The United States has “deep concerns” about “alignment” between Russia and China, a senior US official said Monday after high-ranking US and Chinese officials met for seven hours on the Ukraine war and other security issues.
Russia unleashed a barrage of airstrikes Monday on cities across Ukraine as the warring sides traded blame for a deadly attack in a pro-Moscow separatist region.
Power has been restored at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power station, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, the International Atomic Energy Agency said late Monday. Separately, Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom accused the Russian military of detonating ammunition at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in the country’s south.
The UN’s top court said it will give a judgment on Wednesday on Ukraine’s charge that Russia falsely justified its invasion by accusations of genocide. Kyiv filed the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, demanding that the tribunal order an end to the offensive.
The World Bank has announced it was making available nearly $200 million in additional and reprogrammed financing to bolster Ukraine’s social services for vulnerable people, on top of $723 million approved last week.
Japan decided to freeze asset through regulation of payments and capital transactions for 17 Russian individuals, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday. Targets of the new sanctions include Russian parliament lawmakers and family members of banker Yuri Kovalchuk, it said.
Britain’s Defence Ministry said in that Russia could be planning to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine in response to a staged fake attack on Russian troops. It cited no evidence to support the assertion in what it called an intelligence update. US officials have made similar statements.
Ukraine was able to evacuate more than 4,000 people from front-line cities on Monday via seven humanitarian corridors, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video statement. She said three other humanitarian corridors did not operate successfully and she accused Russian forces of firing on civilians who were evacuating in the Kyiv region.
The United Nations on Monday injected $40 million in emergency funding to its agencies supplying Ukrainians with cash, food, medicine and shelter, its humanitarian chief said. It was the second such allocation from the Central Emergency Response Fund since the Russian invasion began on February 24. That same day, the UN announced a $20 million injection.
With inputs from NDTV
India eying more cheap Russian Oil 