A coordinated action taken in the shadow of Moscow's war in Ukraine has seen Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the Czech Republic expel dozens of Russian diplomats suspected of spying.

Russia said it would respond in kind.

Belgium has expelled 21 diplomats from Russia's embassy in Brussels and consulate in Antwerp. They have two weeks to leave, said Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/scepticism-greets-russian-pledge-to-deescalate-around-kyiv-466850" hreflang="en">Scepticism greets Russian pledge to deescalate around Kyiv</a>

Her ministry said the move was made in coordination with the neighbouring Netherlands, whose foreign ministry had expelled 17 Russian diplomats considered "secretly active" as intelligence officers.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said four "senior officials" from the Russian embassy in Dublin were asked to leave for violating "international standards of diplomatic behaviour" -- which is code for spying.

The Czech foreign ministry announced that a Russian diplomat had been given 72 hours to leave the embassy in Prague. The diplomat is believed to be Russia's deputy ambassador.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-may-single-out-and-detain-us-citizens-state-dept-issues-another-travel-advisory-466846" hreflang="en">‘Russia may single out and detain US citizens’: State Dept issues another travel advisory</a>

"Together with our Allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU," the Czech foreign ministry tweeted.

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Today, the MFA informed the Russian Embassy in Prague that one of its diplomatic staff had been declared persona non grata and was requested to leave Czechia within 72 hours. Together with our Allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU.
— Czech MFA (@CzechMFA) <a href="https://twitter.com/CzechMFA/status/1508811502169513993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, while talking to AFP said that "Responses will be provided on the basis of the principle of reciprocity."

She did not provide further details.

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💬 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Zakharova?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Zakharova</a>: On March 29, the Netherlands declared 17 diplomats from the Russian Embassy in The Hague persona non grata. 
 
❗️The responsibility for the implications of this arbitrary behaviour lies in full with the Dutch authorities. 
 
🔗 <a href="https://t.co/UthU7PPKBB">https://t.co/UthU7PPKBB</a> <a href="https://t.co/biZehrVzHi">pic.twitter.com/biZehrVzHi</a>
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) <a href="https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1508888573377974285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Russian foreign ministry criticized Hague's decision to expel Russian diplomats. It called it an "unfriendly step" and evidence that Hague had no interest "in maintaining normal diplomatic channels".

Watch |&nbsp;Ukraine, allies remain cautious as Russia pledges to reduce attacks amid the Russian invasion

<iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/ukraine-allies-remain-cautious-as-russia-pledges-to-reduce-attacks-amid-the-russian-invasion-466831/embed" width="560"></iframe>

"The Dutch have outdone themselves in their desire to 'hit' the Russian embassy in a more painful way," the ministry added.

The expulsions announced Tuesday heightened Western blows directed at Russia following its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russia's economy has already been badly affected by several rounds of sanctions primarily imposed by the EU and the US.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

A coordinated action taken in the shadow of Moscow's war in Ukraine has seen Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the Czech Republic expel dozens of Russian diplomats suspected of spying.

A coordinated action taken in the shadow of Moscow's war in Ukraine has seen Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the Czech Republic expel dozens of Russian diplomats suspected of spying. Russia said it would respond in kind. Belgium has expelled 21 diplomats from Russia's embassy in Brussels and consulate in Antwerp. They have two weeks to leave, said Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes. Also read | Scepticism greets Russian pledge to deescalate around Kyiv Her ministry said the move was made in coordination with the neighbouring Netherlands, whose foreign ministry had expelled 17 Russian diplomats considered "secretly active" as intelligence officers. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said four "senior officials" from the Russian embassy in Dublin were asked to leave for violating "international standards of diplomatic behaviour" -- which is code for spying. The Czech foreign ministry announced that a Russian diplomat had been given 72 hours to leave the embassy in Prague. The diplomat is believed to be Russia's deputy ambassador. Also read | ‘Russia may single out and detain US citizens’: State Dept issues another travel advisory "Together with our Allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU," the Czech foreign ministry tweeted. Today, the MFA informed the Russian Embassy in Prague that one of its diplomatic staff had been declared persona non grata and was requested to leave Czechia within 72 hours. Together with our Allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU. — Czech MFA (@CzechMFA) March 29, 2022 × Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, while talking to AFP said that "Responses will be provided on the basis of the principle of reciprocity." She did not provide further details. 💬 #Zakharova: On March 29, the Netherlands declared 17 diplomats from the Russian Embassy in The Hague persona non grata. ❗️The responsibility for the implications of this arbitrary behaviour lies in full with the Dutch authorities. 🔗 https://t.co/UthU7PPKBB pic.twitter.com/biZehrVzHi — MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) March 29, 2022 × Russian foreign ministry criticized Hague's decision to expel Russian diplomats. It called it an "unfriendly step" and evidence that Hague had no interest "in maintaining normal diplomatic channels". Watch | Ukraine, allies remain cautious as Russia pledges to reduce attacks amid the Russian invasion "The Dutch have outdone themselves in their desire to 'hit' the Russian embassy in a more painful way," the ministry added. The expulsions announced Tuesday heightened Western blows directed at Russia following its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russia's economy has already been badly affected by several rounds of sanctions primarily imposed by the EU and the US. (With inputs from agencies)

European nations up the ante, expel dozens of Russian diplomats for spying

Ukraine and its Western allies awaited indications on Wednesday that Moscow was "radically" decreasing military action near Kyiv, as agreed in peace negotiations, but scepticism remained high after Washington cautioned that Russian forces were being relocated rather than withdrawn.

In marked contrast to past rounds, both parties described the negotiations in Istanbul as "serious" and "good," increasing hopes after more than a month of fighting which has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/watch-russia-ukraine-exclusive-putin-should-be-behind-bars-ex-ukraine-president-tells-wion-466807" hreflang="en">Watch | Russia-Ukraine | Exclusive: Putin should be behind bars, ex-Ukraine president tells WION</a>

Russia's deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, said progress had been made on Ukraine's "neutrality and non-nuclear status," two key Russian concerns.

He also stated that Russia would "significantly restrict military activities" around Kyiv and Chernigiv in the north.

However, the pledge was met with scepticism in Ukraine and Western capitals, with the Pentagon claiming that Russia had only relocated a "small number" of troops near Kyiv, but was planning a "major offensive" elsewhere.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/sufficient-conditions-for-talks-between-zelensky-putin-ukraine-466749" hreflang="en">Sufficient conditions for talks between Zelensky, Putin: Ukraine</a>

According to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, the "vast majority" of the Russian military stationed near Kyiv remained in position.

"We've only seen a small number begin to move away from Kyiv, mostly to the north.

"Russia has failed in its objective of capturing Kyiv," the Pentagon spokesman added, but "it does not mean that the threat to Kyiv is over".

Watch |&nbsp;Ukraine, allies remain cautious as Russia pledges to reduce attacks amid the Russian invasion

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/ukraine-allies-remain-cautious-as-russia-pledges-to-reduce-attacks-amid-the-russian-invasion-466831/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The retreat of Russian forces from the area around Kyiv and Chernigiv, according to Ukraine's military, "is probably a rotation of individual units and aims to mislead".

Air raid sirens rang multiple times in the capital overnight and persisted into the morning.

(WIth inputs from agencies)

Ukraine and its Western allies awaited indications on Wednesday that Moscow was "radically" decreasing military action near Kyiv, as agreed in peace negotiations, but scepticism remained high after Washington cautioned that Russian forces were being relocated rather than withdrawn.

Ukraine and its Western allies awaited indications on Wednesday that Moscow was "radically" decreasing military action near Kyiv, as agreed in peace negotiations, but scepticism remained high after Washington cautioned that Russian forces were being relocated rather than withdrawn. In marked contrast to past rounds, both parties described the negotiations in Istanbul as "serious" and "good," increasing hopes after more than a month of fighting which has killed thousands and displaced millions. Also read | Watch | Russia-Ukraine | Exclusive: Putin should be behind bars, ex-Ukraine president tells WION Russia's deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, said progress had been made on Ukraine's "neutrality and non-nuclear status," two key Russian concerns. He also stated that Russia would "significantly restrict military activities" around Kyiv and Chernigiv in the north. However, the pledge was met with scepticism in Ukraine and Western capitals, with the Pentagon claiming that Russia had only relocated a "small number" of troops near Kyiv, but was planning a "major offensive" elsewhere. Also read | Sufficient conditions for talks between Zelensky, Putin: Ukraine According to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, the "vast majority" of the Russian military stationed near Kyiv remained in position. "We've only seen a small number begin to move away from Kyiv, mostly to the north. "Russia has failed in its objective of capturing Kyiv," the Pentagon spokesman added, but "it does not mean that the threat to Kyiv is over". Watch | Ukraine, allies remain cautious as Russia pledges to reduce attacks amid the Russian invasion The retreat of Russian forces from the area around Kyiv and Chernigiv, according to Ukraine's military, "is probably a rotation of individual units and aims to mislead". Air raid sirens rang multiple times in the capital overnight and persisted into the morning. (WIth inputs from agencies)

Scepticism greets Russian pledge to deescalate around Kyiv

Calling for a self-reliant, or 'atmanirbhar' internet for India, India's Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has accused big tech platforms of weaponsing the internet during the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

His comments came just days after YouTube blocked WION over its coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Chandrasekhar said this highlights the sweeping powers of social media giants and how they preside over the ''splinter-net.'' He said the “Atmanirbhar internet,”&nbsp;will reduce dependency on services being provided by these global firms.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-plus-why-the-west-is-winning-the-information-war-461710/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Chandrasekhar said there is a need to rethink local laws in order to de-risk Indian internet and make it harder for Big Tech businesses to be weaponised in any circumstance. India is readying a new cybersecurity and data governance framework.

According to Chandrasekhar, “If we were depending on SWIFT alone, we are gone. But we have UPI, fintech platforms in India that have reduced our reliance on a SWIFT type of an international money transfer platform. We are seeing through our thinking of Atmanirbhar Bharat that we should not depend on Indian internet being controlled or influenced by these big tech platforms alone.”&nbsp;

“Two phenomenon are very visible: one is weaponisation of the internet of which we were aware of in some sense. The second is the phenomenon of the splinter-net. The internet is increasingly being splintered, driven by power of some Western countries. These platforms have now become dominant and in the event of a conflict between two sovereigns, they are being weaponised and there are no laws that would prevent this.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/ukraine-war-coverage-youtube-backs-down-wion-is-back-on-the-platform-465601">Also read |&nbsp;After 12 hours of campaign and 25K posts in support, tech giant YouTube unblocks WION</a>

“It is disturbing that internet intermediaries aren’t doing enough to combat cybercrime and hacking attacks. The use of sanctions to cut off access to internet is disturbing. It is quite a troubling precedent. These recent events strengthen India’s case for data localisation, national champions, resilient internet network architecture, native open APIs (application programming interface) and a strong cyber security command centre,” Chandrasekhar told The Indian Express. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/opinions-blogs/youtube-blocking-wion-high-time-for-indian-tech-minds-to-beat-tech-giants-465844">OPINION | YouTube blocking WION: High time for Indian tech minds to beat tech giants</a>

“It is validating our thinking in terms of a new digital law, the need for a data governance framework. We will basically create a framework which will have the data protection law, a digital law and other cyber security statutes. Architecturally, we want to build the cyberspace jurisprudence rather than doing it piecemeal or in catch up mode,” he added.

“The platforms are now controlling the access to the internet in many ways, be it through monopolies of search engines, duopolies of app stores, or devices.”

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Calling for a self-reliant, or 'atmanirbhar' internet for India, India's Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has accused big tech platforms of weaponsing the internet during the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Calling for a self-reliant, or 'atmanirbhar' internet for India, India's Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has accused big tech platforms of weaponsing the internet during the Russia-Ukraine crisis. His comments came just days after YouTube blocked WION over its coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Chandrasekhar said this highlights the sweeping powers of social media giants and how they preside over the ''splinter-net.'' He said the “Atmanirbhar internet,” will reduce dependency on services being provided by these global firms. Chandrasekhar said there is a need to rethink local laws in order to de-risk Indian internet and make it harder for Big Tech businesses to be weaponised in any circumstance. India is readying a new cybersecurity and data governance framework. According to Chandrasekhar, “If we were depending on SWIFT alone, we are gone. But we have UPI, fintech platforms in India that have reduced our reliance on a SWIFT type of an international money transfer platform. We are seeing through our thinking of Atmanirbhar Bharat that we should not depend on Indian internet being controlled or influenced by these big tech platforms alone.” “Two phenomenon are very visible: one is weaponisation of the internet of which we were aware of in some sense. The second is the phenomenon of the splinter-net. The internet is increasingly being splintered, driven by power of some Western countries. These platforms have now become dominant and in the event of a conflict between two sovereigns, they are being weaponised and there are no laws that would prevent this.” Also read | After 12 hours of campaign and 25K posts in support, tech giant YouTube unblocks WION “It is disturbing that internet intermediaries aren’t doing enough to combat cybercrime and hacking attacks. The use of sanctions to cut off access to internet is disturbing. It is quite a troubling precedent. These recent events strengthen India’s case for data localisation, national champions, resilient internet network architecture, native open APIs (application programming interface) and a strong cyber security command centre,” Chandrasekhar told The Indian Express. OPINION | YouTube blocking WION: High time for Indian tech minds to beat tech giants “It is validating our thinking in terms of a new digital law, the need for a data governance framework. We will basically create a framework which will have the data protection law, a digital law and other cyber security statutes. Architecturally, we want to build the cyberspace jurisprudence rather than doing it piecemeal or in catch up mode,” he added. “The platforms are now controlling the access to the internet in many ways, be it through monopolies of search engines, duopolies of app stores, or devices.” (With inputs from agencies)

Russia-Ukraine crisis: Indian minister accuses big tech platforms of weaponsing internet

The United States still doubts that Russia is serious in talks with Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, adding that Moscow should end its aggression now and pull its forces back.

"I've not seen anything to suggest that this is moving forward in an effective way because we have not seen signs of real seriousness" from Russia, Blinken said at a press conference in Morocco.

"There is what Russia says and there is what Russia does. We're focussed on the latter," he said.

"What Russia is doing is the continued brutalisation of Ukraine and its people, and that continues as we speak."

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/russia-ukraine-war-us-president-joe-biden-stands-by-remarks-on-putin-466750/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

He added, “If they somehow believe that an effort to subjugate only the eastern part of Ukraine or the southern part of Ukraine ... can succeed, then once again they are profoundly fooling themselves.”

Reiterating Blinken's scepticism,&nbsp;UK PM Boris Johnson&nbsp;said,&nbsp;"The prime minister underscored that we must judge Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime by their actions not their words.

"Putin is twisting the knife in the open wound of Ukraine in an attempt to force the country and its allies to capitulate," the read-out stated.

"The prime minister stressed to his fellow leaders that we should be unrelenting in our response."

Russia’s military announced Tuesday it will “fundamentally” scale back operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as talks brought the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war into view.

Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said the move was meant to increase trust in the talks after several rounds of negotiations failed to halt what has devolved into a bloody campaign of attrition.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/international-accord-needed-to-guarantee-security-say-ukrainian-negotiators-466674" hreflang="en">Ukraine demands security guarantee; Russia ready to scale down Kyiv operation</a>

While Russia portrayed it as a goodwill gesture, it comes as the Kremlin’s troops have become bogged down in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance that has thwarted Putin’s hopes for a quick military victory.&nbsp;

Fomin said Moscow has decided to “fundamentally ... cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations.”&nbsp;

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said this was one of two steps Moscow was taking to de-escalate the 34-day-old conflict. 
He said the other was that Russia would agree to a meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to take place simultaneously if and when a peace treaty was initialed by their foreign ministers.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/sufficient-conditions-for-talks-between-zelensky-putin-ukraine-466749">Sufficient conditions for talks between Zelensky, Putin: Ukraine</a>

Ukrainian negotiators said they had proposed at the latest round of talks with Russia that Ukraine adopt neutral status in exchange for security guarantees, meaning Kyiv would not join military alliances or host military bases.&nbsp;

Medinsky said: "These proposals will be considered in the near future, reported to the president (Putin), and our response will be given."

Fomin said Russia had also called on Ukraine to eliminate what he called torture of captured Russian prisoners.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN “we haven’t seen anything to corroborate” reports of Russia withdrawing significant forces from around Kyiv. “But what we have seen over the last couple of days is they have stopped trying to advance on Kyiv.”

(With inputs from agencies)

The United States still doubts that Russia is serious in talks with Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, adding that Moscow should end its aggression now and pull its forces back.

The United States still doubts that Russia is serious in talks with Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, adding that Moscow should end its aggression now and pull its forces back. "I've not seen anything to suggest that this is moving forward in an effective way because we have not seen signs of real seriousness" from Russia, Blinken said at a press conference in Morocco. "There is what Russia says and there is what Russia does. We're focussed on the latter," he said. "What Russia is doing is the continued brutalisation of Ukraine and its people, and that continues as we speak." He added, “If they somehow believe that an effort to subjugate only the eastern part of Ukraine or the southern part of Ukraine ... can succeed, then once again they are profoundly fooling themselves.” Reiterating Blinken's scepticism, UK PM Boris Johnson said, "The prime minister underscored that we must judge Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime by their actions not their words. "Putin is twisting the knife in the open wound of Ukraine in an attempt to force the country and its allies to capitulate," the read-out stated. "The prime minister stressed to his fellow leaders that we should be unrelenting in our response." Russia’s military announced Tuesday it will “fundamentally” scale back operations near Ukraine’s capital and a northern city, as talks brought the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war into view. Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said the move was meant to increase trust in the talks after several rounds of negotiations failed to halt what has devolved into a bloody campaign of attrition. Also read | Ukraine demands security guarantee; Russia ready to scale down Kyiv operation While Russia portrayed it as a goodwill gesture, it comes as the Kremlin’s troops have become bogged down in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance that has thwarted Putin’s hopes for a quick military victory. Fomin said Moscow has decided to “fundamentally ... cut back military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv” to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations.” Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said this was one of two steps Moscow was taking to de-escalate the 34-day-old conflict. He said the other was that Russia would agree to a meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to take place simultaneously if and when a peace treaty was initialed by their foreign ministers. Also read | Sufficient conditions for talks between Zelensky, Putin: Ukraine Ukrainian negotiators said they had proposed at the latest round of talks with Russia that Ukraine adopt neutral status in exchange for security guarantees, meaning Kyiv would not join military alliances or host military bases. Medinsky said: "These proposals will be considered in the near future, reported to the president (Putin), and our response will be given." Fomin said Russia had also called on Ukraine to eliminate what he called torture of captured Russian prisoners. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN “we haven’t seen anything to corroborate” reports of Russia withdrawing significant forces from around Kyiv. “But what we have seen over the last couple of days is they have stopped trying to advance on Kyiv.” (With inputs from agencies)

United States still doubts that Russia is serious in talks with Ukraine: Blinken

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

Maria Mezentseva, the head of Ukraine’s delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, has claimed that Russian soldiers raped and sexually assaulted women.

During an interview with Sky News, she said ''There is one case which was very widely discussed recently because it’s been recorded and proceeded with [by] the prosecutor’s office, and we’re not going into details, but it’s quite a scary scene when a civilian was shot dead in his house in a small town next to Kyiv.''

“His wife was,&nbsp;I’m sorry but I have to say it,&nbsp;raped several times in front of her underage child.”

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-1-month-of-ukraine-invasion-more-bluster-from-nato-465277/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Ukraine's prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova opened the country's first official rape investigation into the case after the drunken soldier is said to have broken into the family's home, killed the husband and then repeatedly raped his wife. &nbsp;

“There are many more victims rather than just this one case which has been made public by the prosecutor general,” Mezentseva said. “And of course, we are expecting many more of them, which will be public once victims will be ready to talk about that.

“That’s why you know, when we’ve been talking to Boris Johnson, when we will be talking to your Home Office, when we’ve been talking to MPs of UK, we’ve also raised this issue that this aftermath, which we are dealing with right now, the aftermath of war, has to be taken very cautiously, very seriously, and to take into account the UK experience and experience of other countries, which can help us in dealing with psychologists, and how to help these people to actually live over these cases, to keep going afterwards, to keep living.”

