The newest developments on the Russia-Ukraine war:
CAIRO — The Arab League has voiced considerations in regards to the conflict in Ukraine, but it surely kept away from demanding an finish to the Russian invasion.
The pan-Arab group says in a communique Monday it helps all ongoing efforts to resolve the disaster “by dialogue and diplomacy.”
The communique comes after a gathering of representatives of the 22-member Arab League in Cairo.
The communique didn’t point out Russia, which has shut ties with regional powers like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Most governments within the Arab areas have averted criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UAE, which holds a short lived seat on the U.N. Safety Council, has joined China and India in abstaining throughout a vote on a U.S. decision condemning the invasion.
___
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities say at the very least 44 folks have been wounded in combating in Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis of Kharkiv, and that seven of them died in hospitals.
It wasn’t clear if the casualties, which coated the previous 24 hours, had been all civilians. The state emergencies company stated the casualties may very well be increased as a result of the harm from Monday’s shelling of residential areas continues to be being assessed.
Ukrainian social networks featured movies exhibiting residential quarters hit by a sequence of highly effective explosions amid combating with Russian forces.
The Russian navy has persistently denied concentrating on residential areas regardless of ample proof of shelling of residential buildings, faculties and hospitals.
___
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia’s inside Ministry stated the nation has requested the European Union border company Frontex to assist it guard its border with Ukraine as 1000’s of Ukrainian refugees flee after the Russian navy invasion.
Slovakia’s 98-kilometer (61-mile) border with Ukraine can be the outer border of the EU’s visa-free Schengen zone.
The Slovak authorities has already agreed to deploy as much as 1,500 troopers to assist the border police take care of lrge numbers of refugees. Some 30,000 Ukrainians have crossed the border since Russia attacked Ukraine on Thursday and their numbers are on the rise.
___
GENEVA — The Swiss president says Russia’s assault on Ukraine is “unacceptable” and Switzerland will undertake European Union sanctions, together with asset freezes, concentrating on Russians – all however depriving well-heeled Russians of entry to considered one of their favourite havens to park their cash.
Ignazio Cassis informed a information convention Monday that Russia’s invasion was insupportable on ethical and political grounds. Switzerland’s authorities has been making an attempt to steadiness its condemnation of Russia’s actions with its historical past of neutrality and as an middleman between opposing nations.
Referring to the Swiss government physique, he added: “The Federal Council has determined to take up absolutely the sanctions of the European Union, together with the asset freezes.”
Switzerland will not be a European Union member however is all however surrounded by 4 EU nations: Austria, France, Germany and Italy.
___
LONDON — Russia-born media mogul Evgeny Lebedev has used the pages of a British newspaper he owns to implore Russian President Vladimir Putin to finish the invasion of Ukraine.
London’s Night Commonplace on Monday encompasses a front-page assertion by Lebedev headlined “President Putin, please cease this conflict,” alongside an Related Press photograph of medics battling to save lots of a 6-year-old woman killed by shelling within the Ukrainian metropolis of Mariupol. Lebedev wrote: “As a Russian citizen I plead with you to cease Russians killing their Ukrainian brothers and sisters. As a British citizen I ask you to save lots of Europe from conflict.”
Lebedev, whose oligarch father Alexander Lebedev as soon as labored for the KGB, was made a member of the Home of Lords in 2020.
Oligarchs Oleg Deripaska, an ally of Putin, and Mikhail Fridman, who’s on a U.S. sanctions record, have additionally urged an finish to the violence.
In the meantime Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian proprietor of Chelsea Soccer Membership, has supplied to assist dealer peace. A spokesman stated Abramovich “was contacted by the Ukrainian aspect for assist in reaching a peaceable decision, and that he has been making an attempt to assist ever since.” It was unclear what assist he may present.
___
GENEVA — Russia’s diplomatic mission says a deliberate go to by Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov to the United Nations in Geneva has been cancelled after EU nations closed their airspace to flights from Russia.
Lavrov had been anticipated to attend high-level conferences on the Human Rights Council and the Convention on Disarmament, adopted by a deliberate information convention.
The mission tweeted that the cancellation of the journey to landlocked Switzerland was as a result of an “unprecedented ban” on Lavrov’s flight by “quite a few EU nations which have imposed anti-Russian sanctions.”
