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Tag: russia ukraine conflict update

  • Zelenskyy warns Russia is eyeing different nations after Ukraine

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia’s invasion of his nation was only the start and that Moscow has designs on capturing different nations, after a Russian common stated it desires full management over southern Ukraine.

    “All the nations that, like us, believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us. They must help us, because we are the first in line. And who will come next?” Zelenskyy stated in a video deal with late on Friday.

    Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central navy district, was quoted by Russian state information businesses as saying full management over southern Ukraine would give it entry to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied a part of Moldova within the west.

    That would lower off Ukraine’s whole shoreline and imply Russian forces pushing a whole bunch of miles additional west, previous the key Ukrainian coastal cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa.

    ALSO READ | Ukraine’s destiny to be determined in east and south, says Zelenskyy as Russia outlines warfare plan

    The assertion was some of the detailed about Moscow’s ambitions in Ukraine and suggests Russia doesn’t plan to wind down its offensive there anytime quickly.

    Ukraine’s defence ministry stated Minnekayev’s feedback confirmed Russia was not hiding its intentions.

    Moscow, it stated on Twitter, had now “acknowledged that the goal of the ‘second phase’ of the war is not victory over the mythical Nazis, but simply the occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine. Imperialism as it is.”

    But regardless of Russia’s formidable goals and claims to have seized Mariupol, its forces made no main features within the final 24 hours, British navy intelligence stated on Saturday.

    Ukrainian counterattacks proceed to hinder Moscow’s efforts, and heavy combating is irritating Russian makes an attempt to seize the important thing port metropolis, impeding their progress within the Donbas, the Ministry of Defence tweeted in a daily bulletin.

    Russia says it’s conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarise Ukraine and liberate its inhabitants from harmful nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies name Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion an unjustified warfare of aggression.

    ALSO READ | Why Donbas is a vital buffer for Russia | Explained

    Moldova’s overseas ministry stated it had summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Friday to specific “deep concern” concerning the common’s feedback. Moldova was impartial, it stated. Moldova final month utilized to hitch the European Union, charting a pro-Western course hastened by Russia’s invasion.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to touch upon whether or not Russia had expanded its targets or on how Moscow noticed the political way forward for southern Ukraine.

    As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in Washington, Zelenskyy stated allies have been lastly delivering the weapons Kyiv had requested for.

    President Joe Biden stated on Thursday he had licensed an extra $800 million in navy support for Ukraine, together with heavy artillery, ammunition and drones. Canada stated on Friday it had supplied extra heavy artillery to Ukraine.

    A senior EU official stated the subsequent couple of weeks would probably be decisive. “We are likely to see a very significant increase in the intensity of Russian military attacks in the east (and on) the coast,” he instructed reporters.

    ALSO READ | Don’t consider our neighbours after Russia’s invasion, says Ukraine President Zelenskyy

    Ukraine’s navy stated Russia is constant its offensive operations within the east, attempting to determine full management of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas and safe a land connection to Crimea.

    Russian forces are additionally partially blockading town of Kharkiv, based on a Saturday morning replace from Ukraine’s common workers.

    In Mykolaiv, 87 civilians have died within the invasion, together with one baby, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich stated late Friday on his Facebook web page. Nearly 400 individuals have been wounded. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm reviews from both facet.

    Ramzan Kadyrov, the chief of Russia’s Chechnya area who has typically described himself as Putin’s “foot soldier”, wrote on his official Telegram account late on Friday that Chechnya was deploying a whole bunch of extra volunteers to combat for Russia in Ukraine.

    In Geneva, the United Nations human rights workplace stated there was rising proof of Russian warfare crimes, together with indiscriminate shelling and abstract executions. It stated Ukraine additionally appeared to have used weapons with indiscriminate results.

    ALSO SEE | Aerial views present destruction in war-torn Ukraine as Russian invasion continues

    Russia denies focusing on civilians and says, with out proof, that indicators of atrocities dedicated by its troopers have been faked. Ukraine has beforehand stated it’s going to punish any troopers discovered to have dedicated warfare crimes.

    Russia stated it had “securely blockaded” 1000’s of Ukrainian troops holed up in an enormous metal works in Mariupol, the principle port of the Donbas, a day after President Vladimir Putin stated the military wouldn’t trouble rooting them out.