“We will definitely not be silent,” she added.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ukraine-cites-russian-provocations-for-pausing-evacuations-of-civilians-466311">Ukraine cites Russian 'provocations' for pausing evacuations of civilians</a>

''Russian President Vladimir Putin is the one responsible for this humiliation, war crimes, and disasters,” said the Ukraine MP emphasising the bombing of foreign nationals, children, and women.&nbsp;

Anastasia Taran, a 30-year-old from Enerhodar who was working as a waitress in Irpin prior to the Russian invasion, claimed that conditions in the Russian-occupied town are like 'hell' and alleged the invaders engaged in horrific treatment of locals.&nbsp;

''Irpin is Hell. There are plenty of Russian soldiers out there who just shoot people who enter private homes and, at best, just kick people out of their homes,'' Anastasia told Ukrainian outlet Euromaidan Press.

''They rape women and the dead are just being dumped.'' &nbsp;

About 20,000 Ukrainians have been killed in Russia's month-old invasion and 10 million have fled their homes, according to Kyiv, and several cities are still coming under withering bombardment.

Humanitarian needs are direst in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine said that about 160,000 civilians remain encircled by Russian forces, desperate for food, water and medicine.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said the situation there was "catastrophic" and Russia's assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people "into dust".

The Ukrainian government also estimated Monday that the economic damage from the Russian invasion had reached nearly $565 billion.

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos. Maria Mezentseva, the head of Ukraine’s delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, has claimed that Russian soldiers raped and sexually assaulted women. During an interview with Sky News, she said ''There is one case which was very widely discussed recently because it’s been recorded and proceeded with [by] the prosecutor’s office, and we’re not going into details, but it’s quite a scary scene when a civilian was shot dead in his house in a small town next to Kyiv.'' “His wife was, I’m sorry but I have to say it, raped several times in front of her underage child.” Ukraine's prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova opened the country's first official rape investigation into the case after the drunken soldier is said to have broken into the family's home, killed the husband and then repeatedly raped his wife. “There are many more victims rather than just this one case which has been made public by the prosecutor general,” Mezentseva said. “And of course, we are expecting many more of them, which will be public once victims will be ready to talk about that. “That’s why you know, when we’ve been talking to Boris Johnson, when we will be talking to your Home Office, when we’ve been talking to MPs of UK, we’ve also raised this issue that this aftermath, which we are dealing with right now, the aftermath of war, has to be taken very cautiously, very seriously, and to take into account the UK experience and experience of other countries, which can help us in dealing with psychologists, and how to help these people to actually live over these cases, to keep going afterwards, to keep living.” “We will definitely not be silent,” she added. Also read | Ukraine cites Russian 'provocations' for pausing evacuations of civilians ''Russian President Vladimir Putin is the one responsible for this humiliation, war crimes, and disasters,” said the Ukraine MP emphasising the bombing of foreign nationals, children, and women. Anastasia Taran, a 30-year-old from Enerhodar who was working as a waitress in Irpin prior to the Russian invasion, claimed that conditions in the Russian-occupied town are like 'hell' and alleged the invaders engaged in horrific treatment of locals. ''Irpin is Hell. There are plenty of Russian soldiers out there who just shoot people who enter private homes and, at best, just kick people out of their homes,'' Anastasia told Ukrainian outlet Euromaidan Press. ''They rape women and the dead are just being dumped.'' About 20,000 Ukrainians have been killed in Russia's month-old invasion and 10 million have fled their homes, according to Kyiv, and several cities are still coming under withering bombardment. Humanitarian needs are direst in the southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine said that about 160,000 civilians remain encircled by Russian forces, desperate for food, water and medicine. Ukraine's foreign ministry said the situation there was "catastrophic" and Russia's assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people "into dust". The Ukrainian government also estimated Monday that the economic damage from the Russian invasion had reached nearly $565 billion. (With inputs from agencies)

Ukraine MP Maria Mezentseva says Russian soldiers raping and sexually assaulting women

Ukraine said Monday it was pausing evacuations of civilians from war-scarred regions of the country because intelligence reports suggested invading Russian troops were planning attacks on humanitarian routes.

"Our intelligence has reported possible provocations by the occupiers on routes of humanitarian corridors. Therefore, for reasons of public safety, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media.

With its aspirations for a quick victory dashed by a stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has increasingly focused on grinding down Ukraine’s military in the east in the hope of forcing Kyiv into surrendering part of the country’s territory to possibly end the war.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/ready-to-go-for-neutrality-non-nuclear-status-says-ukrainian-president-zelensky-466211/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The bulk of the Ukrainian army is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where it has been locked up in fighting with Moscow-backed separatists in a nearly eight-year conflict. If Russia succeeds in encircling and destroying the Ukrainian forces in the country’s industrial heartland called Donbas, it could try to dictate its terms to Kyiv and, possibly, attempt to split the country in two.

The mayor of Mariupol said on Monday all civilians must be evacuated from the encircled Ukrainian city to allow them to escape a humanitarian catastrophe.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/head-of-ukraines-luhansk-separatist-region-says-it-may-vote-to-join-russia-466100" hreflang="en">Head of Ukraine's Luhansk separatist region says it may vote to join Russia</a>

Mayor Vadym Boichenko said 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the southern port city on the Sea of Azov without heat and power after weeks of Russian bombardment.

He said 26 buses were waiting to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, which normally has a population of about 400,000 people, but Russian forces had not agreed to give them safe passage. He did not say where they were waiting.

"The situation in the city remains difficult. People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe," Boichenko said on national television. "We need to completely evacuate Mariupol."

He added: "The Russian Federation is playing with us. We are in the hands of the invaders."

Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February&nbsp;24, denies targeting civilians and blames Ukraine for the repeated failure to agree on safe corridors for trapped civilians. President Vladimir Putin says Russian forces are on a special operation to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine.

Mariupol is widely seen as a strategic prize for the Russian invaders to create a bridge between Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and two separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine.

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Ukraine said Monday it was pausing evacuations of civilians from war-scarred regions of the country because intelligence reports suggested invading Russian troops were planning attacks on humanitarian routes.

Ukraine said Monday it was pausing evacuations of civilians from war-scarred regions of the country because intelligence reports suggested invading Russian troops were planning attacks on humanitarian routes. "Our intelligence has reported possible provocations by the occupiers on routes of humanitarian corridors. Therefore, for reasons of public safety, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media. With its aspirations for a quick victory dashed by a stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has increasingly focused on grinding down Ukraine’s military in the east in the hope of forcing Kyiv into surrendering part of the country’s territory to possibly end the war. The bulk of the Ukrainian army is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where it has been locked up in fighting with Moscow-backed separatists in a nearly eight-year conflict. If Russia succeeds in encircling and destroying the Ukrainian forces in the country’s industrial heartland called Donbas, it could try to dictate its terms to Kyiv and, possibly, attempt to split the country in two. The mayor of Mariupol said on Monday all civilians must be evacuated from the encircled Ukrainian city to allow them to escape a humanitarian catastrophe. Also read | Head of Ukraine's Luhansk separatist region says it may vote to join Russia Mayor Vadym Boichenko said 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the southern port city on the Sea of Azov without heat and power after weeks of Russian bombardment. He said 26 buses were waiting to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, which normally has a population of about 400,000 people, but Russian forces had not agreed to give them safe passage. He did not say where they were waiting. "The situation in the city remains difficult. People are beyond the line of humanitarian catastrophe," Boichenko said on national television. "We need to completely evacuate Mariupol." He added: "The Russian Federation is playing with us. We are in the hands of the invaders." Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, denies targeting civilians and blames Ukraine for the repeated failure to agree on safe corridors for trapped civilians. President Vladimir Putin says Russian forces are on a special operation to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Mariupol is widely seen as a strategic prize for the Russian invaders to create a bridge between Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and two separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine. (With inputs from agencies)

Ukraine cites Russian 'provocations' for pausing evacuations of civilians

After parachuting into the frigid Alaska interior, Capt. Weston Iannone and his soldiers navigated miles through deep snow, finally setting up a temporary outpost on a ridgeline next to a grove of lanky spruce trees that were also struggling to survive.

Darkness was setting in, the temperature had fallen below zero, and the 120 men and women who had gathered as part of a major combat training exercise in subarctic Alaska had not yet erected tents. The supply line for fuel, essential to keep warm through the long night ahead, was lagging behind.

“Everything is a challenge, from water, fuel, food, moving people, keeping them comfortable,” said Iannone, the 27-year-old company commander, as his soldiers shoveled deeper into the snow in search of a solid foundation to put up their sleeping quarters. “This is inherent training — understanding how far we can push physically and mentally.”

The first-of-its-kind exercise this month, involving some 8,000 troops outside of Fairbanks, was planned long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but was driven in part by Russia’s aggressive moves in recent years to militarize the Arctic — a part of the world where the United States and Russia share a lengthy maritime boundary.

Tensions have been growing in the region for years, as nations stake claims to shipping routes and energy reserves that are opening up as a result of climate change. Now, with the geopolitical order shifting after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the competition over sovereignty and resources in the Arctic could intensify.

On the west coast of Alaska, the federal government is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the port at Nome, which could transform into a deepwater hub servicing Coast Guard and Navy vessels navigating into the Arctic Circle. The Coast Guard expects to deploy three new icebreakers — although Russia already has more than 50 in operation.

And while the United States has denounced Russia’s aggressive military expansion in the Arctic, the Pentagon has its own plans to increase its presence and capabilities, working to rebuild cold-weather skills neglected during two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Air Force has transferred dozens of F-35 fighter jets to Alaska, announcing that the state will host “more advanced fighters than any other location in the world.” The Army last year released its first strategic plan for “Regaining Arctic Dominance.”

The Navy, which this month conducted exercises above and below the sea ice inside the Arctic Circle, also has developed a plan for protecting U.S. interests in the region, warning that weakness there would mean that “peace and prosperity will be increasingly challenged by Russia and China, whose interests and values differ dramatically from ours.”

The preparations are costly in both resources and personnel. While Iannone’s company was able to finish setting up tents before midnight and survived the night without incident, other companies did not fare so well: Eight soldiers suffered cold-weather injuries, and four soldiers were taken to a hospital after a fire inside a personnel carrier.

Meanwhile, at another recent cold-weather exercise, in Norway, four U.S. Marines died when their aircraft crashed.

Russia, whose eastern mainland lies just 55 miles across the Bering Strait from the coast of Alaska, for years has prioritized an expanded Arctic presence by refurbishing airfields, adding bases, training troops and developing a network of military defense systems on the northern frontier.

With a warming climate shrinking sea ice in the region, valuable fish stocks are moving northward, while rare minerals and the Arctic’s substantial reserves of fossil fuels are becoming a growing target for exploration. Boat traffic is poised to increase from both trade and tourism.

Two years ago, Moscow brought its own war games barreling through the Bering Sea, with Russian commanders testing weapons and demanding that American fishing boats operating in U.S. fishing waters get out of the way — an order the U.S. Coast Guard advised them to comply with. Russia has repeatedly sent military aircraft to the edge of U.S. airspace, leading U.S. jets to scramble to intercept them and warn them away.

This month, in response to escalating international sanctions against Russia, a member of the Russian parliament demanded that Alaska, purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867, be returned to Russian control — a possibly rhetorical gesture that nonetheless reflected the deteriorating relationship between the two world powers.

For centuries, the vast waters of the offshore Arctic were largely a no man’s land locked in by ice whose exact territorial boundaries — claimed by the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Iceland — remained unsettled. But as melting sea ice has opened new shipping pathways and as nations have eyed the vast hydrocarbon and mineral reserves below the Arctic sea floor, the complicated treaties, claims and boundary zones that govern the region have been opened to fresh disputes.

Canada and the United States have never reached agreement on the status of the Northwest Passage between the North Atlantic and the Beaufort Sea. China, too, has been working to establish a foothold, declaring itself a “near-Arctic state” and partnering with Russia to promote “sustainable” development and expanded use of Arctic trade routes.

Russia has made it clear it intends to control the Northern Sea Route off its northern shore, a route that significantly shortens the shipping distance between China and northern Europe. U.S. officials have complained that Russia is illegally demanding that other nations seek permission to pass and threatening to use military force to sink vessels that do not comply.

“We are stuck with a pretty tense situation there,” said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center of Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Either we acquiesce to Russia, to their extreme control of surface waters, or we elevate or escalate the issue.”

The focus in recent years had been to expand diplomatic channels, collaborating on a range of regional challenges through the Arctic Council. That work was put on pause, however, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

In Nome, which hopes to position itself as a maritime gateway to the Far North, there has long been evidence that a new era for the Arctic was arriving. Mayor John Handeland said winter sea ice that once persisted until mid-June may now be gone by early May and does not reappear before Thanksgiving.

A record 12 cruise ships docked in Nome’s existing port in 2019. That number was poised to double this year, although some cruises that had expected to sail along Russia’s northern coast have canceled plans. For Handeland, the time is right to strengthen U.S. capabilities.

“As things escalate, I think the need for expansion of our military is now,” Handeland said. “I think we kind of had a period of time where we thought everything was cool, that we can let our guard down, so to speak. And now we’re seeing that that maybe was not a wise idea.”

But there are multiple local constituencies to navigate as development moves farther into the Arctic. Alaska Natives are wary about effects to the region’s fragile environment, on which many depend for hunting and fishing, said Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

“I think that our people realize that our military needs to protect our country and our military does need to invest in a presence in the Arctic,” Kitka said. “But it has got to be done smart.”

Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s junior Republican U.S. senator, said that while there may be little threat of a Russian invasion of Alaska, there is concern about Russia’s military buildup in the region.

“Ukraine just demonstrates even more, what matters to these guys is presence and power,” Sullivan said. “And when you start to build ports, when you start to bring up icebreakers, when you start to bring up Navy shipping, when you have over 100 fifth-gen fighters in the Arctic in Alaska, we’re starting to now talk Putin’s language.”

Alaska is already one of the nation’s most militarized states, with more than 20,000 active-duty personnel assigned to places such as Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the Fairbanks area, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, and Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. The Army’s large training exercise — the first Combat Training Center rotation to be held in Alaska — took place around Fort Greely, about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Alaska is also home to critical parts of the nation’s missile-defense system.

Bouffard said the fracture in relations caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could open the door to a variety of future problems that can only be guessed at right now. While there is no imminent conflict in the Arctic, there could well be friction over how Russia manages offshore waters or disputes over undersea exploration. The United States also needs to be prepared to aid northern European allies that share an uncertain future with Russia in Arctic waterways, he said.

That will mean being prepared for a range of potential problems. In a separate Alaska military exercise in recent weeks, teams from the Marines and Army practiced cold-weather strategies for containing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination.

At the large Army war games exercise near Fort Greely, the soldiers rehearsed a scenario in which paratroopers seized control of an airfield and established operations to hold the new territory. An opposing force then mobilized to try to reclaim the area.

Portable heating elements were used to keep engines running, along with lubricants that work in subzero temperatures. Some soldiers used skis and snowshoes to get around, as well as snowmobiles and small-unit support vehicles light enough to traverse deep snow.

For many of the soldiers under Iannone’s command, defending the airfield meant establishing positions in remote areas with more rudimentary means. One heavy weapons group chopped down trees by hand and used a sled to pull a bulky Improved Target Acquisition System to a vantage point from which the soldiers could scan miles of landscape below.

They erected a tent with a small stove heater, shielded with a wall of snow on all sides. They rotated in hourly shifts outside the tents — every half-hour at night — in order to keep warm.

Even then, 21-year-old Spc. Owen Prescott said he had struggled with the bite of nighttime cold and was figuring out the appropriate layers to wear to stay warm as temperatures neared minus 20. As he spooned some steaming food from a freeze-dried Army ration, he said he and his colleagues were focusing much of their attention on making sure they did not become a cold-weather casualty before engaging on their hypothetical combat mission.

“It’s just dealing with the cold, sustaining in the cold,” said Prescott, who is from Southern California. “I’m used to wearing shorts and flip-flops my entire life.”

After parachuting into the frigid Alaska interior, Capt. Weston Iannone and his soldiers navigated miles through deep snow, finally setting up a temporary outpost on a ridgeline next to a grove of lanky spruce trees that were also struggling to survive.

After parachuting into the frigid Alaska interior, Capt. Weston Iannone and his soldiers navigated miles through deep snow, finally setting up a temporary outpost on a ridgeline next to a grove of lanky spruce trees that were also struggling to survive. Darkness was setting in, the temperature had fallen below zero, and the 120 men and women who had gathered as part of a major combat training exercise in subarctic Alaska had not yet erected tents. The supply line for fuel, essential to keep warm through the long night ahead, was lagging behind. “Everything is a challenge, from water, fuel, food, moving people, keeping them comfortable,” said Iannone, the 27-year-old company commander, as his soldiers shoveled deeper into the snow in search of a solid foundation to put up their sleeping quarters. “This is inherent training — understanding how far we can push physically and mentally.” The first-of-its-kind exercise this month, involving some 8,000 troops outside of Fairbanks, was planned long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but was driven in part by Russia’s aggressive moves in recent years to militarize the Arctic — a part of the world where the United States and Russia share a lengthy maritime boundary. Tensions have been growing in the region for years, as nations stake claims to shipping routes and energy reserves that are opening up as a result of climate change. Now, with the geopolitical order shifting after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the competition over sovereignty and resources in the Arctic could intensify. On the west coast of Alaska, the federal government is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the port at Nome, which could transform into a deepwater hub servicing Coast Guard and Navy vessels navigating into the Arctic Circle. The Coast Guard expects to deploy three new icebreakers — although Russia already has more than 50 in operation. And while the United States has denounced Russia’s aggressive military expansion in the Arctic, the Pentagon has its own plans to increase its presence and capabilities, working to rebuild cold-weather skills neglected during two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Air Force has transferred dozens of F-35 fighter jets to Alaska, announcing that the state will host “more advanced fighters than any other location in the world.” The Army last year released its first strategic plan for “Regaining Arctic Dominance.” The Navy, which this month conducted exercises above and below the sea ice inside the Arctic Circle, also has developed a plan for protecting U.S. interests in the region, warning that weakness there would mean that “peace and prosperity will be increasingly challenged by Russia and China, whose interests and values differ dramatically from ours.” The preparations are costly in both resources and personnel. While Iannone’s company was able to finish setting up tents before midnight and survived the night without incident, other companies did not fare so well: Eight soldiers suffered cold-weather injuries, and four soldiers were taken to a hospital after a fire inside a personnel carrier. Meanwhile, at another recent cold-weather exercise, in Norway, four U.S. Marines died when their aircraft crashed. Russia, whose eastern mainland lies just 55 miles across the Bering Strait from the coast of Alaska, for years has prioritized an expanded Arctic presence by refurbishing airfields, adding bases, training troops and developing a network of military defense systems on the northern frontier. With a warming climate shrinking sea ice in the region, valuable fish stocks are moving northward, while rare minerals and the Arctic’s substantial reserves of fossil fuels are becoming a growing target for exploration. Boat traffic is poised to increase from both trade and tourism. Two years ago, Moscow brought its own war games barreling through the Bering Sea, with Russian commanders testing weapons and demanding that American fishing boats operating in U.S. fishing waters get out of the way — an order the U.S. Coast Guard advised them to comply with. Russia has repeatedly sent military aircraft to the edge of U.S. airspace, leading U.S. jets to scramble to intercept them and warn them away. This month, in response to escalating international sanctions against Russia, a member of the Russian parliament demanded that Alaska, purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867, be returned to Russian control — a possibly rhetorical gesture that nonetheless reflected the deteriorating relationship between the two world powers. For centuries, the vast waters of the offshore Arctic were largely a no man’s land locked in by ice whose exact territorial boundaries — claimed by the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Iceland — remained unsettled. But as melting sea ice has opened new shipping pathways and as nations have eyed the vast hydrocarbon and mineral reserves below the Arctic sea floor, the complicated treaties, claims and boundary zones that govern the region have been opened to fresh disputes. Canada and the United States have never reached agreement on the status of the Northwest Passage between the North Atlantic and the Beaufort Sea. China, too, has been working to establish a foothold, declaring itself a “near-Arctic state” and partnering with Russia to promote “sustainable” development and expanded use of Arctic trade routes. Russia has made it clear it intends to control the Northern Sea Route off its northern shore, a route that significantly shortens the shipping distance between China and northern Europe. U.S. officials have complained that Russia is illegally demanding that other nations seek permission to pass and threatening to use military force to sink vessels that do not comply. “We are stuck with a pretty tense situation there,” said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center of Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Either we acquiesce to Russia, to their extreme control of surface waters, or we elevate or escalate the issue.” The focus in recent years had been to expand diplomatic channels, collaborating on a range of regional challenges through the Arctic Council. That work was put on pause, however, after Russia invaded Ukraine. In Nome, which hopes to position itself as a maritime gateway to the Far North, there has long been evidence that a new era for the Arctic was arriving. Mayor John Handeland said winter sea ice that once persisted until mid-June may now be gone by early May and does not reappear before Thanksgiving. A record 12 cruise ships docked in Nome’s existing port in 2019. That number was poised to double this year, although some cruises that had expected to sail along Russia’s northern coast have canceled plans. For Handeland, the time is right to strengthen U.S. capabilities. “As things escalate, I think the need for expansion of our military is now,” Handeland said. “I think we kind of had a period of time where we thought everything was cool, that we can let our guard down, so to speak. And now we’re seeing that that maybe was not a wise idea.” But there are multiple local constituencies to navigate as development moves farther into the Arctic. Alaska Natives are wary about effects to the region’s fragile environment, on which many depend for hunting and fishing, said Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives. “I think that our people realize that our military needs to protect our country and our military does need to invest in a presence in the Arctic,” Kitka said. “But it has got to be done smart.” Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s junior Republican U.S. senator, said that while there may be little threat of a Russian invasion of Alaska, there is concern about Russia’s military buildup in the region. “Ukraine just demonstrates even more, what matters to these guys is presence and power,” Sullivan said. “And when you start to build ports, when you start to bring up icebreakers, when you start to bring up Navy shipping, when you have over 100 fifth-gen fighters in the Arctic in Alaska, we’re starting to now talk Putin’s language.” Alaska is already one of the nation’s most militarized states, with more than 20,000 active-duty personnel assigned to places such as Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the Fairbanks area, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, and Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. The Army’s large training exercise — the first Combat Training Center rotation to be held in Alaska — took place around Fort Greely, about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Alaska is also home to critical parts of the nation’s missile-defense system. Bouffard said the fracture in relations caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could open the door to a variety of future problems that can only be guessed at right now. While there is no imminent conflict in the Arctic, there could well be friction over how Russia manages offshore waters or disputes over undersea exploration. The United States also needs to be prepared to aid northern European allies that share an uncertain future with Russia in Arctic waterways, he said. That will mean being prepared for a range of potential problems. In a separate Alaska military exercise in recent weeks, teams from the Marines and Army practiced cold-weather strategies for containing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination. At the large Army war games exercise near Fort Greely, the soldiers rehearsed a scenario in which paratroopers seized control of an airfield and established operations to hold the new territory. An opposing force then mobilized to try to reclaim the area. Portable heating elements were used to keep engines running, along with lubricants that work in subzero temperatures. Some soldiers used skis and snowshoes to get around, as well as snowmobiles and small-unit support vehicles light enough to traverse deep snow. For many of the soldiers under Iannone’s command, defending the airfield meant establishing positions in remote areas with more rudimentary means. One heavy weapons group chopped down trees by hand and used a sled to pull a bulky Improved Target Acquisition System to a vantage point from which the soldiers could scan miles of landscape below. They erected a tent with a small stove heater, shielded with a wall of snow on all sides. They rotated in hourly shifts outside the tents — every half-hour at night — in order to keep warm. Even then, 21-year-old Spc. Owen Prescott said he had struggled with the bite of nighttime cold and was figuring out the appropriate layers to wear to stay warm as temperatures neared minus 20. As he spooned some steaming food from a freeze-dried Army ration, he said he and his colleagues were focusing much of their attention on making sure they did not become a cold-weather casualty before engaging on their hypothetical combat mission. “It’s just dealing with the cold, sustaining in the cold,” said Prescott, who is from Southern California. “I’m used to wearing shorts and flip-flops my entire life.”