___
PARIS — French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says France is on the point of seize all belongings of Russian officers and enterprise leaders who’re being focused by EU sanctions.
Le Maire stated France is within the technique of itemizing property together with monetary belongings, actual property, yachts and luxurious automobiles.
French authorities are additionally looking for to determine different Russian people who may very well be added into the EU record of individuals focused by sanctions as a result of “their proximity with the Russian management,” he added.
“We’ll get authorized means to grab all these belongings,” Le Maire stated, talking after a particular protection assembly on Ukraine on the Elysee presidential palace.
French Overseas Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed France will participate within the European effort to convey navy tools to Ukraine, to be despatched through a hub in Poland. France will even present extra humanitarian help to Ukraine within the coming days, he stated.
___
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says Japan is stepping up sanctions in opposition to Russia by becoming a member of america and different Western nations in limiting transactions with the Russian central financial institution.
Kishida introduced the measures after talking on the telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Kishida stated Japan will even freeze belongings of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and different Belarusian people and organizations, whereas limiting exports, due to the nation’s “evident involvement within the invasion (of Ukraine).”
Kishida stated his authorities will even permit visa extensions for Ukrainian residents in Japan who worry returning to their nation amid the battle. Earlier Monday, Japan introduced plans to permit Ukrainians fleeing their nation to quickly keep in Japan with out correct refugee standing.
___
MOSCOW — Russia has closed its airspace to carriers from 36 nations, together with European nations and Canada, responding in variety to their transfer to shut their respective airspaces to all Russian plane.
The transfer, introduced Monday by the state aviation company, follows a call by the EU and Canada over the weekend to shut their skies to the Russian planes in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
It added that planes from these nations may solely enter Russia’s airspace with particular permission.
___
WASHINGTON, D.C — The State Division has closed the U.S. Embassy in Belarus and is permitting nonessential workers on the U.S. Embassy in Russia to go away the nation as a result of conflict in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced the suspension of operations on the Minsk embassy and the approved departure from Moscow in an announcement on Monday.
“We took these steps as a result of safety and security points stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified assault by Russian navy forces in Ukraine,” he stated.
___
MOSCOW — Web sites of a number of Russian media shops had been hacked on Monday, with a message condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine showing on their foremost pages.
The state information company TASS, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia, St. Petersburg information isite Fontanka, and quite a few others suffered from the hacking assault on Monday afternoon. The unbiased information website Meduza posted screenshots of a message, signed by the hacker group Nameless and “detached journalists in Russia”, that appeared on the primary pages of among the hacked web sites.
The developments might replicate a rising anti-war sentiment amongst Russians, although it’s unknown who was accountable. Protests in opposition to the devastating assault on Ukraine have been happening all throughout the nation for days, and practically 1 million folks signed an internet petition demanding an finish to the conflict.
___
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norwegian oil big Equinor ASA says it has determined to cease new investments into Russia and divest from its joint ventures in Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Norway-based vitality group has been in Russia for over 30 years and made a cooperation settlement with state-controlled Russian oil and fuel firm Rosneft in 2012.
CEO Anders Opedal stated the corporate was “deeply troubled by the invasion of Ukraine, which represents a horrible setback for the world, and we’re pondering of all those that are struggling due to the navy motion.”
He added that “we regard our place as untenable” and added that the corporate was exiting “in a fashion that’s in line with our values.”
___
MOSCOW — The Russian navy says its nuclear deterrent forces have been placed on excessive alert in step with President Vladimir Putin’s order.
Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu has reported to Putin that command posts of all of Russia’s nuclear forces have been boosted with further personnel. The Protection Ministry stated that the excessive alert standing applies to all parts of Russian nuclear forces — the Strategic Missile Forces that oversee land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Northern and Pacific Fleets which have submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the long-range aviation that has a fleet of nuclear-capable strategic bombers.
Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to be placed on excessive alert Sunday, citing Western sanctions and “aggressive statements” by NATO powers. It’s not instantly clear what particular steps the measure implies, but it surely has raised fears that the conflict in Ukraine may result in a much bigger and much more harmful confrontation.
___
BERLIN — Scientists concerned in writing the latest U.N. climate change report worry that the conflict in Ukraine will divert much-needed authorities funding away from efforts to deal with world warming.
