Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv, Ukraine. Erdogan visited Ukraine before the Russian invasion. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Turkey is ready to give all possible assistance during the negotiation process between Ukraine and Russia, President Tayyip Erdogan told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a telephone call, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday. Erdogan said the evacuation of the wounded and civilians in Ukraine’s Mariupol must be ensured, adding that Turkey viewed the guarantor issue positively in principle. Ukraine has sought security guarantees from various countries during talks.
Meanwhile, Russia resumed its assault on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern city and said its forces did not need to take the plant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country’s army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city.
He said America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, would visit Kyiv on Sunday and discuss the types of weapons Ukraine needs as Russia’s invasion enters its third month.”As soon as we have (more weapons), as soon as there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately retake this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenskiy told a Saturday evening news conference. The White House has not confirmed any travel plans for Blinken and Austin.
India's import orders to a Ukrainian firm for thousands of wheel sets for Vande Bharat trains have been hit by the war, but 128 wheels were taken to neighbouring Romania by road and these will be airlifted by the railways for trials next month, sources said on Sunday.
They also said that to meet its target of launching 75 semi-high speed trains on prominent routes across the country by the end of this year, India has now placed orders for wheels with Czech Republic, Poland and the United States. The sources also said that India may look at China too as it also supplies wheels.
They indicated that Ukraine, which is one of the world's largest suppliers of such wheels, has virtually stopped new production with most staffers joining the war effort after Russia launched a military offensive on February 24. (PTI)
Russia said on Sunday a village in its Belgorod region bordering Ukraine was shelled from across the frontier, state news agency TASS quoted a local official as saying.
Vladimir Pertsev, the official, said there were no casualties or damage after one projectile landed in a field, according to TASS. (Reuters)
No humanitarian routes were established out of the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Sunday, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, blaming Russian forces for not holding their fire.
Vereshchuk said that the Ukrainian side would try again on Monday to establish safe passage out of Mariupol. She called for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is scheduled to travel to Moscow before visiting Kyiv next week, to demand a ceasefire and open up humanitarian corridors from Mariupol.
"This is what Guterres should talk about in Moscow, if he is preparing to talk about peace," Vereshchuk said. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the course of negotiation process with Turkish president President Tayyip Erdogan over a telephone call.
Zelenskyy in a tweet said, "Had an important phone conversation with President Erdogan. On the eve of his talks with Putin, I stressed the need for immediate evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, including Azovstal, and immediate exchange of blocked troops.
"Discussed the course of the negotiation process, coordination with Turkey and other countries of security guarantees for our state. Raised issues related to Ukraine defense capabilities and global food security, which is under threat due to the blocking of navigation in the Black Sea," he added.
Governor of Russia's Krusk region says checkpoint in the area has come umder fire from Ukraine, news agency Reuters reported. (Reuters)
Turkey is ready to give all possible assistance during the negotiation process between Ukraine and Russia, President Tayyip Erdogan told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a telephone call, the Turkish presidency said on Sunday.
Erdogan said the evacuation of the wounded and civilians in Ukraine's Mariupol must be ensured, adding that Turkey viewed the guarantor issue positively in principle. Ukraine has sought security guarantees from various countries during talks. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he had talked with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the eve of the Turkish president's talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskiy said he and Erdogan discussed the need for the immediate evacuation of civilians from the mostly Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol, including the surrounded but Ukrainian-held Azovstal factory, and the exchange of Ukrainian troops holed up at the plant. (Reuters)
India's crude oil import bill nearly doubled to USD 119 billion in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, as energy prices soared globally following the return of demand and war in Ukraine.
India, the world's third biggest oil consuming and importing nation, spent USD 119.2 billion in 2021-22 (April 2021 to March 2022), up from USD 62.2 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to data from the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC).
It spent USD 13.7 billion in March alone, when oil prices surged to 14-year high. This compared with USD 8.4 billion spending in the same month last year. Oil prices started to surge from January and rates crossed USD 100 per barrel in the following month before touching USD 140 per barrel in early March. Prices have since receded and are now around USD 106 per barrel. (PTI)
The working of the Russian embassy in Washington is "blockaded", with its bank accounts closed and staff receiving threats, state news agency RIA cited ambassador Anatoly Antonov as saying on Sunday.