With eyes on Russia, US military prepares for an Arctic future

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska said on Sunday that US&nbsp;President Joe Biden's speech in Warsaw indicated that some sort of "hellish ideological mobilisation" was underway that may usher in a much longer conflict in Ukraine.

Deripaska said he had thought the conflict in Ukraine was "mad" and that it could be stopped three weeks ago through talks.

"But now some sort of hellish ideological mobilisation is underway from all sides," Deripaska said. "That's it: these people are preparing to fight for a few years more."

It comes after US President Joe Biden branded Putin a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power".&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-plus-the-story-of-ukraines-president-volodymyr-zelensky-466054/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The Kremlin had reacted in fury over Biden's comments which it said narrows the window for bilateral relations, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine now into a second month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the West of cowardice as his country fights to stave off Russia’s invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense as the war ground into a battle of attrition.

He lashed out Sunday at the West’s “ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets” and other weapons while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians.

“I’ve talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I’m in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing,” Zelensky said in a video address, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the war’s greatest deprivations and horrors.&nbsp;

“If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 per cent&nbsp;of their courage.”

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/leading-energy-analyst-says-russian-gas-sales-to-china-will-not-make-up-for-loss-of-european-markets-465956">Russian gas sales to China 'will not make up for loss of European markets'</a>

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, announced an additional $100 million in aid to help Ukraine police and border guards purchase armoured vehicles, equipment and medical supplies.

On the frontlines, Russia's far-bigger military continued to combat determined Ukrainian defenders who are using Western-supplied weapons, from near the capital Kyiv to Kharkiv, the eastern Donbas region and the devastated southern port city of Mariupol.

Moscow claims its focus is on wresting from Ukraine the entire eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska said on Sunday that US President Joe Biden's speech in Warsaw indicated that some sort of "hellish ideological mobilisation" was underway that may usher in a much longer conflict in Ukraine.

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska said on Sunday that US President Joe Biden's speech in Warsaw indicated that some sort of "hellish ideological mobilisation" was underway that may usher in a much longer conflict in Ukraine. Deripaska said he had thought the conflict in Ukraine was "mad" and that it could be stopped three weeks ago through talks. "But now some sort of hellish ideological mobilisation is underway from all sides," Deripaska said. "That's it: these people are preparing to fight for a few years more." It comes after US President Joe Biden branded Putin a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power". The Kremlin had reacted in fury over Biden's comments which it said narrows the window for bilateral relations, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine now into a second month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the West of cowardice as his country fights to stave off Russia’s invading troops, making an exasperated plea for fighter jets and tanks to sustain a defense as the war ground into a battle of attrition. He lashed out Sunday at the West’s “ping-pong about who and how should hand over jets” and other weapons while Russian missile attacks kill and trap civilians. “I’ve talked to the defenders of Mariupol today. I’m in constant contact with them. Their determination, heroism and firmness are astonishing,” Zelensky said in a video address, referring to the besieged southern city that has suffered some of the war’s greatest deprivations and horrors. “If only those who have been thinking for 31 days on how to hand over dozens of jets and tanks had 1 per cent of their courage.” Also read | Russian gas sales to China 'will not make up for loss of European markets' US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, announced an additional $100 million in aid to help Ukraine police and border guards purchase armoured vehicles, equipment and medical supplies. On the frontlines, Russia's far-bigger military continued to combat determined Ukrainian defenders who are using Western-supplied weapons, from near the capital Kyiv to Kharkiv, the eastern Donbas region and the devastated southern port city of Mariupol. Moscow claims its focus is on wresting from Ukraine the entire eastern Donbas region, which has been partially controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014. (With inputs from agencies)

Ukraine invasion: Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska says 'hellish mobilisation' is underway

When Ukrainian forces hit a Russian tank with an American-made Javelin missile on a highway on the northern reaches of the capital, Kyiv, the explosion was so huge that it tossed the turret 10 yards down the road and shredded the rest of the vehicle and the men inside.

The charred body parts of Russian soldiers were still decomposing on the asphalt three weeks later, alongside scattered metal debris and ammunition. A single felt boot, favorite footwear for centuries in Russia’s frozen villages, lay blackened among the detritus.

“Good shot,” the Ukrainian commander said with elation, surveying the wreck. A deputy commander of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, which controlled the area, he asked that he be identified only by his nom de guerre, Sulim. He pointed to blackened chunks of human flesh and bone on the road from Russian soldiers killed in the strike, and added, “It was all humane, it was all very quick.”

“They came four times,” Sulim, 40, said. “Let them come again. I am waiting.”

The Russian army has come, again and again, trying to penetrate villages and suburbs around Kyiv for weeks, in what has become a seesaw battle for the critical areas that could be used to enter or encircle and eventually shell the capital.

Ukrainian media officers escorted several teams of journalists on a rare visit through villages close to Russian lines in the countryside of greater Kyiv on Friday to show some of the damage from early fighting, as well as the success of the Ukrainian resistance and the counterattacks that Ukraine’s military has mounted.

The villages visited were not among those recently liberated by the continuing Ukrainian counteroffensive, but they had come under attack as Russian forces had tried to seize them two weeks ago. Similar battles are now being waged daily.

This spot on the edge of a village, on a highway leading into Kyiv, marked the limit of the Russian advance in the area under Sulim’s watch. Two tanks — a T-90 that was hit by the Javelin and a T-72 — according to the commander, were ambushed on the road March 2 during the first week of the war. A half-dozen burned-out armored vehicles lay nearby — beside a cluster of houses and in a gully — wrecks from several skirmishes over the period of a week.

Russian forces were still just 4 miles away, but the commander asked that the village names not be published to safeguard his positions.

The villages on the front line were mostly deserted, with just a few men and women guarding houses and looking after their livestock. The first line of houses facing the road where the tank battle happened were badly damaged from artillery or tank shells.

A farmer, Valerii, 62, who kept cows and sheep in a property below the road said he had lost half of his animals in the fighting. “Everything is destroyed,” he said forlornly. “It was in the morning. I had just fed the animals when the tank came. It was about 100 yards from me. I hid.” He gave only his first name so as not to be further identified.

Later he ran into some Russian scouts in the woods and they had let him go, he said, but he was close to tears at the state of his farm.

“They come to our house and are trying to impose their orders,” he said of the Russians. “How can they? They should not do that. How can I go into your house and tell you what to do? I come to you, and I should behave according to your rules.”

The commander said they had found 10 bodies of Russian soldiers from the battle. “There were no prisoners,” he said. Ukrainian forces took away five of the bodies, and the local villagers buried the other five, he said.

Their armored vehicles had exploded with such force that the heavy steel hatches and doors had been sheared off and hurled in separate directions. In the gully where two armored personnel carriers had crashed and burned, a military sleeping bag and jacket lay beside one wreck, along with discarded rations and scattered ammunition.

As he walked through the wreckage, the commander picked up a soldier’s silver dog tag. It bore the number 785 000 and the imprint of the Soviet Army — VS USSR. He picked up an empty army satchel, with a tag with the name A.G. Gagarin on it and his unit number, 666. “They did not succeed,” he said grimly. “Gagarin is OK, he is dead.”

Several soldiers at the scene voiced thanks to the United States for providing Javelin portable antitank missiles and to Britain for sending NLAWs, next generation light anti-tank weapons. Yet despite their success in ambushing the Russian armored vehicles and tanks, the Ukrainian troops were wary of the firepower of the Russian army and kept the visit to their positions short.

Ukrainian artillery sounded close by as it fired at Russian positions to the north. Black smoke rose beyond nearby woods where the shells had fallen.

“Personally, we want to close the skies,” Sulim said, repeating a call by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over the country to save its cities from punishing airstrikes.

“The Russians are bombing civilians, women and children,” he said. “Would you want us to bomb you?” he asked of the Russian population.

The commander, who served in Iraq on several tours as part of a Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent, said he was from a region of Ukraine that is close to the Russian border. He said he had often interacted with Russian officers after fighting began in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

He told them that if Russia had offered a better life, he would have readily supported a union between the two countries. “But it’s not good,” he said. “The officers agreed with me. They are not living well there. They live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but everywhere else they just survive.”

At a second village, two powerful Russian missiles had gouged yards-wide craters beside the road, smashing houses and farm buildings in a wide arc. Two Iskander ballistic missiles had struck the village in the first week of the war, Ukrainian military officers said. The missiles were possibly aimed at Ukrainian military positions in the village, but they primarily damaged people’s homes and farms.

Yuriy Yunevich, 51, and his family had been asleep at home when the missiles hit at 3 a.m., one just yards from their house. “Everything was thrown like a wave,” he said. The walls of his house were buckled and his roof shorn off. His greenhouses were ripped apart, and the cows were lying down amid the broken bricks of their stalls.

He sent his wife and children away after that but said he could not leave, because his cows had to be milked and fed, and his German shepherd was expecting puppies soon. He was giving the milk and curd to the soldiers, he said. It was not the time to sell his produce, he added.

As he spoke, a sniper rifle shot rang out from a Ukrainian position nearby. Russian positions were barely 1 mile away, soldiers said.

“I think we will not let them in,” Yunevich said of the Russian army. He rejected any thought of living in peace under the Russians. “This is our land,” he said.

When Ukrainian forces hit a Russian tank with an American-made Javelin missile on a highway on the northern reaches of the capital, Kyiv, the explosion was so huge that it tossed the turret 10 yards down the road and shredded the rest of the vehicle and the men inside.

When Ukrainian forces hit a Russian tank with an American-made Javelin missile on a highway on the northern reaches of the capital, Kyiv, the explosion was so huge that it tossed the turret 10 yards down the road and shredded the rest of the vehicle and the men inside. The charred body parts of Russian soldiers were still decomposing on the asphalt three weeks later, alongside scattered metal debris and ammunition. A single felt boot, favorite footwear for centuries in Russia’s frozen villages, lay blackened among the detritus. “Good shot,” the Ukrainian commander said with elation, surveying the wreck. A deputy commander of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, which controlled the area, he asked that he be identified only by his nom de guerre, Sulim. He pointed to blackened chunks of human flesh and bone on the road from Russian soldiers killed in the strike, and added, “It was all humane, it was all very quick.” “They came four times,” Sulim, 40, said. “Let them come again. I am waiting.” The Russian army has come, again and again, trying to penetrate villages and suburbs around Kyiv for weeks, in what has become a seesaw battle for the critical areas that could be used to enter or encircle and eventually shell the capital. Ukrainian media officers escorted several teams of journalists on a rare visit through villages close to Russian lines in the countryside of greater Kyiv on Friday to show some of the damage from early fighting, as well as the success of the Ukrainian resistance and the counterattacks that Ukraine’s military has mounted. The villages visited were not among those recently liberated by the continuing Ukrainian counteroffensive, but they had come under attack as Russian forces had tried to seize them two weeks ago. Similar battles are now being waged daily. This spot on the edge of a village, on a highway leading into Kyiv, marked the limit of the Russian advance in the area under Sulim’s watch. Two tanks — a T-90 that was hit by the Javelin and a T-72 — according to the commander, were ambushed on the road March 2 during the first week of the war. A half-dozen burned-out armored vehicles lay nearby — beside a cluster of houses and in a gully — wrecks from several skirmishes over the period of a week. Russian forces were still just 4 miles away, but the commander asked that the village names not be published to safeguard his positions. The villages on the front line were mostly deserted, with just a few men and women guarding houses and looking after their livestock. The first line of houses facing the road where the tank battle happened were badly damaged from artillery or tank shells. A farmer, Valerii, 62, who kept cows and sheep in a property below the road said he had lost half of his animals in the fighting. “Everything is destroyed,” he said forlornly. “It was in the morning. I had just fed the animals when the tank came. It was about 100 yards from me. I hid.” He gave only his first name so as not to be further identified. Later he ran into some Russian scouts in the woods and they had let him go, he said, but he was close to tears at the state of his farm. “They come to our house and are trying to impose their orders,” he said of the Russians. “How can they? They should not do that. How can I go into your house and tell you what to do? I come to you, and I should behave according to your rules.” The commander said they had found 10 bodies of Russian soldiers from the battle. “There were no prisoners,” he said. Ukrainian forces took away five of the bodies, and the local villagers buried the other five, he said. Their armored vehicles had exploded with such force that the heavy steel hatches and doors had been sheared off and hurled in separate directions. In the gully where two armored personnel carriers had crashed and burned, a military sleeping bag and jacket lay beside one wreck, along with discarded rations and scattered ammunition. As he walked through the wreckage, the commander picked up a soldier’s silver dog tag. It bore the number 785 000 and the imprint of the Soviet Army — VS USSR. He picked up an empty army satchel, with a tag with the name A.G. Gagarin on it and his unit number, 666. “They did not succeed,” he said grimly. “Gagarin is OK, he is dead.” Several soldiers at the scene voiced thanks to the United States for providing Javelin portable antitank missiles and to Britain for sending NLAWs, next generation light anti-tank weapons. Yet despite their success in ambushing the Russian armored vehicles and tanks, the Ukrainian troops were wary of the firepower of the Russian army and kept the visit to their positions short. Ukrainian artillery sounded close by as it fired at Russian positions to the north. Black smoke rose beyond nearby woods where the shells had fallen. “Personally, we want to close the skies,” Sulim said, repeating a call by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over the country to save its cities from punishing airstrikes. “The Russians are bombing civilians, women and children,” he said. “Would you want us to bomb you?” he asked of the Russian population. The commander, who served in Iraq on several tours as part of a Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent, said he was from a region of Ukraine that is close to the Russian border. He said he had often interacted with Russian officers after fighting began in eastern Ukraine in 2014. He told them that if Russia had offered a better life, he would have readily supported a union between the two countries. “But it’s not good,” he said. “The officers agreed with me. They are not living well there. They live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but everywhere else they just survive.” At a second village, two powerful Russian missiles had gouged yards-wide craters beside the road, smashing houses and farm buildings in a wide arc. Two Iskander ballistic missiles had struck the village in the first week of the war, Ukrainian military officers said. The missiles were possibly aimed at Ukrainian military positions in the village, but they primarily damaged people’s homes and farms. Yuriy Yunevich, 51, and his family had been asleep at home when the missiles hit at 3 a.m., one just yards from their house. “Everything was thrown like a wave,” he said. The walls of his house were buckled and his roof shorn off. His greenhouses were ripped apart, and the cows were lying down amid the broken bricks of their stalls. He sent his wife and children away after that but said he could not leave, because his cows had to be milked and fed, and his German shepherd was expecting puppies soon. He was giving the milk and curd to the soldiers, he said. It was not the time to sell his produce, he added. As he spoke, a sniper rifle shot rang out from a Ukrainian position nearby. Russian positions were barely 1 mile away, soldiers said. “I think we will not let them in,” Yunevich said of the Russian army. He rejected any thought of living in peace under the Russians. “This is our land,” he said.

At the edge of Kyiv, Ukrainians show off their counteroffensive

How could Russian President Vladimir Putin be prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine?

France's foreign ministry said Friday it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest "unacceptable" tweets issued by the embassy in Paris showing crude cartoons depicting Europe and the United States.

"These publications are unacceptable," a ministry spokesperson said after two tweets on Thursday, now deleted, that depicted kneeling Europeans licking the buttocks of a man dressed as Uncle Sam, and another showing two doctors wearing American and EU insignia injecting Europe with syringes marked "Russophobia", "Neo-Nazism" and "Sanctions."

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/wion-voa-co-production-us-president-joe-biden-meets-leaders-from-nato-g7-and-eu-465534/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"We are trying to maintain a demanding channel of dialogue with Russia and these actions are completely inappropriate."

France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune had slammed the cartoon post on Thursday calling it "a disgrace" in response to the drawing which had been posted earlier in the afternoon by the Twitter account of the Russia Embassy in France.

The Russian Embassy in Paris had timed its publication of the cartoon to coincide with Thursday's unprecedented triple summit in Brussels of NATO, the G7 and the European Union to discuss how to tackle Russia's war in Ukraine.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/eu-us-sign-mega-lng-deal-in-an-attempt-to-curb-reliance-on-sanctions-hit-russia-465514" hreflang="en">EU, US sign mega LNG deal to curb reliance on sanctions-hit Russia</a>

Western leaders met in Brussels to strengthen their forces in Eastern Europe, increase military aid to Ukraine and tighten their sanctions on Russia as Moscow's assault on its neighbour entered its second month.

French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to keep dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and continues to speak regularly with him as part of efforts to get a ceasefire and begin a credible negotiation between Kyiv and Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is facing total war declared by the West.

Lavrov said at a meeting on Friday that “a real hybrid war, total war was declared on us.” He said the goal was “to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole.”

During the first month of what Russia describes as a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the West imposed tough measures targeting Russia’s economy and financial system as well as President Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs.

Despite that, Lavrov said Russia was not isolated.