“This battle very clearly feels anachronistic when you think about the existential considerations humanity truly has within the context of local weather change,” stated Hans-Otto Poertner, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change working group that produced the report.
“To see right here that monetary sources are tied up, there may be in fact competitors within the implementation,” he stated, saying the delays are counterproductive particularly coming throughout a decisive decade of local weather coverage.
___
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea says it can ban exports of strategic supplies to Russia, together with weapons and missile-related applied sciences, and assist worldwide efforts to exclude main Russian banks from a key world cost system because it joins a worldwide push to economically strain Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The plans drew an offended response from Russian Ambassador Andrey Kulik, who warned of a serious setback in bilateral relations.
In a information convention , Kulick stated Seoul’s transfer may jeopardize its aspirational plans to convey Russian fuel by North Korea to South Korea’s industrial hubs by cross-border pipelines.
___
GENEVA — The pinnacle of the United Nations refugee company says greater than a half one million folks had fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on Thursday.
Filippo Grandi of the UN Excessive Commissioner for Refugees conveyed the newest replace in a tweet Monday, saying greater than 500,000 folks had fled to neighboring nations.
Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based company, stated she had no particulars in regards to the numbers by nation.
___
BEIJING — China is criticizing the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, saying that may hurt the possibilities of discovering a political settlement.
Overseas Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Monday reiterated China’s normal opposition to “unilateral sanctions that don’t have any foundation in worldwide regulation,” regardless of Beijing’s personal use of such measures in opposition to nations reminiscent of Lithuania over its stance on Taiwan.
“Information have lengthy confirmed that sanctions couldn’t assist remedy issues however create new points,” Wang informed reporters at a day by day briefing. “It is not going to solely end in a lose-lose or multi-lose state of affairs economically, but in addition disrupt the method of political settlement.”
China, together with India and the United Arab Emirates, abstained in Friday’s 11-1 vote on a U.N. Safety Council decision demanding that Moscow instantly cease its assault on Ukraine.
___
GENEVA — U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says her workplace has confirmed that 102 civilians, together with 7 youngsters, have been killed, and 304 others injured in violence in Ukraine since Thursday, as she cautioned that the tally was doubtless an unlimited undercount.
She cited up to date U.N. figures that greater than 420,000 folks have fled the nation within the final a number of days.
“Most of those civilians had been killed by explosive weapons with a large impression space, together with shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket techniques, and air strikes,” Bachelet informed the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. “The actual figures are, I worry, significantly increased.”
___
MOSCOW — The Kremlin has denied that the Russian navy focused populated areas in Ukraine regardless of ample proof that residential buildings, faculties and hospitals have been hit through the Russian invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov alleged Monday that civilian casualties have resulted from members of right-wing Ukrainian nationalist teams utilizing civilians as shields and placing navy tools in populated areas. Peskov’s claims couldn’t be independently confirmed and so they contradicted statements from Ukrainian officers who accused Russia of concentrating on civilians.
Peskov didn’t touch upon Russian calls for in deliberate talks with Ukrainian officers, saying it’s vital to permit negotiations to proceed earlier than making public remark. He additionally declined to spell out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to place Russian nuclear forces on excessive alert.
___
WARSAW, Poland – The prime ministers of the three Baltic states and Poland are calling on Fb, YouTube, Twitter and Google to limit the unfold of misinformation by Russia about its invasion of Ukraine.
In a letter dated Sunday the prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland immediately referred to as on Mark Zuckerberg, Susan Wojcicki, Parag Agrawal and Sundar Pichai to take motion instantly, saying the steps they’ve been taking to date are “not sufficient.”
“The Russian authorities seeks to unfold lies, confusion and doubt about what is going on and to undermine the morale and unity of the democratic world,” the letter learn.
Russia’s “large disinformation marketing campaign” is to “justify to the world and to its personal folks its conflict of aggression and to cover the crimes which might be being dedicated in its course,” it stated.
___
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president says 16 Ukrainian youngsters have been killed and one other 45 have been injured within the Russian invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in a video message Monday that “each crime, each shelling by the occupiers convey our companions and us even nearer.”
He hailed the sanctions that the West slapped on Russia, saying they’ve introduced the Russian forex down. Zelenskyy requested the European Union a particular fast path to membership.