    Putin declared victory within the metropolis after a virtually two-month siege. In a Russian-held part of Mariupol, dazed-looking residents ventured out this week to a background of charred condominium blocks and wrecked automobiles.

    Volunteers in white hazmat fits and masks roved the ruins, accumulating our bodies from residences and loading them on to a truck marked with the letter “Z”, image of Russia’s invasion.

    ALSO READ | Biden pronounces extra navy support to Ukraine, questions Russia’s declare on Mariupol

    Ukraine estimates tens of 1000’s of civilians have died in Russia’s siege of town and says 100,000 civilians are nonetheless there and wish full evacuation.

    Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Friday stated “there is a possibility” a humanitarian hall out of Mariupol may very well be opened up on Saturday.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will go to Moscow on Tuesday to fulfill Putin and talk about urgently bringing peace to Ukraine, a spokesperson stated, including that Guterres will then head to Kyiv for talks with Zelenskyy.

  • India able to feed the world: Modi govt’s pitch as Ukraine battle triggers world meals disaster

    The world is looking at a meals disaster. The commodity costs within the worldwide market have been already at a 10-year excessive earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine. The extended Russia-Ukraine battle has aggravated the world meals disaster.

    Russia and Ukraine are the meals basket of the world, primarily Europe. They provide about one-third of the annual wheat sale globally. Additionally, they provide 55 per cent of sunflower oil and over 15 per cent of maize and barley.

    The Ukraine battle and consequent sanctions on Russia have disrupted the meals provide chain. It has piled on the worldwide harvest points that have been pushing the costs earlier than the battle started.

    Now, because the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (UNFAO) has put it, the commodity costs have jumped to their highest since 1990, one other turbulent 12 months as a consequence of varied causes together with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Gulf rigidity and virtually financial default by India.

    ALSO READ | Inflation price in India soars: Top components behind spike

    Thirty-two years down the road, the query is, can India rescue the world from this meals disaster?

    This was one of many highlights when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden spoke earlier this month. And now, Sneha Dubey, India’s first secretary on the UN, has stated on the UN Security Council Arria-Formula assembly on Conflict and Hunger.

    INDIA’S OFFER

    Sneha Dubey stated, “Food security challenges emanating from Ukraine require us to respond creatively. Growing shortages can only be addressed by going beyond the constraints that bind us presently.”

    The Arria-Formula assembly, named after former Venezuelan ambassador Diego Arria, who institutionalised casual conferences of the UNSC within the early Nineties to take care of conditions arising out of conflicts, was held in New York on Thursday (India time).

    MODI-BIDEN FOOD PITCH

    Earlier, throughout his interplay with Biden, Modi additionally spoke concerning the constraints.

    India has sufficient meals for its folks and is able to provide meals shares to the world from tomorrow if the World Trade Organization (WTO) permits us, he informed Biden of their digital assembly.

    “We already have enough food for our people but our farmers seem to have made arrangements to feed the world. However, we have to work according to the laws of the world, so I don’t know when WTO will give permission and we can supply food to the world,” he stated.

    ALSO READ | India, too, has views on human rights state of affairs in US, says Jaishankar

    “Today the world is facing an uncertain situation as nobody is getting what they want. Petrol, oil and fertilizers are hard to procure as all the doors are getting closed. Everybody wants to secure their stocks after this [Russia-Ukraine] war began,” he stated.

    “The world is facing a new problem now. The food stock of the world is getting emptyif WTO permits, India is ready to supply food stock to the world from tomorrow,” he stated.

    TRACK RECORD

    Sneha Dubey bolstered the declare with statistics. She stated, “In view of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, India has decided to donate 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat. Similarly, India has continued its humanitarian support for Myanmar including a grant of 10,000 tonnes of rice and wheat.”

    Like the Ukraine battle, conditions in each Afghanistan and Myanmar have left the world polarised. India has taken a ‘impartial’ stance in all three conditions whereas emphasising that humanitarian considerations arising out of those developments should be addressed by the worldwide neighborhood on precedence.

    ALSO READ | Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa admits errors led to financial disaster

    CAN INDIA DO THIS?