“We have many friends, allies, partners in the world, a huge number of associations in which Russia is working with countries of all continents, and we will continue to do so,” Lavrov said. He added that the vast majority of states won’t join the Western sanctions policy against Russia.

(With inputs from agencies)

France's foreign ministry said Friday it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest "unacceptable" tweets issued by the embassy in Paris showing crude cartoons depicting Europe and the United States.

France's foreign ministry said Friday it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest "unacceptable" tweets issued by the embassy in Paris showing crude cartoons depicting Europe and the United States. "These publications are unacceptable," a ministry spokesperson said after two tweets on Thursday, now deleted, that depicted kneeling Europeans licking the buttocks of a man dressed as Uncle Sam, and another showing two doctors wearing American and EU insignia injecting Europe with syringes marked "Russophobia", "Neo-Nazism" and "Sanctions." "We are trying to maintain a demanding channel of dialogue with Russia and these actions are completely inappropriate." France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune had slammed the cartoon post on Thursday calling it "a disgrace" in response to the drawing which had been posted earlier in the afternoon by the Twitter account of the Russia Embassy in France. The Russian Embassy in Paris had timed its publication of the cartoon to coincide with Thursday's unprecedented triple summit in Brussels of NATO, the G7 and the European Union to discuss how to tackle Russia's war in Ukraine. Also read | EU, US sign mega LNG deal to curb reliance on sanctions-hit Russia Western leaders met in Brussels to strengthen their forces in Eastern Europe, increase military aid to Ukraine and tighten their sanctions on Russia as Moscow's assault on its neighbour entered its second month. French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to keep dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and continues to speak regularly with him as part of efforts to get a ceasefire and begin a credible negotiation between Kyiv and Moscow. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is facing total war declared by the West. Lavrov said at a meeting on Friday that “a real hybrid war, total war was declared on us.” He said the goal was “to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole.” During the first month of what Russia describes as a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the West imposed tough measures targeting Russia’s economy and financial system as well as President Vladimir Putin and Russian oligarchs. Despite that, Lavrov said Russia was not isolated. “We have many friends, allies, partners in the world, a huge number of associations in which Russia is working with countries of all continents, and we will continue to do so,” Lavrov said. He added that the vast majority of states won’t join the Western sanctions policy against Russia. (With inputs from agencies)

France summons Russian envoy over 'unacceptable' tweets that mocked Europe

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.&nbsp;

Officials in Mariupol, a strategic port city, said Friday they fear 300 people died in last week's Russian strike on a theatre where hundreds of people were sheltering.

"From eyewitnesses, information is emerging that about 300 people died in the Drama Theatre of Mariupol following strikes by a Russian aircraft," Mariupol City Hall wrote on Telegram.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/one-month-of-russia-ukraine-conflict-here-are-the-top-10-developments-465411">One month of Russia-Ukraine conflict: Here are the top 10 developments</a>

In the aftermath of last week's strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the press that hundreds of people had taken cover in the building. It is believed most were women and children.

City officials in Mariupol said Friday that the theatre was destroyed in what they called a "cynical" attack, adding that Russia was aware civilians were inside the building.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ukraine-officials-say-mariupol-art-school-used-as-shelter-bombed-by-russians-463947">Ukraine: Officials say Mariupol art school used as shelter bombed by Russians</a>

The leader of Chechnya, a Russian republic in the south, said Thursday that forces from his region had taken control of Mariupol City Hall and raised the Russian flag.

The port city of Mariupol has been shelled relentlessly by Russian forces. According to the city council, 30,000 people have been able to flee so far, but 350,000 people are still trapped in the city.

Watch |&nbsp;Gravitas: 1 month of Ukraine invasion: More bluster from NATO 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-1-month-of-ukraine-invasion-more-bluster-from-nato-465277/embed" width="560"></iframe>

A satellite photo taken earlier this week shows a large building with a red roof and "DETI" the Russian word for "children" painted in large white letters on the tarmac to the front and the back of it.

Physical damage to Mariupol has been described as "enormous" by the city council. A report estimated that about 80 per cent of the city's homes had been destroyed and that almost 30 per cent could not be repaired.

As per President Zelensky, almost 100,000 people remain trapped without food, water, or power in the besieged city and are subjected to fierce shelling by Russian forces.

(With inputs from agencies)

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos. Officials in Mariupol, a strategic port city, said Friday they fear 300 people died in last week's Russian strike on a theatre where hundreds of people were sheltering. "From eyewitnesses, information is emerging that about 300 people died in the Drama Theatre of Mariupol following strikes by a Russian aircraft," Mariupol City Hall wrote on Telegram. Also read | One month of Russia-Ukraine conflict: Here are the top 10 developments In the aftermath of last week's strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the press that hundreds of people had taken cover in the building. It is believed most were women and children. City officials in Mariupol said Friday that the theatre was destroyed in what they called a "cynical" attack, adding that Russia was aware civilians were inside the building. Also read | Ukraine: Officials say Mariupol art school used as shelter bombed by Russians The leader of Chechnya, a Russian republic in the south, said Thursday that forces from his region had taken control of Mariupol City Hall and raised the Russian flag. The port city of Mariupol has been shelled relentlessly by Russian forces. According to the city council, 30,000 people have been able to flee so far, but 350,000 people are still trapped in the city. Watch | Gravitas: 1 month of Ukraine invasion: More bluster from NATO A satellite photo taken earlier this week shows a large building with a red roof and "DETI" the Russian word for "children" painted in large white letters on the tarmac to the front and the back of it. Physical damage to Mariupol has been described as "enormous" by the city council. A report estimated that about 80 per cent of the city's homes had been destroyed and that almost 30 per cent could not be repaired. As per President Zelensky, almost 100,000 people remain trapped without food, water, or power in the besieged city and are subjected to fierce shelling by Russian forces. (With inputs from agencies)

Mariupol theater attack may have claimed 300 lives, mostly women and children: City Hall

It has been one month since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Since that many key events have taken place. Here's a wrap up of the most significant developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

1. The confirmed civilian death toll in Ukraine now exceeds 1,000, according to the UN

At least 1,035 people have been killed and 1,650 have been wounded in one month of fighting in Ukraine, according to the United Nations human rights office.

The statement states that ninety children were among the dead, adding that the true numbers were believed to be much higher because of delays in reporting from the heavily fought areas like Mariupol, a besieged city in southern Ukraine.

<img alt="Civilian casualities" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9b4c3dd5-82d0-4321-8f3a-6021bdf89283" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%284%29_1.jpg" />

2. Troop casualties

Regarding troop casualties, Ukraine reports that 15,800 Russian soldiers have perished.

Western estimates put the number of dead, wounded, missing, or otherwise out of action Russian soldiers at up to 40,000.

President Zelensky announced last week that 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed. Kyiv has not provided an update since.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-warns-nato-retaliation-if-russia-uses-chemical-weapons-in-ukraine-465405" hreflang="en">Biden warns NATO retaliation if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine</a>

3. Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War 2

Nearly 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion a month ago, according to the UN.

There are now estimates that over 10 million people -- over a quarter of the population in the areas under government control before the invasion on February 24 -- have fled their homes. Nearly 6.5 million of them are internally displaced.

Children make up almost half of all those who have been displaced. UNICEF stated that 4.3 million children -- more than half the country's estimated 7.5 million children -- have been forced to abandon their homes.

Over 1.8 million of these children are refugees, while another 2.5 million are displaced within their war-torn country, it said.

<img alt="Refugee" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="dcc57861-2171-428d-beb5-1a6a9b679dc1" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%285%29_1.jpg" />

4. Brussels triple summit

An unprecedented triple summit in Brussels brought together the leaders of NATO, the G7, and European nations to address the continent's worst conflict since the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The summit saw Western leaders pile on military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and denounce Moscow's invasion of its neighbour as "barbaric".

In addition to the new NATO combat units, the United States and the United Kingdom increased aid and expanded sanctions against new targets, including the stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ukrainians-need-to-achieve-peace-halt-russian-bombardment-says-president-volodymyr-zelensky-465301" hreflang="en">Ukrainians 'need to achieve peace', halt Russian bombardment, says President Volodymyr Zelensky</a>

"The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined," Biden told reporters in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism," added British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

<img alt="Brussels summit" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ae37d30c-f3ed-4695-ab5c-54d5e7fe0230" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%283%29_0.jpg" />

5. NATO strengthens its defenses&nbsp;

In response to Russia's war on Ukraine, NATO is beefing up chemical and nuclear defenses for its forces in eastern Europe, said alliance head Jens Stoltenberg.

"Our top military commander General Wolters has activated NATO's chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence elements, and allies are deploying additional chemical and biological and nuclear defences to reinforce our existing and new battle groups."

<img alt="Jens " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="7b312e12-5c32-4082-8411-0a6b18a432c5" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%287%29_2.jpg" />

6. Ukraine pleads for unlimited aid&nbsp;

As its war entered its second month, Ukraine pressed for unlimited military aid from NATO in order for its troops to turn from defending territory to pushing Russian forces out, warning that Moscow could use chemical weapons.

According to Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has been launching phosphorus bombs on Ukraine and shelling civilian areas at will, thus "the threat of full-scale use by Russia of chemical weapons on the territory of Ukraine is real."

"A month of heroic resistance. A month of the darkest suffering," he told the leaders.

"To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions," Zelensky said. "In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us." &nbsp;

<img alt="Zelensky" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="fd491894-40c3-4f32-8374-076dfe140f89" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%286%29_0.jpg" />

7. UN General Assembly approves Ukraine aid resolution, criticises Russia

As many as three-quarters of the UN General Assembly has&nbsp;called for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine, criticising Russia for creating a "dire" humanitarian crisis.

This is the second time the 193-member General Assembly has isolated Russia over what Moscow calls a "special military operation" intended to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure.

Ukraine and its allies drafted the resolution, which received 140 votes in support and five votes against - Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea and Belarus - while 38 countries, including China, abstained.

8. China rejects Russian claims of "prior knowledge" of attacks against Ukraine

China's ministry of defence has stated that it is false to state that China knew in advance about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that such claims are false.

It was made in response to allegations in foreign media that China ignored warnings from the US that Russia would attack Ukraine.

China strongly disagrees with and rejects these accusations, which it says were made to "shirk responsibility and smear China", the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement.

Watch |&nbsp;Gravitas: 1 month of Ukraine invasion: More bluster from NATO 
&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-1-month-of-ukraine-invasion-more-bluster-from-nato-465277/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

9. US sets red lines for China helping Russia dodge sanctions

Attempting to deter China from assisting sanctions-hit Russia, the Biden administration has issued warnings to Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by sanctions, assist Moscow in evading export controls, or process its banned financial transactions.

Although China has expressed deep concern about the war in Ukraine, it is yet to condemn Russian action.

<img alt="US" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0de7a5e2-6776-425f-bc40-4d70f2677316" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%288%29_4.jpg" />

10. ICC prosecutor calls for international support in Ukraine war-crimes probe

In an appeal to a coalition of countries to support the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said "things can get worse" unless the international community takes action.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan spoke at a meeting of a British-led coalition in The Hague, where 38 countries have offered the court financial, military and legal assistance.

A formal inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine was opened by Khan on Feb. 28, just days after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour.

Ukraine and Russia aren't members of the ICC, but Kyiv has authorised the court to investigate on its territory and a team of investigators is gathering evidence there.

(With inputs from agencies)

It has been one month since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Since that many key events have taken place.

It has been one month since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Since that many key events have taken place. Here's a wrap up of the most significant developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 1. The confirmed civilian death toll in Ukraine now exceeds 1,000, according to the UN At least 1,035 people have been killed and 1,650 have been wounded in one month of fighting in Ukraine, according to the United Nations human rights office. The statement states that ninety children were among the dead, adding that the true numbers were believed to be much higher because of delays in reporting from the heavily fought areas like Mariupol, a besieged city in southern Ukraine. 2. Troop casualties Regarding troop casualties, Ukraine reports that 15,800 Russian soldiers have perished. Western estimates put the number of dead, wounded, missing, or otherwise out of action Russian soldiers at up to 40,000. President Zelensky announced last week that 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed. Kyiv has not provided an update since. Also read | Biden warns NATO retaliation if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine 3. Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War 2 Nearly 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion a month ago, according to the UN. There are now estimates that over 10 million people -- over a quarter of the population in the areas under government control before the invasion on February 24 -- have fled their homes. Nearly 6.5 million of them are internally displaced. Children make up almost half of all those who have been displaced. UNICEF stated that 4.3 million children -- more than half the country's estimated 7.5 million children -- have been forced to abandon their homes. Over 1.8 million of these children are refugees, while another 2.5 million are displaced within their war-torn country, it said. 4. Brussels triple summit An unprecedented triple summit in Brussels brought together the leaders of NATO, the G7, and European nations to address the continent's worst conflict since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The summit saw Western leaders pile on military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and denounce Moscow's invasion of its neighbour as "barbaric". In addition to the new NATO combat units, the United States and the United Kingdom increased aid and expanded sanctions against new targets, including the stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Also read | Ukrainians 'need to achieve peace', halt Russian bombardment, says President Volodymyr Zelensky "The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined," Biden told reporters in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism," added British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 5. NATO strengthens its defenses In response to Russia's war on Ukraine, NATO is beefing up chemical and nuclear defenses for its forces in eastern Europe, said alliance head Jens Stoltenberg. "Our top military commander General Wolters has activated NATO's chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence elements, and allies are deploying additional chemical and biological and nuclear defences to reinforce our existing and new battle groups." 6. Ukraine pleads for unlimited aid As its war entered its second month, Ukraine pressed for unlimited military aid from NATO in order for its troops to turn from defending territory to pushing Russian forces out, warning that Moscow could use chemical weapons. According to Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has been launching phosphorus bombs on Ukraine and shelling civilian areas at will, thus "the threat of full-scale use by Russia of chemical weapons on the territory of Ukraine is real." "A month of heroic resistance. A month of the darkest suffering," he told the leaders. "To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions," Zelensky said. "In the same way that Russia is using its full arsenal without restrictions against us." 7. UN General Assembly approves Ukraine aid resolution, criticises Russia As many as three-quarters of the UN General Assembly has called for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine, criticising Russia for creating a "dire" humanitarian crisis. This is the second time the 193-member General Assembly has isolated Russia over what Moscow calls a "special military operation" intended to destroy Ukraine's military infrastructure. Ukraine and its allies drafted the resolution, which received 140 votes in support and five votes against - Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea and Belarus - while 38 countries, including China, abstained. 8. China rejects Russian claims of "prior knowledge" of attacks against Ukraine China's ministry of defence has stated that it is false to state that China knew in advance about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that such claims are false. It was made in response to allegations in foreign media that China ignored warnings from the US that Russia would attack Ukraine. China strongly disagrees with and rejects these accusations, which it says were made to "shirk responsibility and smear China", the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement. Watch | Gravitas: 1 month of Ukraine invasion: More bluster from NATO 9. US sets red lines for China helping Russia dodge sanctions Attempting to deter China from assisting sanctions-hit Russia, the Biden administration has issued warnings to Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by sanctions, assist Moscow in evading export controls, or process its banned financial transactions. Although China has expressed deep concern about the war in Ukraine, it is yet to condemn Russian action. 10. ICC prosecutor calls for international support in Ukraine war-crimes probe In an appeal to a coalition of countries to support the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said "things can get worse" unless the international community takes action. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan spoke at a meeting of a British-led coalition in The Hague, where 38 countries have offered the court financial, military and legal assistance. A formal inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine was opened by Khan on Feb. 28, just days after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour. Ukraine and Russia aren't members of the ICC, but Kyiv has authorised the court to investigate on its territory and a team of investigators is gathering evidence there. (With inputs from agencies)

One month of Russia-Ukraine conflict: Here are the top 10 developments

US President Joe Biden has said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will retaliate if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.

"The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined," Biden told reporters in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden's Europe trip for the series of high-level meetings, is designed to underscore Washington's willingness to defend NATO allies, as fears rise that the month-old war in Ukraine could yet spark what he has called "World War III".

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Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders have fought Moscow’s ground troops to a near-stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

With the war headed into a second month, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also said that Russia may find a pretext to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/one-month-since-russia-invaded-ukraine-hundreds-dead-millions-displaced-when-will-it-end-465149" hreflang="en">One month since Russia invaded Ukraine: Hundreds dead, millions displaced - When will it end?</a>

"We are concerned partly because we see the rhetoric and we see that Russia is trying to create some kind of pretext accusing Ukraine, the United States and NATO allies of preparing to use chemical and biological weapons," he told reporters after a NATO summit in Brussels, adding any use of chemical weapons would have widespread consequences.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is “defending our common values.”

He said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war. Across the country, 230 schools and 155 kindergartens have been destroyed. Cities and villages “lie in ashes,” he said.

The Russian invasion unleashed on February 24 has killed thousands of people, sent 3.6 million abroad, smashed cities and driven more than half of Ukraine's children from their homes, according to the United Nations. 
&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

US President Joe Biden has said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will retaliate if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine. "The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined," Biden told reporters in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US President Joe Biden has said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will retaliate if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine. "The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is and all the innocent people's lives that are being lost and ruined," Biden told reporters in Brussels, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden's Europe trip for the series of high-level meetings, is designed to underscore Washington's willingness to defend NATO allies, as fears rise that the month-old war in Ukraine could yet spark what he has called "World War III". Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders have fought Moscow’s ground troops to a near-stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. With the war headed into a second month, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also said that Russia may find a pretext to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons. Also read | One month since Russia invaded Ukraine: Hundreds dead, millions displaced - When will it end? "We are concerned partly because we see the rhetoric and we see that Russia is trying to create some kind of pretext accusing Ukraine, the United States and NATO allies of preparing to use chemical and biological weapons," he told reporters after a NATO summit in Brussels, adding any use of chemical weapons would have widespread consequences. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is “defending our common values.” He said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war. Across the country, 230 schools and 155 kindergartens have been destroyed. Cities and villages “lie in ashes,” he said. The Russian invasion unleashed on February 24 has killed thousands of people, sent 3.6 million abroad, smashed cities and driven more than half of Ukraine's children from their homes, according to the United Nations. (With inputs from agencies)

Biden warns NATO retaliation if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine

The United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday (March 23) said that Britain would send 6,000 missiles, consisting of anti-tank and high explosive weapons, and $33 million in financial aid to Ukraine's military.&nbsp;

In a statement, Johnson said, "The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight."&nbsp;

The announcements were made on the eve of NATO and G7 summits set to discuss the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, unveiling the new support package for Kyiv, the British leader said in the statement: "We cannot and will not stand by while Russia grinds Ukraine's towns and cities into dust."&nbsp;

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"The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight," he added.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday (March 23) that after delays in deliveries, further supplies of Strela missiles were on the way to Ukraine.&nbsp;

Strela missiles had been in the inventories of the former Communist East German army.&nbsp;

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Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted Germany to stage a historic reversal of its policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones, but the Ukrainian government has been frustrated by delays.&nbsp;

Baerbock told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, "I can clearly say that further Strela deliveries are on the way. We are one of the biggest weapons suppliers in this situation, it doesn't make us proud but it's what we must do to help Ukraine."&nbsp;

WATCH |&nbsp;Putin asks EU to pay Roubles for gas, West remains divided on oil sanctions

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The United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday (March 23) said that Britain would send 6,000 missiles, consisting of anti-tank and high explosive weapons, and $33 million in financial aid to Ukraine's military.

The United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday (March 23) said that Britain would send 6,000 missiles, consisting of anti-tank and high explosive weapons, and $33 million in financial aid to Ukraine's military. In a statement, Johnson said, "The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight." The announcements were made on the eve of NATO and G7 summits set to discuss the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, unveiling the new support package for Kyiv, the British leader said in the statement: "We cannot and will not stand by while Russia grinds Ukraine's towns and cities into dust." ALSO READ | Pentagon says Russian army 'taking defensive positions' in Ukraine "The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight," he added. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday (March 23) that after delays in deliveries, further supplies of Strela missiles were on the way to Ukraine. Strela missiles had been in the inventories of the former Communist East German army. ALSO READ | Ukraine uses facial recognition to identify dead Russian soldiers and tell families Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted Germany to stage a historic reversal of its policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones, but the Ukrainian government has been frustrated by delays. Baerbock told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, "I can clearly say that further Strela deliveries are on the way. We are one of the biggest weapons suppliers in this situation, it doesn't make us proud but it's what we must do to help Ukraine." WATCH | Putin asks EU to pay Roubles for gas, West remains divided on oil sanctions ×

UK to provide 6,000 missiles to Ukraine; Germany says further Strela missiles on way to Kyiv

Children of war: Ukrainian kids use crayons and drawings to channel trauma

Russia must adhere to the United Nations Charter, British Prime Minister&nbsp;Boris&nbsp;Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a call on Tuesday, according to a readout provided by Johnson's office.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created a rift between India, which imports arms from Russia, and its Western allies, who have called on India to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin in stronger terms.

