Russia's pledge as a ploy to stem its losses and prepare for other attacks. (Reuters)
A black and white, melancholy alternative to Instagram that asks users to post sad pictures of themselves may launch in Russia this week, its creators said, to express sadness at the loss of popular services such as the U.S. photo sharing platform.
Russia restricted access to Instagram from March 14 and subsequently found its owner Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) guilty of "extremist activities". read more Moscow is battling with Big Tech to control information flows after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Instagram said the decision to block it would affect 80 million users in Russia. Although people can still sometimes access the photo-sharing platform using a Virtual Private Network, domestic alternatives have started appearing, the latest being 'Grustnogram', or 'Sadgram' in English. What began as a joke among friends quickly became something that could work, one of Grustnogram's creators Ivan Semkin told Reuters on Wednesday. (Reuters)