Zelenskyy stated that over 4,500 Russian troops have been killed and referred to as on Russian troopers to put down their weapons and depart. “Don’t belief you commanders, don’t belief your propaganda, simply save your lives,” he stated.
___
LONDON — Britain’s protection secretary says President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he was placing Russia’s nuclear forces on excessive alert was largely an effort to distract the world from the troubles going through his invasion of Ukraine.
Ben Wallace informed the BBC that whereas he understood considerations in regards to the warning, Britain sees no proof of a change in Russia’s nuclear deployment or readiness to make use of the weapons.
“That is him reminding the world that he’s bought a (nuclear) deterrent,” Wallace stated. “However secondly, it’s a part of a distraction as properly. He’s put it on the market and we’re all speaking about it, moderately than the dearth of success they’re at the moment having in Ukraine.”
The feedback got here because the U.Okay. protection ministry stated its intelligence confirmed that the majority of Russia’s forces had been nonetheless 30 kilometers to the north of Kyiv. Logistical failures and staunch Ukrainian resistance proceed to frustrate Russian advance, the ministry stated.
“In the mean time it is a battle of rhetoric that President Putin is deploying, and we simply have to verify we handle it correctly,” Wallace stated.
___
PRZEMYSL, Poland — Trains proceed to convey refugees fleeing conflict in Ukraine to security in Poland and in different nations.
Poland’s Border Guard says round 213,000 folks have entered Poland from Ukraine since Thursday, when Russia waged conflict on Ukraine.
One other practice carrying tons of of refugees from Ukraine arrived early Monday within the city of Przemysl, in southeastern Poland.
In winter coats to guard them in opposition to near-freezing temperatures, with small suitcases, they lined on the platform to the exit. Some waved on the digital camera to indicate they felt reduction to be out of the conflict zone.
___
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s protection trade conglomerate says the world’s largest aircraft that was in common operation was closely broken in combating with Russian troops on the airport exterior Kyiv the place it was parked.
The Ukroboronprom firm stated in an announcement that the Antonov-225 was “destroyed” however can be repaired. The An-225, which is operated by Ukroboronprom’s subsidiary Antonov Airways, is used to maneuver exceptionally giant cargos. Its arrivals and departures at abroad airports usually appeal to aviation buffs to watch the lumbering aircraft with a 290-foot (84-meter) wingspan.
Solely two planes have been constructed with bigger wingspans — the Stratolaunch and the Hughes “Spruce Goose” — however every was used just for a single flight.
___
MOSCOW — The Russian navy says that residents of the Ukrainian capital can use a protected hall to go away town if they need.
Russian Protection Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated Monday that Kyiv residents can safely use a freeway resulting in Vasylkiv simply southwest of the Ukrainian capital. The assertion got here as combating raged in numerous components of the Ukrainian capital, with Ukrainian authorities saying that they had been combating small teams of Russian forces in numerous sectors of the capital.
Konashenkov charged that Ukrainian “nationalists” had been deploying navy tools utilizing town residents as shields, the allegations that may’t be independently verified. Regardless of Russian navy claims that it wasn’t concentrating on populated areas, residential buildings, hospitals and faculties have been hit all throughout Ukraine through the Russian invasion that started Thursday.
Konashenkov additionally introduced new land positive factors, saying Russian troops have taken management of the world across the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant within the south.
___
MOSCOW — Russia’s Central Financial institution has sharply raised its key charge from 9.5% to twenty% in a determined try to shore up the plummeting ruble and forestall the run of banks amid crippling Western sanctions over the Russian conflict in Ukraine.
The financial institution’s motion follows the Western determination Sunday to freeze its exhausting forex reserves in an unprecedented transfer that might have devastating penalties for the nation’s monetary stability. It was unclear precisely what share of Russia’s estimated $640 billion exhausting forex coffers will probably be paralyzed by the transfer, however European officers stated that at the very least half of it will likely be affected.
The transfer will dramatically elevate strain on the ruble by undermining the monetary authorities’ capacity to conduct exhausting forex interventions to stop the ruble from sinking additional and triggering excessive inflation. The ruble has sharply dived in early Monday buying and selling.
The Central Financial institution additionally ordered a slew of measures to assist the banks deal with the disaster by infusing extra cash into the system and easing restrictions for banking operations.