"The pair agreed that Ukraine’s integrity and territorial sovereignty must be respected," a statement issued by Johnson's office following the call said.

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"Russia needed to adhere to the UN Charter, the leaders said, and both agreed that respect for international law was the only way to ensure global peace and prosperity."

Johnson also said both countries needed to intensify efforts to promote peace and de-escalation in the region.

The British readout of the call said Johnson told Modi Russia's actions were "deeply disturbing and disastrous for the world". It did not indicate Modi's response to this point.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/walls-dreams-and-genocide-zelenskyy-invokes-history-to-rally-support-464564">Walls, dreams and genocide: Zelenskyy invokes history to rally support</a>

US&nbsp;President Joe Biden has said only India among the Quad group of countries was "somewhat shaky" in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

India and Britain are currently in talks over a trade deal, but UK trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has said that India's refusal to condemn Russia's actions has left Britain "very disappointed."

"Prime minister recognises that India has an important role to play in its relationship with Putin and his regime, and certainly he urged him to continue to join... the condemnation of Putin," Johnson's spokesman told reporters.

Watch |&nbsp;Ukraine faces intense Russian assault, defies Russian demand to lay down arms

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India has also indicated it might take Russia up on an offer to buy crude oil at a discount.

Johnson's spokesman said Britain wanted all countries to move away from reliance on Russian oil and gas, but each country was coming from a different starting point.

"The prime minister believes the best way to broaden that coalition and to bring people with us is through is through diplomacy," he said.

Russia must adhere to the United Nations Charter, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a call on Tuesday, according to a readout provided by Johnson's office.

Russia must adhere to the United Nations Charter, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a call on Tuesday, according to a readout provided by Johnson's office. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created a rift between India, which imports arms from Russia, and its Western allies, who have called on India to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin in stronger terms. "The pair agreed that Ukraine’s integrity and territorial sovereignty must be respected," a statement issued by Johnson's office following the call said. Also read | Ukraine conflict creates 'noodle crisis' in Indonesia "Russia needed to adhere to the UN Charter, the leaders said, and both agreed that respect for international law was the only way to ensure global peace and prosperity." Johnson also said both countries needed to intensify efforts to promote peace and de-escalation in the region. The British readout of the call said Johnson told Modi Russia's actions were "deeply disturbing and disastrous for the world". It did not indicate Modi's response to this point. Also read | Walls, dreams and genocide: Zelenskyy invokes history to rally support US President Joe Biden has said only India among the Quad group of countries was "somewhat shaky" in acting against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. India and Britain are currently in talks over a trade deal, but UK trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has said that India's refusal to condemn Russia's actions has left Britain "very disappointed." "Prime minister recognises that India has an important role to play in its relationship with Putin and his regime, and certainly he urged him to continue to join... the condemnation of Putin," Johnson's spokesman told reporters. Watch | Ukraine faces intense Russian assault, defies Russian demand to lay down arms India has also indicated it might take Russia up on an offer to buy crude oil at a discount. Johnson's spokesman said Britain wanted all countries to move away from reliance on Russian oil and gas, but each country was coming from a different starting point. "The prime minister believes the best way to broaden that coalition and to bring people with us is through is through diplomacy," he said.

Russia must adhere to UN Charter, say UK and India

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree that combines all national TV channels into one platform, citing the importance of a "unified information policy" under martial law, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

Ukrainian privately owned media channels have hitherto continued to operate since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The decree announcement, made on the presidential website, did not specify how quickly the new measure would come into force.

Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the port city of Mariupol, where heavy street fighting was underway weeks into a devastating Russian siege.

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The fall of Mariupol would allow Russian forces in southern and eastern Ukraine to link up. But Western military analysts say that even if the surrounded city is taken, the troops battling for control there a block at a time may be too depleted to help secure Russian breakthroughs on other fronts.

Three weeks into the invasion, Western governments and analysts see the conflict shifting to a war of attrition, with bogged down Russian forces launching long-range missiles at cities and military bases as Ukrainian forces carry out hit-and-run attacks and seek to sever their supply lines.

Zelensky said that the siege of Mariupol, a strategic mostly Russian-speaking port in the southeast where utilities and communications have been cut for days, would go down as a war crime.

"Our cities have turned into multi-storey ruins, every area is like a horror movie," Sergiy Gaiday, head of the Lugansk regional administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

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The war in Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24 to stamp out the pro-Western leanings in the ex-Soviet country, has sparked the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, felled Russia-West relations to Cold War-era lows, and is wreaking havoc in the world economy still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday that Moscow had again fired its newest Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile, destroying a fuel storage site in the southern Mykolaiv region.

The strike would mark the second time the sophisticated weapon was used in combat, a day after Russia said it used it to destroy an underground arms storage site in western Ukraine close to the border with NATO member Romania.

Humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate in the mostly Russian-speaking south and east of the country, where Russian forces have been pressing their advance, as well as in the north around the capital Kyiv.

Aid agencies have warned they are struggling to reach hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the invading Russian forces.

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree that combines all national TV channels into one platform, citing the importance of a "unified information policy" under martial law, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree that combines all national TV channels into one platform, citing the importance of a "unified information policy" under martial law, his office said in a statement on Sunday. Ukrainian privately owned media channels have hitherto continued to operate since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The decree announcement, made on the presidential website, did not specify how quickly the new measure would come into force. Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia’s military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the port city of Mariupol, where heavy street fighting was underway weeks into a devastating Russian siege. The fall of Mariupol would allow Russian forces in southern and eastern Ukraine to link up. But Western military analysts say that even if the surrounded city is taken, the troops battling for control there a block at a time may be too depleted to help secure Russian breakthroughs on other fronts. Three weeks into the invasion, Western governments and analysts see the conflict shifting to a war of attrition, with bogged down Russian forces launching long-range missiles at cities and military bases as Ukrainian forces carry out hit-and-run attacks and seek to sever their supply lines. Zelensky said that the siege of Mariupol, a strategic mostly Russian-speaking port in the southeast where utilities and communications have been cut for days, would go down as a war crime. "Our cities have turned into multi-storey ruins, every area is like a horror movie," Sergiy Gaiday, head of the Lugansk regional administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Also read | Ukraine sees high risk of attack from Belarus on western Volyn region The war in Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on February 24 to stamp out the pro-Western leanings in the ex-Soviet country, has sparked the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, felled Russia-West relations to Cold War-era lows, and is wreaking havoc in the world economy still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday that Moscow had again fired its newest Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile, destroying a fuel storage site in the southern Mykolaiv region. The strike would mark the second time the sophisticated weapon was used in combat, a day after Russia said it used it to destroy an underground arms storage site in western Ukraine close to the border with NATO member Romania. Humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate in the mostly Russian-speaking south and east of the country, where Russian forces have been pressing their advance, as well as in the north around the capital Kyiv. Aid agencies have warned they are struggling to reach hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the invading Russian forces. (With inputs from agencies)

Zelensky signs decree to combine national TV channels into one platform

In the first weeks of the first major European land war of the 21st century, the United States has sent tank-killing weapons to Ukrainian forces, but not fighter jets. It is equipping embattled Ukrainian troops with lightweight “kamikaze” attack drones, but not, at least in an obvious way, conducting an aggressive cyberwar to degrade Russia’s technological advantage.

The White House will commit no U.S. or NATO planes to the skies above Ukraine, a move U.S. officials fear could risk turning a regional war into a global conflagration, but it is providing Ukraine with missiles that could accomplish the same task of destroying Russian aircraft.

Such is the tenuous balance the Biden administration has tried to maintain as it seeks to help Ukraine lock Russia in a quagmire without inciting a broader conflict with a nuclear-armed adversary or cutting off potential paths to de-escalation.

Navigating this path has led to a tangle of decisions and sometimes tortured distinctions when it comes to what kinds of assistance Washington should provide, even as the situation on the ground evolves, pictures of dead civilians circulate around the globe, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine pleads with Congress and President Joe Biden to do more to help.

The balancing act informs every aspect of U.S. policy about the war, including the scope of the punishing sanctions imposed on the Russian economy, the granularity of the battlefield intelligence provided to Ukrainian troops, the killing power of the weapons systems coming over the border and whether, as Biden did this past week, to label President Vladimir Putin of Russia as a war criminal.

CIA officers are helping to ensure that crates of weapons are delivered into the hands of vetted Ukrainian military units, according to U.S. officials. But as of now, Biden and his staff do not see the utility of an expansive covert effort to use the spy agency to ferry in arms as the United States did in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union during the 1980s. They have judged that such a campaign would be an unnecessary provocation, in part because NATO supply lines remain open and there is a functioning government in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The new war has forced a recalculation on other fronts. In one example, U.S. officials have floated the idea of Turkey’s government providing Ukraine with the sophisticated S-400 anti-aircraft system. It is the very system, made by Russia, that U.S. officials punished Turkey — a NATO ally — for buying from Moscow several years ago. Now U.S. diplomats see a way to pull Turkey away from its dance with Russia — and give the Ukrainians one of the most powerful, long-range anti-aircraft systems in existence.

In the White House and the Pentagon, there have been active debates over which lethal weapons delivered to Ukraine meet the nuanced interpretations of what international law allows. U.S. officials acknowledge that the judgments of government lawyers are valuable only up to a point and that all that really matters is the judgment of one person: Putin.

The Russian president has his own complex calculus about when the military support to Ukraine from the United States and its NATO allies crosses the line. He has his own reasons not to escalate, given the combined power of the NATO members and his own military’s evident difficulties against Ukrainian forces. But he is also unlikely to accept defeat or a stalemate in Ukraine without further testing U.S. resolve, despite explicit public warnings from Washington against the use of chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons.

U.S. intelligence about Putin’s decision-making is maddeningly imprecise, and the West does not have a strong track record predicting what he might consider an aggression that cannot be tolerated. CIA Director William Burns told Congress this month that Putin’s views had “hardened over the years.”

The Russian threshold could also be changing by the day or even the hour. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that his country was prepared to raise the costs for any nation helping the Ukrainians in their struggle, declaring that all vehicles shuttling weapons into Ukraine would be considered legitimate military targets.

A Clash Over Fighter Planes

On Wednesday, the task of articulating the intricacies of the U.S.’ military policy toward Ukraine fell to a group of generals under a barrage of questions from top members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

Biden has made clear that he will not accede to Zelenskyy’s insistent pleas that NATO impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Clearing hostile aircraft from the skies would put the United States and its allies in combat with Russian forces. And a required step for a no-fly zone — suppressing enemy anti-aircraft weaponry — would mean attacking Russian air defense installations inside Russian territory.

But during the closed-door session, lawmakers pressed members of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff about another flashpoint: the administration’s decision not to help supply Ukraine with the MiG-29 fighter jets that Poland has offered and that Zelenskyy has said his forces desperately need.

Administration officials have said the move would be “escalatory,” and, according to people briefed on the exchanges, the lawmakers asked the generals if there was any hard intelligence that the jets might push Putin toward intensifying the conflict by treating the United States as a “co-belligerent” in the war.

Intelligence officials have, in fact, told the administration that the MiGs could trigger a Russian move against NATO. During the congressional briefing, the generals said that the main issue was the capability of a MiG-29 to threaten Russian soil.

In contrast to a Javelin anti-tank missile that has only limited range on the battlefield, a MiG-29 could fly from Kyiv to Moscow in a matter of minutes, the generals said, a capability that the Kremlin might see as a direct threat.

The same day, the White House put forth another consideration: that to be delivered to Ukraine, the MiGs would have to take off from an air base in a NATO country, possibly inviting retaliation on NATO territory by the Russians.

As a matter of international law, the provision of weaponry and intelligence to the Ukrainian army has made the United States a co-belligerent. But while Putin has made threats about launching attacks to impede the military assistance, he has not yet acted to stop it by attacking bases in neighboring countries — NATO allies — where the equipment originates.

That could change, U.S. officials said, especially if Putin thinks he is cornered or in danger of losing.

“It is a fine line the administration is still walking in every dimension of its support for Ukraine,” said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former senior intelligence official who specialized in Russia and is now at the Center for a New American Security. “They are trying to figure out, how do you get right up to the line without crossing over in a way that would risk direct confrontation with Russia?”

Planes with pilots might be off the table, but armed drones are not. This past week, Biden announced that the United States would ship small Switchblade drones to Ukraine that could be used to blow up Russian armored vehicles. The single-use kamikaze drones have bladelike wings; do not require either a long runway or a complex satellite uplink; and can be controlled to dive-bomb tanks or troops, self-destructing when they explode.

Unlike the large Predator and Reaper drones used for decades in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, the portable drones pose no threat to Russian soil. Still, the White House authorized an initial shipment of only 100 of them to Ukraine — a small batch that could be intended to see how Putin reacts to their deployment on the Ukrainian front lines. Depending on the response, hundreds or thousands more could be on the way.

The proposal for Turkey to supply Ukraine with Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft systems would also test what Putin is willing to accept from NATO — and how far a NATO ally that in recent years often appeared to be building bridges to Moscow is willing to go in reiterating its commitment to the alliance and backing Ukraine.

The idea came up when Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state, visited Turkey two weeks ago. Sherman declined to talk about her discussions.

A different senior U.S. official said the United States knew the proposal would anger Putin. Ukraine already uses Turkish-made drones, but Turkey is worried that providing the anti-aircraft systems could make the country a target of Russia’s wrath.

At the same time, the upside for Turkey could be substantial: It was suspended by the Trump administration from the F-35 fighter program — in which it was a buyer and a manufacturer of parts for the advanced aircraft — after its purchase of the Russian S-400s. A deal to send the anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine could open the door to reentry into the F-35 program.

The State Department declined to comment. Officials at Turkey’s embassy in Washington did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The Conflict of the Future, Delayed

The Ukraine war features tank columns and trenches, all features of Europe’s bloody conflicts of the past century. Thus far, there is little evidence that the United States — or Russia — is eager to escalate the conflict in the 21st century battleground of cyberspace.

Days before the war began, there was a flurry of cyberattacks on Ukrainian financial institutions and government ministries, including one that was found and partly neutralized by Microsoft. A European satellite system sometimes used by the Ukrainian military was also hit, knocking out service, although it is still unclear whether the Russians carried out the attack.

What has been missing thus far is a large-scale Russian cyberattack that knocks out the power grid or communications systems inside Ukraine, which for the most part continue to operate despite the withering Russian barrage of artillery and airstrikes.

Until the invasion began, U.S. Cyber Command had a unit based in Kyiv that was helping the government fend off attacks. It is now operating from a nearby NATO country. There is fragmentary evidence that the United States and its allies worked to counter some of the attacks and to prevent others from being launched. But action seems to have been limited.

Inside the Biden administration, there is a view that Putin could be choosing his moment to launch a cyberattack against the U.S. financial system in retaliation for the devastating financial sanctions imposed on his country by the United States and its allies. Unless and until that happens, the administration appears resolved not to launch a significant first strike and invite retaliation — especially given the risks to the U.S. economy and financial system if Russia were to target them.

Keeping the Temperature Down

“The water in Afghanistan must boil at the right temperature,” Pakistan’s then-president, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, told his intelligence chief as Pakistan began supplying the mujahedeen in their grueling battle against Soviet troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

In other words, hot enough to convince the Russians that the country was not worth the struggle but not so hot as to provoke a broader war in the region.

The weapons that helped turn the tide of that conflict, shoulder-fired Stinger surface-to-air missiles, are now being unloaded from cargo planes in NATO countries and delivered to Ukrainian troops on the front lines to help keep Russia from controlling the skies.

U.S. officials are divided on how much the lessons from Cold War proxy wars, like the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan, can be applied to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Some officials say those conflicts established that the great powers could ship small arms and missiles to proxy forces without triggering a wider war.

At the same time, Ukraine is far more important to Putin than Afghanistan was to Soviet leaders.

Given Russia’s bloody history with Stinger missiles, U.S. officials have been wary of advertising their use in Ukraine. During a trip to an airfield near Ukraine’s border this month with Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reporters watched Stinger missiles being unloaded from a cargo plane but were barred from disclosing the whereabouts of the base.

Even after two senior U.S. officials told the House Armed Services Committee during a public hearing that Stinger missiles were among the munitions being sent to Ukraine, spokespeople avoided using the S-word from the lecterns at the White House and Pentagon.

Until this past week. On Wednesday, the White House released a detailed list of the weapons it was providing as part of an $800 million package of arms to Ukraine.

At the top of the list: “800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems.”

In the first weeks of the first major European land war of the 21st century, the United States has sent tank-killing weapons to Ukrainian forces, but not fighter jets.

