Russia started exercises with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system and several thousand troops. This is likely to be seen as another attempt by Moscow to show off its nuclear strength. “In total, more than 3,000 military personnel and about 300 pieces of equipment are involved in the exercises,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said that the IOC had recommended to international federations and event organizers that “athletes with a Russian or a Belarusian passport must compete only as Individual Neutral Athletes”. The committee added that “teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport cannot be considered”.
President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus. He marked the first time since the mid-1990s that Moscow would have based such arms outside the country. Such a move would not violate nuclear non-proliferation agreements, Mr. Putin said, as the US had stationed nuclear weapons on the territory of European allies.
Islamabad: It emerged that a Russian technical delegation would hold talks with Pakistan State Oil (PSO) officials in Karachi. It would give final touches to a crude oil import deal at a government-to-government level (GtG), a senior Energy ministry official told The News. "In case of successful talks, both the state-owned nominated companies will sign the commercial agreement the next day (March 22)," said the official.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu presented state awards to the pilots of the combat aircraft involved in the incident. The incident happened over the Black Sea that led to the downing of a US military drone into the water. The Minister said that the pilots of the Su-27 aircraft "prevented the violation by the American MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle of the borders of the area of the temporary regime for the use of airspace."
Moscow said on Wednesday that it would try to retrieve the wreckage of a US military drone that crashed over the Black Sea in a confrontation that Washington blamed on two Russian fighter jets. Russia also warned against “hostile” US flights as tensions simmered and Russia denied its Su-27 military aircraft had clipped the propeller of the unmanned Reaper drone.
On Wednesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed his support for Russia in the war in Ukraine during talks with his Russian counterpart at the Kremlin. In a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad said Russia was fighting neo-Nazis and “old Nazis” in Ukraine, according to a Russian translation. The Syrian leader said the West had taken in “old Nazis” and was now supporting them.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told MSNBC that a US military surveillance drone’s crash into the Black Sea was likely an unintentional act from Russia’s side. Moreover, Moscow warned Washington to keep away from its air space after the incident from a day earlier.
According to British military intelligence, Russian artillery ammunition shortages probably worsened to the extent that “punitive shell-rationing” was taking place in many areas of Ukraine's front line. The Ministry of Defence said that the Russian forces failed to advance recently because of lack of ammunition.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of playing a dirty game over Ukraine in his annual address to parliament on Tuesday. His speech set the tone for a continuing Russian offensive, with a call to strengthen the armed forces and shore up the wartime economy. Mr. Putin also delivered a nuclear warning to the West over Ukraine.
The head of Russia’s influential Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, told China’s top diplomat that Moscow and Beijing must stick together against the West. According to reports carried by Russian state news agencies, Patrushev and Wang Yi held talks in the Russian capital on Tuesday. A close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Patrushev told Wang that Moscow backed China’s position over Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
On Monday, Zelenskyy warned China against supporting Russia, saying doing so would bring about a world war. “For us, it is important that China does not support the Russian Federation in this war. In fact, I would like it to be on our side,” Zelenskyy told. He added: “But I do see an opportunity for China to make a pragmatic assessment of what is happening here … because if China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that.
State media reported, citing the Ministry of Defence that six Russian soldiers were killed in a fire in a bunker in western Russia’s Kursk region. The ministry said the fire was the result of a “gross violation” of safety rules, the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported. The fire occurred near the village of Ulanok, fewer than 10km (six miles) from Ukraine’s northeastern border with Russia, the TASS news agency reported, citing emergency services.
Kyiv: Russian forces continued to shell Ukrainian cities amid a grinding push to seize more land in the east of the country. One person was killed and one more was wounded by the shelling of Nikopol, a city in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region. The shelling damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school, and a water treatment facility.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the West’s efforts to “isolate” Russia had failed and Moscow was building stronger relations worldwide. “Despite the anti-Russian orgy orchestrated by Washington, London and Brussels, we are strengthening good neighbourly relations in the widest sense of this concept with the international majority,” he said.
Moscow: Russian emergency services said that at least four people were killed on Tuesday in a gas explosion. The explosion ripped through a five-floor building in the town of Yefremov south of Moscow. "Five people have been rescued so far, and according to preliminary information, two more remain under the rubble. Unfortunately, four people died," the emergency services said.