    India is the second-biggest producer of wheat and rice, the 2 staples. It has a inventory of over 850 lakh (85 million) tonnes of them 513 lakh (51.3 million) tonnes with the Food Corporation of India and one other 340 lakh (34 million) tonnes.

    Of this inventory, 21 million tonnes is segregated as its strategic reserve and the Public Distribution System (PDS), which has bettered its status through the Covid-19 pandemic by offering meals to about 80 crore (800 million) folks, as per authorities figures.

    Indian provides may also settle down rising commodity costs. India provides one of many most cost-effective wheat and rice. India exports wheat to about 70 nations and rice to about 150.

    The world meals disaster has already seen Indian merchants signing contracts for exporting about 30 lakh (3 million) tonnes through the April-July interval. The official projection suggests one other bumper harvest of wheat at over 110 million tonnes this season.

    ALSO READ | Economic crises throughout: What’s occurring in India’s neighbourhood

    WHAT NOW?

    In a associated improvement, a day after the Modi-Biden talks, a UN panel the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) on Food, Energy and Finance really helpful that the WTO calm down its guidelines for the export of food-grains underneath the World Food Programme (WFP).

    The GCRG was arrange after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to check the results of the battle on weak nations. The WTO has to take a last name on rule rest throughout its ministerial convention scheduled in June.

    However, because the Modi authorities goals to feed the world with Indian farm produce, it’s preventing arduous to maintain the meals inflation down at residence. Food inflation reached a 16-month excessive in March at 7.68 per cent. Prices of greens, edible oil, milk, meat, fish and cereals have elevated sharply prior to now few months.

    Yet, the cushion of meals shares with the federal government companies places India ready to assist the world battle starvation. Prices should be slightly excessive each at residence and away.

    ALSO READ | As Sri Lanka’s financial system spirals into disaster, right here’s a snapshot of the export-import state of affairs

  • Russia warns of nuclear deployment if Sweden and Finland be a part of Nato

    One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies warned Nato on Thursday that if Sweden and Finland joined the U.S.-led army alliance then Russia must bolster its defences within the area, together with by deploying nuclear weapons.

    Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden are contemplating becoming a member of the Nato alliance. Finland will decide within the subsequent few weeks, Prime Minister Sanna Marin stated on Wednesday.

    Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, stated that ought to Sweden and Finland be a part of Nato then Russia must strengthen its land, naval and air forces within the Baltic Sea.

    ALSO READ | Russia contests elections to 4 UN committees, loses all

    Medvedev additionally explicitly raised the nuclear risk by saying that there could possibly be no extra discuss of a “nuclear free” Baltic – the place Russia has its Kaliningrad exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

    “There can be no more talk of any nuclearfree status for the Baltic – the balance must be restored,” stated Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012.

    “Until today, Russia has not taken such measures and was not going to,” Medvedev stated. “If our hand is forced well… take note it wasn’t us who proposed this,” he added.

    Lithuania stated Russia’s threats had been nothing new and that Moscow had deployed nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad lengthy earlier than the conflict in Ukraine.

    ALSO READ | Ukraine claims huge success as main Russian warship suffers huge injury in missile assault

    The potential accession of Finland and Sweden into Nato – based in 1949 to supply collective Western safety in opposition to the Soviet Union – could be one of many largest European strategic penalties of the conflict in Ukraine.

    Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917 and fought two wars in opposition to it throughout World War Two throughout which it misplaced some territory to Moscow. On Thursday, Finland introduced a army train in Western Finland with the participation of forces from Britain, the United States, Latvia and Estonia.

    Sweden has not fought a conflict for 200 years and post-war international coverage has centered on supporting democracy internationally, multilateral dialogue and nuclear disarmament.

    KALININGRAD

    Kaliningrad is of explicit significance within the northern European theatre. Formerly the Prussian port of Koenigsberg, capital of East Prussia, it lies lower than 1400 km from London and Paris and 500 km from Berlin.

    ALSO SEE | Protests internationally in opposition to Russia’s Ukraine invasion

    Russia stated in 2018 it had deployed Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, which was captured by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union on the Potsdam convention.

    The Iskander, often called SS-26 Stone by Nato, is a short-range tactical ballistic missile system that may carry each standard and nuclear warheads.