"The embassy is in essence blockaded by U.S. government entities. Accounts of our two consulates in Houston and New York have been closed by Bank of America," Antonov was quoted as saying. "We receive threats both by phone and letters come... At some point even the exit from the embassy was blocked," he added.
Russia and the United States had been locked in a dispute over the size and functioning of their respective diplomatic missions long before President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls his "special military operation" against Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Since then, Russian embassies in Europe have also come under pressure and more than 300 Russian staff have been expelled from European capitals, prompting Moscow to kick out foreign diplomats in response. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have quietly exchanged letters expressing desire to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, a media report said on Sunday.
The letters were exchanged after the election of Shehbaz as prime minister early this month but both the sides kept development away from the media glare in what seemed to be a move aimed at avoiding any public attention, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Citing a senior Foreign Office official, the paper said that Putin wrote to Sharif, congratulating him on his election.
He also expressed desire to deepen cooperation between the two countries. In his reply, Shehbaz expressed similar sentiments on bilateral ties between the two countries as well as cooperation on Afghanistan, it stated. (PTI)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken of hope and victory for his nation during an Easter Sunday address.
Speaking from the ancient St. Sophia cathedral, Zelenskyy said that “the great holiday today gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win!” He said that “the Lord and the holy heavenly light are on our side,” adding: “We are going through very difficult ordeals. Let us reach a just end on this path — the beginning of a happy life and prosperity of Ukraine." Zelenskyy said that “on Easter, we ask God for great grace to make our dream come true - this is another great day -- the day when great peace will come to Ukraine.” (AP)
Ukrainian English journal, The Kyiv Independent, on Sunday produced the breakdown of Russia’s military losses as of April 24, based on data from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is not possible to verify these figures. According to the breakdown, Russia has lost nearly 22,000 troops, 179 planes, 873 tanks and much more artillery. However, these claims by the news provider cant be verified.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin were to visit Kyiv on Sunday to discuss Ukraine's request for more powerful weapons after two months of combat with invading Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the visit. (Reuters)
Russia's defence ministry said its high-precision missiles struck nine Ukrainian military targets overnight, including four arms depots in the Kharkiv region where artillery weapons were stored.
Ukraine has repelled numerous Russian assaults along the line of contact in Donbas this week, a British military update said.
Despite Russia making some territorial gains, Ukrainian resistance has been strong across all axes and inflicted a significant cost on Russian forces, the UK Ministry of Defence tweeted in a regular bulletin.
"Poor Russian morale and limited time to reconstitute, re-equip and reorganise forces from prior offensives are likely hindering Russian combat effectiveness," the update added.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Turkey's top diplomat says Ankara has closed the Turkish airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria.
Mevlut Cavusoglu told a group of Turkish journalists during a visit to Uruguay that Russia had permission to use the Turkish airspace for flights to Syria until April. But Haberturk television reported that Cavusoglu said Saturday that he asked Moscow to stop using the airspace during a visit there in March, and that Moscow agreed to the Turkish request.
Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not clear if the move aimed to prevent the possible transfer of Syrian fighters to Ukraine.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Ankara before heading to Moscow next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and then to Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a U.N. statement said.
Eri Kaneko, Guterres' associate spokesperson, told a news briefing on Friday that Guterres would head to Moscow on Tuesday and meet Putin as well as have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, hoping to discuss what can be done to bring peace to Ukraine.
The United Nations also said on Friday that Guterres would meet with Zelenskyy on Thursday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and staff at UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance efforts. (Reuters)
Ukraine wants the United States to agree to be one of its security guarantors to protect it from future threats, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv ahead of a visit by senior U.S. officials on Sunday, Zelenskyy said he expected concrete results, including an agreement to provide more weapons. He also said he expected the United States to speak with Germany about providing Ukraine with weapons. (Reuters)
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine hoped to secure heavy weapons at talks with the U.S. secretaries of state and defence in Kyiv, supplies that he said were vital for Ukraine to eventually retake Russian-occupied territory.
The Ukrainian leader warned that Kyiv would quit talks with Moscow if Russia destroyed "our people" surrounded in the war-torn city of Mariupol or staged referendums to create more breakaway republics on newly-occupied Ukrainian soil.
At one point in an emotional news conference, he said that he thought Russia could use a nuclear weapon, but that he did not want to believe that Moscow would. He said that it was absolutely vital for Ukraine to obtain more weapons. (Reuters)