In the first weeks of the first major European land war of the 21st century, the United States has sent tank-killing weapons to Ukrainian forces, but not fighter jets. It is equipping embattled Ukrainian troops with lightweight “kamikaze” attack drones, but not, at least in an obvious way, conducting an aggressive cyberwar to degrade Russia’s technological advantage. The White House will commit no U.S. or NATO planes to the skies above Ukraine, a move U.S. officials fear could risk turning a regional war into a global conflagration, but it is providing Ukraine with missiles that could accomplish the same task of destroying Russian aircraft. Such is the tenuous balance the Biden administration has tried to maintain as it seeks to help Ukraine lock Russia in a quagmire without inciting a broader conflict with a nuclear-armed adversary or cutting off potential paths to de-escalation. Navigating this path has led to a tangle of decisions and sometimes tortured distinctions when it comes to what kinds of assistance Washington should provide, even as the situation on the ground evolves, pictures of dead civilians circulate around the globe, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine pleads with Congress and President Joe Biden to do more to help. The balancing act informs every aspect of U.S. policy about the war, including the scope of the punishing sanctions imposed on the Russian economy, the granularity of the battlefield intelligence provided to Ukrainian troops, the killing power of the weapons systems coming over the border and whether, as Biden did this past week, to label President Vladimir Putin of Russia as a war criminal. CIA officers are helping to ensure that crates of weapons are delivered into the hands of vetted Ukrainian military units, according to U.S. officials. But as of now, Biden and his staff do not see the utility of an expansive covert effort to use the spy agency to ferry in arms as the United States did in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union during the 1980s. They have judged that such a campaign would be an unnecessary provocation, in part because NATO supply lines remain open and there is a functioning government in Kyiv, Ukraine. The new war has forced a recalculation on other fronts. In one example, U.S. officials have floated the idea of Turkey’s government providing Ukraine with the sophisticated S-400 anti-aircraft system. It is the very system, made by Russia, that U.S. officials punished Turkey — a NATO ally — for buying from Moscow several years ago. Now U.S. diplomats see a way to pull Turkey away from its dance with Russia — and give the Ukrainians one of the most powerful, long-range anti-aircraft systems in existence. In the White House and the Pentagon, there have been active debates over which lethal weapons delivered to Ukraine meet the nuanced interpretations of what international law allows. U.S. officials acknowledge that the judgments of government lawyers are valuable only up to a point and that all that really matters is the judgment of one person: Putin. The Russian president has his own complex calculus about when the military support to Ukraine from the United States and its NATO allies crosses the line. He has his own reasons not to escalate, given the combined power of the NATO members and his own military’s evident difficulties against Ukrainian forces. But he is also unlikely to accept defeat or a stalemate in Ukraine without further testing U.S. resolve, despite explicit public warnings from Washington against the use of chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons. U.S. intelligence about Putin’s decision-making is maddeningly imprecise, and the West does not have a strong track record predicting what he might consider an aggression that cannot be tolerated. CIA Director William Burns told Congress this month that Putin’s views had “hardened over the years.” The Russian threshold could also be changing by the day or even the hour. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that his country was prepared to raise the costs for any nation helping the Ukrainians in their struggle, declaring that all vehicles shuttling weapons into Ukraine would be considered legitimate military targets. A Clash Over Fighter Planes On Wednesday, the task of articulating the intricacies of the U.S.’ military policy toward Ukraine fell to a group of generals under a barrage of questions from top members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees. Biden has made clear that he will not accede to Zelenskyy’s insistent pleas that NATO impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Clearing hostile aircraft from the skies would put the United States and its allies in combat with Russian forces. And a required step for a no-fly zone — suppressing enemy anti-aircraft weaponry — would mean attacking Russian air defense installations inside Russian territory. But during the closed-door session, lawmakers pressed members of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff about another flashpoint: the administration’s decision not to help supply Ukraine with the MiG-29 fighter jets that Poland has offered and that Zelenskyy has said his forces desperately need. Administration officials have said the move would be “escalatory,” and, according to people briefed on the exchanges, the lawmakers asked the generals if there was any hard intelligence that the jets might push Putin toward intensifying the conflict by treating the United States as a “co-belligerent” in the war. Intelligence officials have, in fact, told the administration that the MiGs could trigger a Russian move against NATO. During the congressional briefing, the generals said that the main issue was the capability of a MiG-29 to threaten Russian soil. In contrast to a Javelin anti-tank missile that has only limited range on the battlefield, a MiG-29 could fly from Kyiv to Moscow in a matter of minutes, the generals said, a capability that the Kremlin might see as a direct threat. The same day, the White House put forth another consideration: that to be delivered to Ukraine, the MiGs would have to take off from an air base in a NATO country, possibly inviting retaliation on NATO territory by the Russians. As a matter of international law, the provision of weaponry and intelligence to the Ukrainian army has made the United States a co-belligerent. But while Putin has made threats about launching attacks to impede the military assistance, he has not yet acted to stop it by attacking bases in neighboring countries — NATO allies — where the equipment originates. That could change, U.S. officials said, especially if Putin thinks he is cornered or in danger of losing. “It is a fine line the administration is still walking in every dimension of its support for Ukraine,” said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former senior intelligence official who specialized in Russia and is now at the Center for a New American Security. “They are trying to figure out, how do you get right up to the line without crossing over in a way that would risk direct confrontation with Russia?” Planes with pilots might be off the table, but armed drones are not. This past week, Biden announced that the United States would ship small Switchblade drones to Ukraine that could be used to blow up Russian armored vehicles. The single-use kamikaze drones have bladelike wings; do not require either a long runway or a complex satellite uplink; and can be controlled to dive-bomb tanks or troops, self-destructing when they explode. Unlike the large Predator and Reaper drones used for decades in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, the portable drones pose no threat to Russian soil. Still, the White House authorized an initial shipment of only 100 of them to Ukraine — a small batch that could be intended to see how Putin reacts to their deployment on the Ukrainian front lines. Depending on the response, hundreds or thousands more could be on the way. The proposal for Turkey to supply Ukraine with Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft systems would also test what Putin is willing to accept from NATO — and how far a NATO ally that in recent years often appeared to be building bridges to Moscow is willing to go in reiterating its commitment to the alliance and backing Ukraine. The idea came up when Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state, visited Turkey two weeks ago. Sherman declined to talk about her discussions. A different senior U.S. official said the United States knew the proposal would anger Putin. Ukraine already uses Turkish-made drones, but Turkey is worried that providing the anti-aircraft systems could make the country a target of Russia’s wrath. At the same time, the upside for Turkey could be substantial: It was suspended by the Trump administration from the F-35 fighter program — in which it was a buyer and a manufacturer of parts for the advanced aircraft — after its purchase of the Russian S-400s. A deal to send the anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine could open the door to reentry into the F-35 program. The State Department declined to comment. Officials at Turkey’s embassy in Washington did not respond to messages seeking comment. The Conflict of the Future, Delayed The Ukraine war features tank columns and trenches, all features of Europe’s bloody conflicts of the past century. Thus far, there is little evidence that the United States — or Russia — is eager to escalate the conflict in the 21st century battleground of cyberspace. Days before the war began, there was a flurry of cyberattacks on Ukrainian financial institutions and government ministries, including one that was found and partly neutralized by Microsoft. A European satellite system sometimes used by the Ukrainian military was also hit, knocking out service, although it is still unclear whether the Russians carried out the attack. What has been missing thus far is a large-scale Russian cyberattack that knocks out the power grid or communications systems inside Ukraine, which for the most part continue to operate despite the withering Russian barrage of artillery and airstrikes. Until the invasion began, U.S. Cyber Command had a unit based in Kyiv that was helping the government fend off attacks. It is now operating from a nearby NATO country. There is fragmentary evidence that the United States and its allies worked to counter some of the attacks and to prevent others from being launched. But action seems to have been limited. Inside the Biden administration, there is a view that Putin could be choosing his moment to launch a cyberattack against the U.S. financial system in retaliation for the devastating financial sanctions imposed on his country by the United States and its allies. Unless and until that happens, the administration appears resolved not to launch a significant first strike and invite retaliation — especially given the risks to the U.S. economy and financial system if Russia were to target them. Keeping the Temperature Down “The water in Afghanistan must boil at the right temperature,” Pakistan’s then-president, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, told his intelligence chief as Pakistan began supplying the mujahedeen in their grueling battle against Soviet troops in neighboring Afghanistan. In other words, hot enough to convince the Russians that the country was not worth the struggle but not so hot as to provoke a broader war in the region. The weapons that helped turn the tide of that conflict, shoulder-fired Stinger surface-to-air missiles, are now being unloaded from cargo planes in NATO countries and delivered to Ukrainian troops on the front lines to help keep Russia from controlling the skies. U.S. officials are divided on how much the lessons from Cold War proxy wars, like the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan, can be applied to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Some officials say those conflicts established that the great powers could ship small arms and missiles to proxy forces without triggering a wider war. At the same time, Ukraine is far more important to Putin than Afghanistan was to Soviet leaders. Given Russia’s bloody history with Stinger missiles, U.S. officials have been wary of advertising their use in Ukraine. During a trip to an airfield near Ukraine’s border this month with Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reporters watched Stinger missiles being unloaded from a cargo plane but were barred from disclosing the whereabouts of the base. Even after two senior U.S. officials told the House Armed Services Committee during a public hearing that Stinger missiles were among the munitions being sent to Ukraine, spokespeople avoided using the S-word from the lecterns at the White House and Pentagon. Until this past week. On Wednesday, the White House released a detailed list of the weapons it was providing as part of an $800 million package of arms to Ukraine. At the top of the list: “800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems.”

For the US, a tenuous balance in confronting Russia

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to escalate, a Ukrainian defence official in his latest address has said that the country's armed forces have blocked Russia's two main routes for attacking the capital city Kyiv.&nbsp;

Reports have suggested that the Russian forces have been strengthening outside the capital city of Ukraine apparently to take over it.&nbsp;

However, Brigadier General Oleksandr Hruzevych, who is the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Land Forces Command of Ukraine said as quoted by media outlets that Russian forces on both sides of the Dnipro river have been stopped.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/war-crimes-amid-ukraine-war-baltic-states-expel-russian-diplomats-463524">'War crimes': Amid Ukraine war, Baltic states expel Russian diplomats</a>

He said on Friday (March 18), "As of today, the enemy has been stopped at a distance of almost 70 kilometres from the city’s right bank, which makes it impossible to carry out fire, except for rocket fire." &nbsp;

He said, "On the left bank, the advance has [also] been stopped. The enemy is cynically shooting at our infrastructure facilities. [But] the main ways of attack are blocked."&nbsp;

The official added, "In some districts, namely Brovary and Boryspil, the enemy refrained from active offensive as such. There are small attempts at action on the left bank of the Dnipro River, but they’ve also been unsuccessful."&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/germanys-scholz-urges-ceasefire-in-call-with-russias-putin-463517">Germany's Scholz urges ceasefire in call with Russia's Putin</a>

Commenting on Russia's progress, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Thursday (March 18) had said that Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses.&nbsp;

The MoD intelligence update read, "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has largely stalled on all fronts. Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses. Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands."&nbsp;

WATCH |&nbsp;Ukraine-Russia Crisis: Joe Biden-Xi Jinping call lasts for nearly 2 hours

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Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to escalate, a Ukrainian defence official in his latest address has said that the country's armed forces have blocked Russia's two main routes for attacking the capital city Kyiv. Reports have suggested that the Russian forces have been strengthening outside the capital city of Ukraine apparently to take over it. However, Brigadier General Oleksandr Hruzevych, who is the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Land Forces Command of Ukraine said as quoted by media outlets that Russian forces on both sides of the Dnipro river have been stopped. ALSO READ | 'War crimes': Amid Ukraine war, Baltic states expel Russian diplomats He said on Friday (March 18), "As of today, the enemy has been stopped at a distance of almost 70 kilometres from the city’s right bank, which makes it impossible to carry out fire, except for rocket fire." He said, "On the left bank, the advance has [also] been stopped. The enemy is cynically shooting at our infrastructure facilities. [But] the main ways of attack are blocked." The official added, "In some districts, namely Brovary and Boryspil, the enemy refrained from active offensive as such. There are small attempts at action on the left bank of the Dnipro River, but they’ve also been unsuccessful." ALSO READ | Germany's Scholz urges ceasefire in call with Russia's Putin Commenting on Russia's progress, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Thursday (March 18) had said that Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses. The MoD intelligence update read, "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has largely stalled on all fronts. Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses. Ukrainian resistance remains staunch and well-coordinated. The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remains in Ukrainian hands." WATCH | Ukraine-Russia Crisis: Joe Biden-Xi Jinping call lasts for nearly 2 hours ×

Ukraine under attack: Ukrainian army claims to have blocked Russia's main routes for attacking Kyiv

Two people in Indonesia have died while queuing to buy cooking oil, as stocks run low in part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The tragedies occurred in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, which is one of the largest producers of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and fresh palm oil fruit in Indonesia.

Indonesia requires exporters to set aside 30 per cent of palm oil products for domestic use, up from the previous 20 per cent, to tackle the shortage.

Massive price spikes for food and energy sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine will push over 40 million people into extreme poverty, the Centre for Global Development (CGDEV) said on Friday, warning against export curbs and sanctions on Russian food production.

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The researchers said the most immediate concern was for direct wheat customers of Ukraine and Russia, which together account for more than a quarter of world wheat exports. These include Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey, but prices will rise worldwide as importers compete for alternative supplies.

The Indonesian Finance Ministry issued on Friday a regulation that raises the progressive levy up to US$375 per ton of CPO when international prices are above $1,500 per ton.

Local suppliers are exporting more palm oil amid the commodity’s surging price in the international market, as well as diverting their output to the production of biodiesel - an alternative fuel for vehicles - by combining palm oil and diesel fuel.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/indonesia-passes-law-to-shift-capital-from-jakarta-to-nusantara-445773">Also read |&nbsp;Indonesia passes law to shift capital from Jakarta to Nusantara</a>

Introduced in 2008, the biodiesel programme seeks to cut the country’s imports of crude oil and refined petroleum and boost the domestic consumption of palm oil, thus stabilising its price. To entice palm oil producers to supply biodiesel companies, the government has provided annual subsidies, which last year totalled nearly 52 trillion rupiah.

India has asked Indonesia to increase palm oil shipments to the country to compensate for a loss of sunflower oil supplies from the Black Sea region due to the Ukraine crisis.

India, the world's biggest buyer of edible oil, relies on top producer Indonesia for more than half of its palm oil imports, but has been worried by restrictions Jakarta put on its exports in January to calm local prices.

Limited palm supplies, followed by the halt in exports of sunflower oil from the Black Sea region - which accounts for 60 per cent&nbsp;of world sunoil output and 76&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;of exports - have sent global vegetable oil prices to record highs.

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Two people in Indonesia have died while queuing to buy cooking oil, as stocks run low in part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The tragedies occurred in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, which is one of the largest producers of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and fresh palm oil fruit in Indonesia.

Two people in Indonesia have died while queuing to buy cooking oil, as stocks run low in part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The tragedies occurred in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, which is one of the largest producers of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and fresh palm oil fruit in Indonesia. Indonesia requires exporters to set aside 30 per cent of palm oil products for domestic use, up from the previous 20 per cent, to tackle the shortage. Massive price spikes for food and energy sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine will push over 40 million people into extreme poverty, the Centre for Global Development (CGDEV) said on Friday, warning against export curbs and sanctions on Russian food production. The researchers said the most immediate concern was for direct wheat customers of Ukraine and Russia, which together account for more than a quarter of world wheat exports. These include Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey, but prices will rise worldwide as importers compete for alternative supplies. The Indonesian Finance Ministry issued on Friday a regulation that raises the progressive levy up to US$375 per ton of CPO when international prices are above $1,500 per ton. Local suppliers are exporting more palm oil amid the commodity’s surging price in the international market, as well as diverting their output to the production of biodiesel - an alternative fuel for vehicles - by combining palm oil and diesel fuel. Also read | Indonesia passes law to shift capital from Jakarta to Nusantara Introduced in 2008, the biodiesel programme seeks to cut the country’s imports of crude oil and refined petroleum and boost the domestic consumption of palm oil, thus stabilising its price. To entice palm oil producers to supply biodiesel companies, the government has provided annual subsidies, which last year totalled nearly 52 trillion rupiah. India has asked Indonesia to increase palm oil shipments to the country to compensate for a loss of sunflower oil supplies from the Black Sea region due to the Ukraine crisis. India, the world's biggest buyer of edible oil, relies on top producer Indonesia for more than half of its palm oil imports, but has been worried by restrictions Jakarta put on its exports in January to calm local prices. Limited palm supplies, followed by the halt in exports of sunflower oil from the Black Sea region - which accounts for 60 per cent of world sunoil output and 76 per cent of exports - have sent global vegetable oil prices to record highs. (With inputs from agencies)

Indonesia’s cooking oil shortage turns deadly, two killed after queuing for liquid gold

Britain’s foreign secretary has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of using talks with Ukraine as a “smokescreen” while he ramps up violence against the country.

Liz Truss told the Times of London newspaper that she was “very skeptical” about Russia’s seriousness in the talks, accusing Russian forces of trying to create space to regroup and unblock their stalled campaign.

She said that “we don’t see any serious withdrawal of Russian troops or any serious proposals on the table” and said Russia would resort to “worse and worse” violence as its military campaign falters.

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Truss echoed comments by British intelligence that Putin could turn to "more and more extreme actions," adding "we've seen appalling atrocities already."

"The Kremlin has so far failed to achieve its original objectives. It has been surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance and has been bedevilled with problems of its own making," Chief of Defence Intelligence Jim Hockenhull said on Friday.

"Russia is now pursuing a strategy of attrition. This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower. This will result in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and intensify the humanitarian crisis," he added.

Also see |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/all-you-need-to-know-about-kinzhal-hypersonic-missiles-that-russia-used-in-ukraine-for-the-first-time-463754" hreflang="en">All you need to know about Kinzhal hypersonic missiles that Russia 'used in Ukraine for the first time'</a>

Truss said that Britain could potentially act as a guarantor if any settlement is reached, and that Putin "didn't believe" the international community would impose the scale of sanctions that it has.

Britain has recently targeted high-profile oligarchs, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.&nbsp;

UK's media regulator on Friday revoked Russian-backed television channel RT's licence to broadcast in the United Kingdom with immediate effect, citing its links to the Kremlin.

Truss suggested it was "extremely difficult" to envisage these sanctions being lifted, saying "these oligarchs have enabled Vladimir Putin to do what he's doing."

Russian troops have taken heavy losses while blasting residential areas in Ukraine to rubble, sending more than 3 million refugees fleeing.&nbsp;

Moscow denies it is targeting civilians in what it calls a "special operation" to disarm its neighbour.

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Britain’s foreign secretary has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of using talks with Ukraine as a “smokescreen” while he ramps up violence against the country.

Britain’s foreign secretary has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of using talks with Ukraine as a “smokescreen” while he ramps up violence against the country. Liz Truss told the Times of London newspaper that she was “very skeptical” about Russia’s seriousness in the talks, accusing Russian forces of trying to create space to regroup and unblock their stalled campaign. She said that “we don’t see any serious withdrawal of Russian troops or any serious proposals on the table” and said Russia would resort to “worse and worse” violence as its military campaign falters. Truss echoed comments by British intelligence that Putin could turn to "more and more extreme actions," adding "we've seen appalling atrocities already." "The Kremlin has so far failed to achieve its original objectives. It has been surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance and has been bedevilled with problems of its own making," Chief of Defence Intelligence Jim Hockenhull said on Friday. "Russia is now pursuing a strategy of attrition. This will involve the reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower. This will result in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and intensify the humanitarian crisis," he added. Also see | All you need to know about Kinzhal hypersonic missiles that Russia 'used in Ukraine for the first time' Truss said that Britain could potentially act as a guarantor if any settlement is reached, and that Putin "didn't believe" the international community would impose the scale of sanctions that it has. Britain has recently targeted high-profile oligarchs, including Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich. UK's media regulator on Friday revoked Russian-backed television channel RT's licence to broadcast in the United Kingdom with immediate effect, citing its links to the Kremlin. Truss suggested it was "extremely difficult" to envisage these sanctions being lifted, saying "these oligarchs have enabled Vladimir Putin to do what he's doing." Russian troops have taken heavy losses while blasting residential areas in Ukraine to rubble, sending more than 3 million refugees fleeing. Moscow denies it is targeting civilians in what it calls a "special operation" to disarm its neighbour. (With inputs from agencies)

Putin uses Ukraine talks as 'smokescreen' to increase violence, says UK

Burger King has said that the operator of its Russian restaurants has 'refused' to close businesses.

The burger chain, owned by Restaurant Brands International (QSR), has a joint venture partnership with businessman Alexander Kolobov in Russia.&nbsp;

RBI’s International President David Shear said in a statement, ''I know that many of you have been following the horrifying attacks on Ukraine. There have been a lot of media reports about brands continuing to operate in Russia and internally, we have been working around the clock to do all the right things.''

Restaurant Brands International Inc&nbsp;said that to enforce its contracts with the partner, Alexander Kolobov, it would need the help of the Russian government, but "we know that will not practically happen anytime soon," according to a letter to employees from Shear.

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"Would we like to suspend all Burger King operations immediately in Russia? Yes. Are we able to enforce a suspension of operations today? No," Shear wrote in the release.

Shear's long letter and Kolobov's response highlight the many complications bedeviling some American fast-food brands as they try to halt operations in Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

It also exposes what can become a point of weakness in international franchising, which is how most American restaurant brands expand overseas: the relationships with their independent operators.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/ukraine-russia-conflict-time-for-meaningful-talks-says-president-volodymyr-zelenskiy-463642">Ukraine-Russia conflict: Time for meaningful talks, says President Zelensky</a>

Burger King's rival, McDonald's has temporarily closed all 847 of its restaurants in Russia, increasing pressure on other global brands to pause operations in the country following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"When McDonald's moved into the Soviet Union, it was part of a message of opening up and building trust and cooperation between Russia and the West. And now those avenues have all been closed off. And so Russia's having McDonald's exit that market really brings a bookend or close to that era. And we're kind of standing in, symbolically at least, a new era of division between Russia and much of the rest of the world," said Paul Musgrave, assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

" I think there is going to be a little bit of a noticeable hit to McDonald's bottom line. In their 2020 annual report, they had $500 million of assets denominated in rubles that they had to look out for. International business accounts for more than half of McDonald's corporate revenue. Russia is a smaller part of that, but it is a real part of it. So there is a real hit, " Musgrave said.

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

Burger King has said that the operator of its Russian restaurants has 'refused' to close businesses. The burger chain, owned by Restaurant Brands International (QSR), has a joint venture partnership with businessman Alexander Kolobov in Russia.