    Its official vary is 500 km however some Western army sources suspect its vary could also be a lot larger.

    “No sane person wants higher prices and higher taxes, increased tensions along borders, Iskanders, hypersonics and ships with nuclear weapons literally at arm’s length from their own home,” Medvedev stated.

    “Let’s hope that the common sense of our northern neighbors will win,” stated Medvedev.

    Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas stated Russia had deployed nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad even earlier than the conflict.

    ALSO READ | EU, UK search to nook Russia with extra sanctions

    “Nuclear weapons have always been kept in Kaliningrad … the international community, the countries in the region, are perfectly aware of this,” Anusauskas was quoted as saying by BNS. “They use it as a threat.”

    Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed 1000’s of individuals, displaced tens of millions and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States – by far the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

    Putin says the “special military operation” in Ukraine is important as a result of the United States was utilizing Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow needed to defend in opposition to the persecution of Russian-speaking individuals by Ukraine.

    Ukraine says it’s combating in opposition to an imperial-style land seize and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. U.S. President Joe Biden says Putin is a conflict legal and a dictator.

    Putin says the battle in Ukraine as a part of a much wider confrontation with the United States which he says is making an attempt to implement its hegemony at the same time as its dominance over the worldwide order declines.

  • Russia or die: Residents of Mariupol left with no alternative as conflict rages on

    Russia-Ukraine conflict has left 1000’s useless, hundreds of thousands displaced and a number of cities akin to Mariupol wrecked. Many Ukrainians fled the conflict and others spent weeks in damp basements ready for the humanitarian corridors to open, to exit town they as soon as cherished. In the midst of all this, Ukrainians got a alternative by Russian troops – go to Russia or die.

    According to experiences, multiple lakh persons are nonetheless stranded in Mariupol, a strategic port metropolis, with out meals, water and energy. Since communication to town has been minimize off, it is almost unattainable for residents to know when it is perhaps secure to return out of bomb shelters or learn how to catch evacuation buses.

    RUSSIA OR DIE

    According to a CNN report, somewhat than permitting secure passage out of town, Russian and separatist troops are taking tens of 1000’s of civilians to”filtration centers” in Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in jap Ukraine, which Russia recognised as impartial, earlier than beginning its invasion of Ukraine.

    “A man with a weapon comes in at night and says it’s an evacuation. People who have been in the shelter for about 20 days get out, they are put in the car and sent somewhere. In the morning, they saw that this was not Ukraine,” a resident instructed CNN.

    READ | ‘She was so scared’: Man who fled Ukraine’s Mariupol fears granddaughter might be taken to Russian metropolis

    Andrey, a 45-year-old, stated that residents weren’t given an choice to remain in Ukraine. Andrey alongside along with his neighbours had been transported to Dokuchaevsk, a area in Donetsk. Two days later, he was pushed again south to Novoazovsk after which throughout the border to Russia. Andrey just isn’t alone, lots of of civilians had been allegedly despatched to Russia underneath the pretext of ‘evacuation’.

    Anna, one other resident, claimed that 90 ladies and kids had been directed to a “registration camp” in Ukraine’s Bezimenne, together with a number of others. She stated they had been questioned by Russian troops and all particulars had been recorded earlier than being bused out to Russia.

    “They came in and said, it is an order: women and children have to leave. Some of those who asked to stay were told no,” Anna was quoted as saying.

    According to Ukrainian officers, residents weren’t given a alternative earlier than they had been compelled out.

    “They [Ukrainian refugees] were told, you have an option to stay and die, or to go to Russia,” a Ukrainian civil rights activist instructed CNN.

    Russian authorities have, nevertheless, denied all experiences on ‘filtration centres’ and alleged that Ukraine is hindering all efforts to evacuate residents from battle zones.

    Mariupol stays one of many essential cities for Russia due to its location. It sits between Donetsk within the Donbas area and Crimea.

    In reality, three important cities make up for Russia’s strategic goal within the east to safe the area and create the ‘land bridge’ between Donbas and Crimea – Mariupol, Melitopol, Kherson.

    Mariupol additionally has Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, the second-largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, and the Azovstal iron and steelworks, one of many largest metal rolling firms within the nation.