Islamabad: In a significant development at the second round of talks of the Pakistan-Russia Inter-Government Commission session in Islamabad, the two countries agreed to form a working group for bilateral cooperation. The 8th three-day meeting of the IGC reviewed the areas of cooperation and looked into ways of exploring new opportunities for strengthening bilateral relations.
Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia was ready to deploy troops to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border to quell tensions between the two countries. Tensions have spiraled between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the blockade of the only road giving direct access to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenia.
India bought a record amount of Russian oil last month, with the country importing a whopping 33 times more than a year earlier. According to data from Vortexa Ltd, the world’s third-biggest crude importer purchased an average of 1.2 million barrels a day from Russia in December. The country is now easily India’s biggest source of oil after overtaking Iraq and Saudi Arabia several months ago.
The German ministry of defense said that Russia’s leaders and forces responsible for war crimes in Ukraine “must be held accountable”. German foreign affairs minister Annalena Baerbock would be traveling to the Hague, it added.
On Thursday, Russia blamed Armenia for a breakdown in peace talks with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. This region became the latest sign of friction between Moscow and Yerevan over the conflict. For months, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, have tried to discuss a peace deal for the contested region in the South Caucasus but in vain.
The Kremlin revealed that Putin, on a phone call, discussed energy and transport projects with Iran’s President Raisi. In a readout of the call, the Kremlin said that the two leaders had discussed deepening their “mutually beneficial projects in the energy, transport and logistics sectors” and their desire to “normalize” the situation in Syria.
Russia stated that the EU was becoming a vassal of NATO. It cited the signing of a joint declaration in which both organizations pledged to deepen their cooperation in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the move “confirms the complete subordination of the European Union to the tasks of the North Atlantic bloc, which is an instrument to guarantee US interests by force”.
The foreign ministry of Estonia asked Russia to reduce the number of diplomats at its embassy in Tallinn by February. “In light of the fact that during the war of aggression, the staff of the Russian embassy is not engaged in advancing Estonian-Russian relations, it is our view that there are no grounds for the current size of the Russian embassy,” the ministry said.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with his newly appointed Chinese counterpart Qin Gang. In a phone call, officials expressed satisfaction over the development of the bilateral political dialogue and practical cooperation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. They rejected “the US and its satellites’ policy to establish hegemony in world affairs, provoking confrontation between Russia and China....imposing sanctions and other illegitimate methods,” the statement said.
Ukraine placed dozens of Russian artists and other public figures on a sanctions list, according to a report published by the president’s office. The announcement entails big names from the world of opera, film, and pop music amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. One of the most well-known names is that of Vienna-based opera singer Anna Netrebko, who came under fire for being too close to the Kremlin and too uncritical of Russian President Putin.
Daniel Hawkins, a journalist based in Moscow, stated that the ceasefire’s announcement came as a surprise to most Russians than the fact it subsequently broke down. He stated that the move shocked many Russians, albeit in a positive way. “For Moscow, this was a gesture that was full of symbolism and is designed to send a message to the domestic audience that Moscow is the one seeking peace and Kyiv is the one rejecting this alleged olive branch,” he added.
Belarus stated that it would continue to build up a joint military grouping with Russia and prepare for joint air force exercises with it. The Belarusian defense ministry said in a statement that the goal of creating such a joint force was “strengthening the protection and defense of the Union State (of Russia and Belarus)”. “Personnel, weapons, military and special equipment of the armed forces of the Russian Federation will continue to arrive in the Republic of Belarus,” the statement said.
An adviser to Zelenskyy, Mikhailo Podolyak, said that European companies who work in Russia must be labeled “supporters [of] the war”. “European Union companies, including pharmaceutical ones, which continue to work in the RF [Russian Federation], must be labeled: ‘supports the war’, ‘supports the mass murder of Ukrainians’, ‘supports the destruction of critical infrastructure’,” Podolyak on Twitter.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence stated that 63 of its soldiers had been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on their temporary accommodation in the town of Makiivka. This is a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. “As a result of a strike by four missiles with a high-explosive warhead on a temporary deployment point, 63 Russian servicemen were killed,” the ministry said. Its statement is a rare announcement of Russian losses in Ukraine.