Burger King has said that the operator of its Russian restaurants has 'refused' to close businesses. The burger chain, owned by Restaurant Brands International (QSR), has a joint venture partnership with businessman Alexander Kolobov in Russia. RBI’s International President David Shear said in a statement, ''I know that many of you have been following the horrifying attacks on Ukraine. There have been a lot of media reports about brands continuing to operate in Russia and internally, we have been working around the clock to do all the right things.'' Restaurant Brands International Inc said that to enforce its contracts with the partner, Alexander Kolobov, it would need the help of the Russian government, but "we know that will not practically happen anytime soon," according to a letter to employees from Shear. "Would we like to suspend all Burger King operations immediately in Russia? Yes. Are we able to enforce a suspension of operations today? No," Shear wrote in the release. Shear's long letter and Kolobov's response highlight the many complications bedeviling some American fast-food brands as they try to halt operations in Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. It also exposes what can become a point of weakness in international franchising, which is how most American restaurant brands expand overseas: the relationships with their independent operators. Also read | Ukraine-Russia conflict: Time for meaningful talks, says President Zelensky Burger King's rival, McDonald's has temporarily closed all 847 of its restaurants in Russia, increasing pressure on other global brands to pause operations in the country following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "When McDonald's moved into the Soviet Union, it was part of a message of opening up and building trust and cooperation between Russia and the West. And now those avenues have all been closed off. And so Russia's having McDonald's exit that market really brings a bookend or close to that era. And we're kind of standing in, symbolically at least, a new era of division between Russia and much of the rest of the world," said Paul Musgrave, assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. " I think there is going to be a little bit of a noticeable hit to McDonald's bottom line. In their 2020 annual report, they had $500 million of assets denominated in rubles that they had to look out for. International business accounts for more than half of McDonald's corporate revenue. Russia is a smaller part of that, but it is a real part of it. So there is a real hit, " Musgrave said. (With inputs from agencies)

Operator of Russian restaurants has 'refused' to close businesses, says Burger King

As Russian artillery and rockets land on Ukrainian hospitals and apartment blocks, devastating residential districts with no military value, the world is watching with horror what is, for Russia, an increasingly standard practice.

Its forces conducted similar attacks in Syria, bombing hospitals and other civilian structures as part of Russia’s intervention to prop up that country’s government.

Moscow went even further in Chechnya, a border region that had sought independence in the Soviet Union’s 1991 breakup. During two formative wars there, Russia’s artillery and air forces turned city blocks to rubble, and its ground troops massacred civilians in what was widely seen as a deliberate campaign to terrorize the population into submission.

Now Vladimir Putin, whose rise to Russia’s presidency paralleled and was in some ways cemented by the Chechen wars, appears to be deploying a similar playbook in Ukraine, albeit so far only by increments.

These tactics reflect something more specific than simple ruthlessness alone. They emerged from Russia’s experiences in a string of wars that led its leaders to conclude, for reasons both strategic and ideological, that bombarding whole populations was not only acceptable but militarily sound.

They also reflect the circumstances of an authoritarian state with few allies, enabling the Kremlin to ignore and even embrace revulsion at its military conduct — or so Russian leaders seem to believe.

“​​Massive devastation and collateral fatalities among the civilian population are acceptable in order to limit one’s own casualties,” Alexei Arbatov, a prominent Russian military strategist and at the time a federal legislator, wrote in 2000, during Russia’s second war in Chechnya.

“The use of force is the most efficient problem solver, if applied decisively and massively,” Arbatov wrote, adding that international horror at Russian actions should be “discounted.”

But the shocking human toll that champions of this approach dismiss as irrelevant may be part of why it has so far failed in Ukraine.

Global outrage did not turn back Russian advances in Chechnya or Syria. But it is now driving the sanctions and military support that are devastating Russia’s economy and miring its invasion in quagmire — underscoring that Moscow’s way of war may not be as ruthlessly pragmatic as it believes.

The United States, of course, also frequently kills civilians in war, in drone and other airstrikes whose toll the U.S. treats as a regrettable but acceptable cost. Although the intention behind this strategy differs from Russia’s, the distinction may be of little significance for the dead.

A Russian Way of War

The Soviet military emerged from World War II with a mission to never again allow a foreign invasion of the homeland, growing formidable enough to stand toe-to-toe with the combined forces of NATO.

But in 1979 it faced a threat for which it was poorly suited: an insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan, where Soviet forces intervened that year.

The Soviets suffered heavy casualties at the Afghan rebels’ hands before limping home in humiliating defeat a decade later.

Over the war’s course, Soviet officers came to favor air power as well as large-scale shows of violence.

“In the valleys around Kabul, the Russians undertook a series of large operations engaging hundreds of tanks, mobilizing significant means, using bombs, rockets, napalm, and even, once, gas, destroying all in their path,” a 1984 chronicle of the war recounted.

Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and with it much of what had been the Soviet military. That year, leaders in Chechnya began asserting the region’s independence. In 1994, Moscow ordered a major assault to retake control.

Russian troops again faced heavy losses against insurgents. A monthslong siege of Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, obliterated much of the city and killed thousands of civilians. Still, Russian troops withdrew in a 1996 defeat that further loosened the Kremlin’s weakening hold on power.

But when Moscow launched a second invasion, in 1999, its top general said that, if Russia had erred, it was in having “sinned by being too kindhearted,” pledging even greater violence.

Human rights groups chronicled spates of massacres throughout the war. In some cases, Russian officers declared certain villages to be “safe zones,” then blanketed them in so-called fuel-air bombs banned under the Geneva Conventions, killing scores at a time.

“All those remaining in Grozny will be considered terrorists and will be wiped out by artillery and aviation,” an official military edict warned. Although the statement was rescinded, Russian forces shelled the city indiscriminately, blockading its exits to prevent residents from fleeing.

Putin, whom President Boris Yeltsin promoted from virtual anonymity to prime minister around the war’s outset, asserted himself as the face of the conflict, visiting front lines and pushing for escalation.

When Yeltsin resigned, Putin became acting president, a position he formally won in an election dominated by the war. He built his presidency around the conflict, asserting presidential powers and curbing political rights as wartime necessities, championing it ever since as a great triumph.

That conflict, along with the Russian military’s adaptations for a new Europe in which NATO forces now vastly outmatched their own, led to new sort of doctrine.

“Assault by troops, which previously predetermined the outcome of the battles, will be used today, and even more so in the future, only to complete the defeat of the enemy,” A.A. Korabelnikov, a Russian officer, wrote in a 2019 white paper.

Instead, artillery and air power would do much of the work, inflicting devastating damage from afar. But because much of this technology remained Soviet-era, strikes were often indiscriminate — which Moscow had anyway embraced in Chechnya.

When Russian forces entered the Syrian war in 2015, that country’s Moscow-allied military was already massacring civilians at scale. Seeking to avoid an Afghanistan-style quagmire, Russian air power pulverized Syrian cities from above, cementing the Chechnya model.

Valery Gerasimov, now Russia’s top general, wrote in 2016 that the country’s forces were “acquiring priceless combat experience in Syria,” drawing lessons that Moscow extrapolated into formal policies the next year.

Russian forces did not immediately repeat this approach in Ukraine. But as the invasion has ground down, they have increasingly targeted civilian areas, especially in cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv that they have struggled to capture.

Audience Costs

Strongman leaders like Putin, because they face less accountability from citizens and fewer checks on their power than even other kinds of dictators, tend be more aggressive and take more risks in war, research has found.

This also makes them more able to shrug off public disgust over civilian casualties, which surveys have found can lead citizens in democracies to revoke support for foreign wars.

Russia also has few real allies, normally a restraint on military conduct toward foreign civilians. Putin has even repeated a famous saying by Alexander III, a 19th-century Russian emperor, that Russia’s only true allies were its army and its navy.

This does not mean that widely allied democracies like the United States necessarily kill fewer civilians in war.

U.S. air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed large numbers of civilians. Under an Obama administration policy, the U.S. launched drone strikes on groups of people merely because they fit certain profiles, sometimes mistakenly striking weddings or funerals.

The U.S. has sometimes used indiscriminate tools of war — for example, dropping 1,200 cluster bombs, which much of the world has banned for their danger to civilians — in its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

U.S. strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa, then held by the Islamic State group, killed scores, with a single errant bomb claiming 70 civilians.

U.S. officials stress that they strain to avoid civilian casualties, which they know anger local populations they hope to win over. Still, the U.S. has long maintained a strategy, centering on air power and drone strikes, that it knows brings a significant likelihood of killing civilians, even covering up embarrassing incidents.

Questions of how to parse the relative morality of these two approaches — deliberately killing civilians versus choosing a strategy that is known to bring it about — may ultimately matter more to the perpetrators of these strategies than to their victims.

According to top-level estimates by Airwars, a nonprofit group, the Russian air campaign in Syria killed 6,398 civilians, whereas that by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq killed 13,244.

A Horrifying Kind of War

For all of Moscow’s embrace of brutality in war, much of the toll of Russia’s wars may come down to a simple matter of the location of the fighting: often in large, opposition-held cities.

Throughout the modern era, urban sieges have consistently been among the bloodiest forms of warfare.

They are often defined by horrifying violence against civilians as invaders seek to root out strongholds of resistance from areas where perhaps millions of innocents still live. Mass homelessness and starvation are common.

As armed resistance grinds on, occupiers will often come to see whole populations as threats to be suppressed.

In World War II, both the U.S. and Soviet Union laid waste to German cities. U.S.-led firebombing of German and Japanese cities killed hundreds of thousands.

It is a lesson that is hardly alien to Russians, who endured, in that war, some of the deadliest sieges in modern history.

“Where is mankind heading?” one survivor wrote in his diary amid Leningrad’s two-year encirclement by Nazi forces in which 800,000 civilians died. “How will this most brutal carnage end? Dreadful questions!” 
&nbsp;

As Russian artillery and rockets land on Ukrainian hospitals and apartment blocks, devastating residential districts with no military value, the world is watching with horror what is, for Russia, an increasingly standard practice.

As Russian artillery and rockets land on Ukrainian hospitals and apartment blocks, devastating residential districts with no military value, the world is watching with horror what is, for Russia, an increasingly standard practice. Its forces conducted similar attacks in Syria, bombing hospitals and other civilian structures as part of Russia’s intervention to prop up that country’s government. Moscow went even further in Chechnya, a border region that had sought independence in the Soviet Union’s 1991 breakup. During two formative wars there, Russia’s artillery and air forces turned city blocks to rubble, and its ground troops massacred civilians in what was widely seen as a deliberate campaign to terrorize the population into submission. Now Vladimir Putin, whose rise to Russia’s presidency paralleled and was in some ways cemented by the Chechen wars, appears to be deploying a similar playbook in Ukraine, albeit so far only by increments. These tactics reflect something more specific than simple ruthlessness alone. They emerged from Russia’s experiences in a string of wars that led its leaders to conclude, for reasons both strategic and ideological, that bombarding whole populations was not only acceptable but militarily sound. They also reflect the circumstances of an authoritarian state with few allies, enabling the Kremlin to ignore and even embrace revulsion at its military conduct — or so Russian leaders seem to believe. “Massive devastation and collateral fatalities among the civilian population are acceptable in order to limit one’s own casualties,” Alexei Arbatov, a prominent Russian military strategist and at the time a federal legislator, wrote in 2000, during Russia’s second war in Chechnya. “The use of force is the most efficient problem solver, if applied decisively and massively,” Arbatov wrote, adding that international horror at Russian actions should be “discounted.” But the shocking human toll that champions of this approach dismiss as irrelevant may be part of why it has so far failed in Ukraine. Global outrage did not turn back Russian advances in Chechnya or Syria. But it is now driving the sanctions and military support that are devastating Russia’s economy and miring its invasion in quagmire — underscoring that Moscow’s way of war may not be as ruthlessly pragmatic as it believes. The United States, of course, also frequently kills civilians in war, in drone and other airstrikes whose toll the U.S. treats as a regrettable but acceptable cost. Although the intention behind this strategy differs from Russia’s, the distinction may be of little significance for the dead. A Russian Way of War The Soviet military emerged from World War II with a mission to never again allow a foreign invasion of the homeland, growing formidable enough to stand toe-to-toe with the combined forces of NATO. But in 1979 it faced a threat for which it was poorly suited: an insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan, where Soviet forces intervened that year. The Soviets suffered heavy casualties at the Afghan rebels’ hands before limping home in humiliating defeat a decade later. Over the war’s course, Soviet officers came to favor air power as well as large-scale shows of violence. “In the valleys around Kabul, the Russians undertook a series of large operations engaging hundreds of tanks, mobilizing significant means, using bombs, rockets, napalm, and even, once, gas, destroying all in their path,” a 1984 chronicle of the war recounted. Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and with it much of what had been the Soviet military. That year, leaders in Chechnya began asserting the region’s independence. In 1994, Moscow ordered a major assault to retake control. Russian troops again faced heavy losses against insurgents. A monthslong siege of Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, obliterated much of the city and killed thousands of civilians. Still, Russian troops withdrew in a 1996 defeat that further loosened the Kremlin’s weakening hold on power. But when Moscow launched a second invasion, in 1999, its top general said that, if Russia had erred, it was in having “sinned by being too kindhearted,” pledging even greater violence. Human rights groups chronicled spates of massacres throughout the war. In some cases, Russian officers declared certain villages to be “safe zones,” then blanketed them in so-called fuel-air bombs banned under the Geneva Conventions, killing scores at a time. “All those remaining in Grozny will be considered terrorists and will be wiped out by artillery and aviation,” an official military edict warned. Although the statement was rescinded, Russian forces shelled the city indiscriminately, blockading its exits to prevent residents from fleeing. Putin, whom President Boris Yeltsin promoted from virtual anonymity to prime minister around the war’s outset, asserted himself as the face of the conflict, visiting front lines and pushing for escalation. When Yeltsin resigned, Putin became acting president, a position he formally won in an election dominated by the war. He built his presidency around the conflict, asserting presidential powers and curbing political rights as wartime necessities, championing it ever since as a great triumph. That conflict, along with the Russian military’s adaptations for a new Europe in which NATO forces now vastly outmatched their own, led to new sort of doctrine. “Assault by troops, which previously predetermined the outcome of the battles, will be used today, and even more so in the future, only to complete the defeat of the enemy,” A.A. Korabelnikov, a Russian officer, wrote in a 2019 white paper. Instead, artillery and air power would do much of the work, inflicting devastating damage from afar. But because much of this technology remained Soviet-era, strikes were often indiscriminate — which Moscow had anyway embraced in Chechnya. When Russian forces entered the Syrian war in 2015, that country’s Moscow-allied military was already massacring civilians at scale. Seeking to avoid an Afghanistan-style quagmire, Russian air power pulverized Syrian cities from above, cementing the Chechnya model. Valery Gerasimov, now Russia’s top general, wrote in 2016 that the country’s forces were “acquiring priceless combat experience in Syria,” drawing lessons that Moscow extrapolated into formal policies the next year. Russian forces did not immediately repeat this approach in Ukraine. But as the invasion has ground down, they have increasingly targeted civilian areas, especially in cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv that they have struggled to capture. Audience Costs Strongman leaders like Putin, because they face less accountability from citizens and fewer checks on their power than even other kinds of dictators, tend be more aggressive and take more risks in war, research has found. This also makes them more able to shrug off public disgust over civilian casualties, which surveys have found can lead citizens in democracies to revoke support for foreign wars. Russia also has few real allies, normally a restraint on military conduct toward foreign civilians. Putin has even repeated a famous saying by Alexander III, a 19th-century Russian emperor, that Russia’s only true allies were its army and its navy. This does not mean that widely allied democracies like the United States necessarily kill fewer civilians in war. U.S. air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed large numbers of civilians. Under an Obama administration policy, the U.S. launched drone strikes on groups of people merely because they fit certain profiles, sometimes mistakenly striking weddings or funerals. The U.S. has sometimes used indiscriminate tools of war — for example, dropping 1,200 cluster bombs, which much of the world has banned for their danger to civilians — in its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. U.S. strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa, then held by the Islamic State group, killed scores, with a single errant bomb claiming 70 civilians. U.S. officials stress that they strain to avoid civilian casualties, which they know anger local populations they hope to win over. Still, the U.S. has long maintained a strategy, centering on air power and drone strikes, that it knows brings a significant likelihood of killing civilians, even covering up embarrassing incidents. Questions of how to parse the relative morality of these two approaches — deliberately killing civilians versus choosing a strategy that is known to bring it about — may ultimately matter more to the perpetrators of these strategies than to their victims. According to top-level estimates by Airwars, a nonprofit group, the Russian air campaign in Syria killed 6,398 civilians, whereas that by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq killed 13,244. A Horrifying Kind of War For all of Moscow’s embrace of brutality in war, much of the toll of Russia’s wars may come down to a simple matter of the location of the fighting: often in large, opposition-held cities. Throughout the modern era, urban sieges have consistently been among the bloodiest forms of warfare. They are often defined by horrifying violence against civilians as invaders seek to root out strongholds of resistance from areas where perhaps millions of innocents still live. Mass homelessness and starvation are common. As armed resistance grinds on, occupiers will often come to see whole populations as threats to be suppressed. In World War II, both the U.S. and Soviet Union laid waste to German cities. U.S.-led firebombing of German and Japanese cities killed hundreds of thousands. It is a lesson that is hardly alien to Russians, who endured, in that war, some of the deadliest sieges in modern history. “Where is mankind heading?” one survivor wrote in his diary amid Leningrad’s two-year encirclement by Nazi forces in which 800,000 civilians died. “How will this most brutal carnage end? Dreadful questions!”

Russia’s brutality in Ukraine has roots in earlier conflicts

Critics question US govt policy as the country has only admitted several hundred Ukrainian refugees so far

Ukraine refugee crisis raises other concerns; fleeing women & minors may be targetted for trafficking

The Russian government announced Tuesday it would leave the Council of Europe amid mounting calls for Moscow to be expelled over its invasion of Ukraine.

Having essentially jumped before being expelled from the Strasbourg-based body, the Russian foreign ministry informed Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of its departure.

As a result of the decision, Russia ends its quarter-century membership in the Council of Europe (COE) and opens the door to the reimposition of the death penalty if the authorities so choose.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/courage-of-true-friends-of-ukraine-european-leaders-defiant-visit-to-kyiv-amid-growing-tension-with-russia-462717">'Courage of true friends of Ukraine': European leaders' defiant visit to Kyiv amid growing tension with Russia</a>

By leaving the Council of Europe, Russia will no longer be a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its citizens will lose access to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Responsibility for destruction of the common humanitarian space on the continent &amp; the consequences for Council of Europe – which, without Russia, will lose its pan-European character – will be borne solely by those who are forcing us to take this step. 
 
🔗<a href="https://t.co/79kDQi3E0N">https://t.co/79kDQi3E0N</a> <a href="https://t.co/j0maChWWUT">pic.twitter.com/j0maChWWUT</a>
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) <a href="https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1503834772719738883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Russia's exit will represent a major change to the ECHR, which serves as the court of last resort when all domestic options have been exhausted.

In the history of the Council of Europe, this is only the second time a member state has announced it is leaving the organisation, the first being Greece which temporarily left in the late 1960s.

A day after tens of thousands of troops entered Ukraine on February 24, Russia was stripped of all representation rights.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/imitation-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery-french-president-discards-suits-dons-sweatshirt-copying-zelensky-462399" hreflang="en">Imitation, the sincerest form of flattery: French President discards suits, dons sweatshirt. Copying Zelensky?</a>

"As leaders of the Council of Europe we expressed on several occasions our firm condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine," the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, the president of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Tiny Kox, and the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, said in a joint statement.

"The Committee of Ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting tomorrow morning also in the light of today’s notification by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation of the Russian leadership’s decision to withdraw from the Council of Europe," they said.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine demanded Monday that Russia be expelled from the organisation, saying it had no right to continue being a member after sending troops into the pro-Western nation.

Watch |&nbsp;Ukraine | Refugees of war: What do the numbers say

<iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/ukraine-refugees-of-war-what-do-the-numbers-say-462711/embed" width="560"></iframe>

A statement was posted by the Russian foreign ministry on its Telegram account regarding "launching the procedure to exit the Council of Europe," adding that it had "no regrets" about leaving.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said the exit would not affect the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and that existing European Court resolutions will continue to be implemented if they do not contradict Russian law.

They alleged that EU and NATO member states had turned the Council of Europe into an "instrument for anti-Russian policies".

(With inputs from agencies)

The Russian government announced Tuesday it would leave the Council of Europe amid mounting calls for Moscow to be expelled over its invasion of Ukraine. Having essentially jumped before being expelled from the Strasbourg-based body, the Russian foreign ministry informed Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of its departure.

The Russian government announced Tuesday it would leave the Council of Europe amid mounting calls for Moscow to be expelled over its invasion of Ukraine. Having essentially jumped before being expelled from the Strasbourg-based body, the Russian foreign ministry informed Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of its departure. As a result of the decision, Russia ends its quarter-century membership in the Council of Europe (COE) and opens the door to the reimposition of the death penalty if the authorities so choose. Also read | 'Courage of true friends of Ukraine': European leaders' defiant visit to Kyiv amid growing tension with Russia By leaving the Council of Europe, Russia will no longer be a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its citizens will lose access to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Responsibility for destruction of the common humanitarian space on the continent & the consequences for Council of Europe – which, without Russia, will lose its pan-European character – will be borne solely by those who are forcing us to take this step. 🔗https://t.co/79kDQi3E0N pic.twitter.com/j0maChWWUT — MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) March 15, 2022 × Russia's exit will represent a major change to the ECHR, which serves as the court of last resort when all domestic options have been exhausted. In the history of the Council of Europe, this is only the second time a member state has announced it is leaving the organisation, the first being Greece which temporarily left in the late 1960s. A day after tens of thousands of troops entered Ukraine on February 24, Russia was stripped of all representation rights. Also read | Imitation, the sincerest form of flattery: French President discards suits, dons sweatshirt. Copying Zelensky? "As leaders of the Council of Europe we expressed on several occasions our firm condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine," the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, the president of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Tiny Kox, and the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, said in a joint statement. "The Committee of Ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting tomorrow morning also in the light of today’s notification by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation of the Russian leadership’s decision to withdraw from the Council of Europe," they said. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine demanded Monday that Russia be expelled from the organisation, saying it had no right to continue being a member after sending troops into the pro-Western nation. Watch | Ukraine | Refugees of war: What do the numbers say A statement was posted by the Russian foreign ministry on its Telegram account regarding "launching the procedure to exit the Council of Europe," adding that it had "no regrets" about leaving. Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said the exit would not affect the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and that existing European Court resolutions will continue to be implemented if they do not contradict Russian law. They alleged that EU and NATO member states had turned the Council of Europe into an "instrument for anti-Russian policies". (With inputs from agencies)

Jumping the gun: As calls for its expulsion grow, Russia announces 'Ruxit' from Council of Europe

To get your day started, here are some stories.

President Biden is expected to announce $800 million in new security assistance to Ukraine, according to a White House official. Meanwhile, even as the Russian threat continues to increase,&nbsp;the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In other news, a recent report by the Asian Development Bank points to the stark impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the people of Southeast Asia.

Click on the headline to read more:

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-ukraine-conflict-joe-biden-to-announce-800-million-in-new-security-aid-to-ukraine-462729">Russia-Ukraine conflict: Joe Biden to announce $800 million in new security aid to Ukraine</a>

<img src="https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2022/03/16/247902-joe-biden-2.jpg" />

A White House official has divulged that the United States President Joe Biden will announce $800 million in new security assistance to Ukraine.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/jumping-the-gun-as-calls-for-its-expulsion-grow-russia-announces-ruxit-from-council-of-europe-462722">Jumping the gun: As calls for its expulsion grow, Russia announces 'Ruxit'&nbsp;from Council of Europe</a>

<img src="https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2022/03/16/247900-stories-12.jpg" />

The Russian government has announced that it would leave the Council of Europe amid mounting calls for Moscow to be expelled over its invasion of Ukraine.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/courage-of-true-friends-of-ukraine-european-leaders-defiant-visit-to-kyiv-amid-growing-tension-with-russia-462717"><a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/courage-of-true-friends-of-ukraine-european-leaders-defiant-visit-to-kyiv-amid-growing-tension-with-russia-462717">'Courage of true friends of Ukraine': European leaders' defiant visit to Kyiv amid growing tension with Russia</a></a>

&nbsp;

<img src="https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2022/03/16/247899-whatsapp-image-2022-03-16-at-40331-am.jpeg" />

In the first foreign leaders' visit to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia's invasion, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

<h1>&nbsp;</h1>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/47-million-southeast-asians-plunge-into-extreme-poverty-after-the-pandemic-asian-development-bank-462728">4.7 million Southeast Asians plunge into extreme poverty after the pandemic: Asian Development Bank</a>

<img src="https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2022/03/16/247904-stories-13.jpg" />

As per the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the coronavirus pandemic increased Southeast Asia's poorest by 4.7 million in 2021, reversing gains made in combating poverty.&nbsp;

Watch |&nbsp;Wion Climate Summit: Why ignoring Climate change is not an option

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To get your day started, here are some stories. President Biden is expected to announce $800 million in new security assistance to Ukraine, according to a White House official.

To get your day started, here are some stories. President Biden is expected to announce $800 million in new security assistance to Ukraine, according to a White House official. Meanwhile, even as the Russian threat continues to increase, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In other news, a recent report by the Asian Development Bank points to the stark impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the people of Southeast Asia. Click on the headline to read more: Russia-Ukraine conflict: Joe Biden to announce $800 million in new security aid to Ukraine A White House official has divulged that the United States President Joe Biden will announce $800 million in new security assistance to Ukraine. Jumping the gun: As calls for its expulsion grow, Russia announces 'Ruxit' from Council of Europe The Russian government has announced that it would leave the Council of Europe amid mounting calls for Moscow to be expelled over its invasion of Ukraine. 'Courage of true friends of Ukraine': European leaders' defiant visit to Kyiv amid growing tension with Russia In the first foreign leaders' visit to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia's invasion, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 4.7 million Southeast Asians plunge into extreme poverty after the pandemic: Asian Development Bank As per the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the coronavirus pandemic increased Southeast Asia's poorest by 4.7 million in 2021, reversing gains made in combating poverty. Watch | Wion Climate Summit: Why ignoring Climate change is not an option

Morning brief: Biden to announce $800 mn aid for Ukraine, ADB report on pandemic & poverty, and more

In the first foreign leaders' visit to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia's invasion, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

Upon arrival by train, the prime ministers sat around a table with their Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmyhal and the Ukrainian president, who provided an overview of the situation.

"They are shelling everywhere. Not only Kyiv but also the western areas," Zelensky told them in comments translated into English, a video posted on his Telegram account showed.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/imitation-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery-french-president-discards-suits-dons-sweatshirt-copying-zelensky-462399" hreflang="en">Imitation, the sincerest form of flattery: French President discards suits, dons sweatshirt. Copying Zelensky?</a>

"We have to halt this tragedy unfolding in the East as quickly as possible," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a post on Facebook announcing their arrival.

Ukraine had the "unequivocal support" of the European Union, he added.

Shmyhal announced their arrival earlier that day on Twitter, saluting "the courage of true friends of Ukraine."

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The Prime Ministers of 🇵🇱 <a href="https://twitter.com/MorawieckiM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MorawieckiM</a>, 🇸🇮 <a href="https://twitter.com/JJansaSDS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JJansaSDS</a> and 🇨🇿 <a href="https://twitter.com/P_Fiala?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@P_Fiala</a> arrived on the behalf of <a href="https://twitter.com/EUCouncil?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EUCouncil</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kyiv?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kyiv</a> today. The courage of true friends of 🇺🇦! Discussing support of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a> and strengthening sanctions against the Russian aggression.
— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Denys_Shmyhal/status/1503793161562427393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
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He said their talks would focus on support for Ukraine and "strengthening sanctions against the Russian aggression".

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/we-dont-know-how-to-kill-residents-of-odessa-who-cannot-fight-help-with-war-efforts-in-other-ways-462454" hreflang="en">'We don't know how to kill': Residents of Odessa who cannot fight help with war efforts in other ways</a>

Prime Minister Morawiecki, Czech Premier Petr Fiala and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa are on a visit to the besieged country as "representatives" of the European Union, according to an early statement from the Polish government.

The visit comes as Russian forces attack targets across Ukraine, including Kyiv, which has nearly been encircled by Moscow's forces, and as negotiations to end the nearly three-week war are scheduled to resume.

"In such crucial times for the world, it is our duty to be in the place where history is being made," Morawiecki said in a Facebook post earlier Tuesday.

"Because this is not about us, it is about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny," he said.

Watch |&nbsp;Ukraine | Refugees of war: What do the numbers say

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/ukraine-refugees-of-war-what-do-the-numbers-say-462711/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

According to the government statement, the visit was organised "in agreement" with European Council chief Charles Michel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

"The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society," the statement said.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, accompanied&nbsp;the trio.

(With inputs from agencies)

In the first foreign leaders' visit to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia's invasion, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

In the first foreign leaders' visit to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia's invasion, the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday. Upon arrival by train, the prime ministers sat around a table with their Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmyhal and the Ukrainian president, who provided an overview of the situation. "They are shelling everywhere. Not only Kyiv but also the western areas," Zelensky told them in comments translated into English, a video posted on his Telegram account showed. Also read | Imitation, the sincerest form of flattery: French President discards suits, dons sweatshirt. Copying Zelensky? "We have to halt this tragedy unfolding in the East as quickly as possible," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a post on Facebook announcing their arrival. Ukraine had the "unequivocal support" of the European Union, he added. Shmyhal announced their arrival earlier that day on Twitter, saluting "the courage of true friends of Ukraine." The Prime Ministers of 🇵🇱 @MorawieckiM, 🇸🇮 @JJansaSDS and 🇨🇿 @P_Fiala arrived on the behalf of @EUCouncil to #Kyiv today. The courage of true friends of 🇺🇦! Discussing support of #Ukraine and strengthening sanctions against the Russian aggression. — Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) March 15, 2022 × He said their talks would focus on support for Ukraine and "strengthening sanctions against the Russian aggression". Also read | 'We don't know how to kill': Residents of Odessa who cannot fight help with war efforts in other ways Prime Minister Morawiecki, Czech Premier Petr Fiala and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa are on a visit to the besieged country as "representatives" of the European Union, according to an early statement from the Polish government. The visit comes as Russian forces attack targets across Ukraine, including Kyiv, which has nearly been encircled by Moscow's forces, and as negotiations to end the nearly three-week war are scheduled to resume. "In such crucial times for the world, it is our duty to be in the place where history is being made," Morawiecki said in a Facebook post earlier Tuesday. "Because this is not about us, it is about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny," he said. Watch | Ukraine | Refugees of war: What do the numbers say According to the government statement, the visit was organised "in agreement" with European Council chief Charles Michel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. "The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society," the statement said. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, accompanied the trio. (With inputs from agencies)

'Courage of true friends of Ukraine': European leaders' defiant visit to Kyiv amid growing tension with Russia

Two Chinese nationals have been arrested for trying to smuggle undocumented children out of Ukraine and into Romania.

Ukraine's State Border Guard Service reported on Monday that border guards held off foreigners from taking babies out of the country at the Porubne Border Crossing Point in Chernivtsi Oblast.&nbsp;

The people who have been identified as Chinese nationals were carrying two infants as they attempted to cross the border and into Romania when they attracted suspicion from the border guards who suspected that something was off.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/ukraine-refugee-crisis-raises-other-concerns-feeling-women-minors-may-be-targetted-for-trafficking-462747">Ukraine refugee crisis raises other concerns; fleeing women &amp; minors may be targetted for trafficking</a>

Upon inspection, border officials discovered that the foreigners did not have any identification documents for the infants.&nbsp;

In an investigation conducted by the State Border Guard Service, it was found that both Chinese had arrived in the country without children a few weeks before this incident.

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🚫Прикордонники припинили спробу вивезення з України громадянами Китаю немовлят без документів 
▪️У пункті пропуску «Порубне», що у Чернівецькій області, прикордонники припинили спробу іноземців вивезти немовлят. 
▪️Двоє громадян Китаю намагалися пішки перейти з України в Румунію <a href="https://t.co/44Kmp2TsAl">pic.twitter.com/44Kmp2TsAl</a>
— Держприкордонслужба (@DPSU_ua) <a href="https://twitter.com/DPSU_ua/status/1503432061213986821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
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When border guards questioned the two men, they were unable to explain where the children came from.&nbsp;

Now the Ukrainian National Police is looking into the matter.&nbsp;The Ukrainian government's website features pictures of the babies being looked after by its border force.

<img alt="Ukraine border force cares for rescued babies" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a575c714-83fa-4726-ab95-67c5ec689d9b" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%2820%29_0.jpg" />

<img alt="Ukraine border force cares for rescued babies" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9702a948-5ce2-4b6c-b973-0540ab554497" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stories%20%2819%29_2.jpg" />

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/jumping-the-gun-as-calls-for-its-expulsion-grow-russia-announces-ruxit-from-council-of-europe-462722" hreflang="en">Jumping the gun: As calls for its expulsion grow, Russia announces 'Ruxit'&nbsp;from Council of Europe</a>

However, it remains unclear what will become of the babies as the identities of their parents remain a mystery.

According to a US Department of State report, many of the trafficked children in China are forced into labour.

The report said: “China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labour and forced prostitution.

“Well-organised international criminal syndicates and local gangs play key roles in both internal and cross-border trafficking."

Watch |&nbsp;Surrogacy industry in Ukraine hit by war, citizenship of newborn babies unclear

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/surrogacy-industry-in-ukraine-hit-by-war-citizenship-of-newborn-babies-unclear-462804/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"Women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and several countries in Africa experience forced labour in domestic service, forced concubinism leading to forced childbearing, and sex trafficking via forced and fraudulent marriage to Chinese men."&nbsp;

"Traffickers target adults and children with developmental disabilities and children whose parents have left them with relatives to migrate to the cities—estimated at 6.4 million—and subject them to forced labour and forced begging."

(With inputs from agencies)

Two Chinese nationals have been arrested for trying to smuggle undocumented children out of Ukraine and into Romania. Ukraine's State Border Guard Service reported on Monday that border guards held off foreigners from taking babies out of the country at the Porubne Border Crossing Point in Chernivtsi Oblast.

Two Chinese nationals have been arrested for trying to smuggle undocumented children out of Ukraine and into Romania. Ukraine's State Border Guard Service reported on Monday that border guards held off foreigners from taking babies out of the country at the Porubne Border Crossing Point in Chernivtsi Oblast. The people who have been identified as Chinese nationals were carrying two infants as they attempted to cross the border and into Romania when they attracted suspicion from the border guards who suspected that something was off. Also read | Ukraine refugee crisis raises other concerns; fleeing women & minors may be targetted for trafficking Upon inspection, border officials discovered that the foreigners did not have any identification documents for the infants. In an investigation conducted by the State Border Guard Service, it was found that both Chinese had arrived in the country without children a few weeks before this incident. 🚫Прикордонники припинили спробу вивезення з України громадянами Китаю немовлят без документів ▪️У пункті пропуску «Порубне», що у Чернівецькій області, прикордонники припинили спробу іноземців вивезти немовлят. ▪️Двоє громадян Китаю намагалися пішки перейти з України в Румунію pic.twitter.com/44Kmp2TsAl — Держприкордонслужба (@DPSU_ua) March 14, 2022 × When border guards questioned the two men, they were unable to explain where the children came from. Now the Ukrainian National Police is looking into the matter. The Ukrainian government's website features pictures of the babies being looked after by its border force. Also read | Jumping the gun: As calls for its expulsion grow, Russia announces 'Ruxit' from Council of Europe However, it remains unclear what will become of the babies as the identities of their parents remain a mystery. According to a US Department of State report, many of the trafficked children in China are forced into labour. The report said: “China is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labour and forced prostitution. “Well-organised international criminal syndicates and local gangs play key roles in both internal and cross-border trafficking." Watch | Surrogacy industry in Ukraine hit by war, citizenship of newborn babies unclear "Women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and several countries in Africa experience forced labour in domestic service, forced concubinism leading to forced childbearing, and sex trafficking via forced and fraudulent marriage to Chinese men." "Traffickers target adults and children with developmental disabilities and children whose parents have left them with relatives to migrate to the cities—estimated at 6.4 million—and subject them to forced labour and forced begging." (With inputs from agencies)

Two Chinese nationals arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle infants from Ukraine

A CCTV video that is going viral on social media shows a missile blast in front of a Ukrainian civilian as he walks through a park.&nbsp;

In Ukraine's capital, now surrounded by two sides and emptied of more than half its three million residents, the latest Russian attacks have killed at least two people.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/uk-warns-russia-might-be-planning-a-chemical-attack-on-ukraine-us-nato-un-echo-the-concern-462340" hreflang="en">UK warns Russia might be planning a chemical attack on Ukraine; US, NATO echo the concern</a>

The video posted online shows the moment a missile exploded in a street in Kyiv, right in front of a civilian walking through a park on Kyrylivska Street. In the video, the civilian can be seen recoiling from the shock of the blast and running away from the explosion.

Here's the shocking&nbsp;video:

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A residential building was severely damaged in a blast that rocked Kyiv today, with a local resident saying at least two had died in the incident. 
 
CCTV footage showed the moment the building exploded, shocking a passer-by.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kyiv?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kyiv</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/russianinvasion?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#russianinvasion</a> <a href="https://t.co/oBrQKIj7dK">pic.twitter.com/oBrQKIj7dK</a>
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) <a href="https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1503392187781943297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The Russian offensive targeting Kyiv -- launched on February 24 and initially repelled by an enthusiastic army, including many volunteers -- has gained strength once again.

As part of the violent clashes along Kyiv's northwestern edge, long-range missiles caused at least two deaths and 12 injuries on Monday alone.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/watch-kyiv-mayor-records-himself-as-he-shows-the-scale-of-destruction-caused-by-russian-forces-462297" hreflang="en">Watch: Kyiv mayor records himself as he shows the scale of destruction caused by Russian forces</a>

Tensions are also rising in Kyiv's more remote northeast industrial districts where a second front seems to be opening up.

As a result of the growing sense of peril, armed volunteers at Kyiv's sandbagged checkpoints have started asking passing cars to use code words that change constantly.

In order to more easily ascertain who is on the Ukrainian side and who is a Russian saboteur, the ribbon colours are being alternated onto soldiers' elbows and calves.

Watch |&nbsp;Russian troops inch closer to Ukrainian capital, Kyiv braces for more Russian strikes

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/russian-troops-inch-closer-to-ukrainian-capital-kyiv-braces-for-more-russian-strikes-462262/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The almost tangible paranoia on the city's deserted streets, however, is accompanied by strident defiance on the part of many of the distraught victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces.

Moscow-backed separatists claim a fragment of a shot-down Ukrainian Tochka-U missile sliced through Donetsk's centre, killing 23 people. In response, Moscow called it a "war crime," and rebels published images of bloody corpses in the street.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

A CCTV video that is going viral on social media shows a missile blast in front of a Ukrainian civilian as he walks through a park. In Ukraine's capital, now surrounded by two sides and emptied of more than half its three million residents, the latest Russian attacks have killed at least two people.

A CCTV video that is going viral on social media shows a missile blast in front of a Ukrainian civilian as he walks through a park. In Ukraine's capital, now surrounded by two sides and emptied of more than half its three million residents, the latest Russian attacks have killed at least two people. Also read | UK warns Russia might be planning a chemical attack on Ukraine; US, NATO echo the concern The video posted online shows the moment a missile exploded in a street in Kyiv, right in front of a civilian walking through a park on Kyrylivska Street. In the video, the civilian can be seen recoiling from the shock of the blast and running away from the explosion. Here's the shocking video: A residential building was severely damaged in a blast that rocked Kyiv today, with a local resident saying at least two had died in the incident. CCTV footage showed the moment the building exploded, shocking a passer-by.#Ukraine | #Kyiv | #russianinvasion pic.twitter.com/oBrQKIj7dK — talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) March 14, 2022 × The Russian offensive targeting Kyiv -- launched on February 24 and initially repelled by an enthusiastic army, including many volunteers -- has gained strength once again. As part of the violent clashes along Kyiv's northwestern edge, long-range missiles caused at least two deaths and 12 injuries on Monday alone. Also read | Watch: Kyiv mayor records himself as he shows the scale of destruction caused by Russian forces Tensions are also rising in Kyiv's more remote northeast industrial districts where a second front seems to be opening up. As a result of the growing sense of peril, armed volunteers at Kyiv's sandbagged checkpoints have started asking passing cars to use code words that change constantly. In order to more easily ascertain who is on the Ukrainian side and who is a Russian saboteur, the ribbon colours are being alternated onto soldiers' elbows and calves. Watch | Russian troops inch closer to Ukrainian capital, Kyiv braces for more Russian strikes The almost tangible paranoia on the city's deserted streets, however, is accompanied by strident defiance on the part of many of the distraught victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces. Moscow-backed separatists claim a fragment of a shot-down Ukrainian Tochka-U missile sliced through Donetsk's centre, killing 23 people. In response, Moscow called it a "war crime," and rebels published images of bloody corpses in the street. (With inputs from agencies)

Ukrainian man shocked as a missile explodes mere steps away from him: Watch

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