Junior Digest

Mar 04,2022: Russia and Ukraine have agreed on the need for humanitarian corridors to deliver aid and help civilians exit besieged Ukrainian cities, in the first apparent sign of progress in talks between the warring sides.

Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky reported “substantial progress” at Thursday’s talks – the second round of negotiations since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine – saying the “main issue that we settled today is the salvation of people, civilians who have found themselves in a zone of military clashes”.
However, he did not indicate when the safe corridors may be established.

The tentative agreement, reached in Belarus, came as Russian forces continued to surround and attack Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and the second-biggest city of Kharkiv.
Thousands are thought to have died or been wounded in the eight-day conflict, while more than one million people have fled the fighting in what the United Nations has called the swiftest exodus of refugees this century.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 4,2022: A fire broke out in a training building at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe during intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Friday.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said there was no indication of elevated radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which provides more than a fifth of total electricity generated in Ukraine.

A video feed from the plant verified by Reuters showed shelling and smoke rising near a building at the plant compound.
The footage shot at night showed one building aflame, and a volley of incoming shells, before a large candescent ball lit up the sky, exploding beside a car park and sending smoke billowing across the compound.

The mayor of the nearby town of Energodar about 550 km (342 miles) southeast of Kyiv said fierce fighting and “continuous enemy shelling” had caused casualties in the area, without providing details.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed or wounded and more than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin last Thursday launched the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

New Delhi,Mar 07,2022: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed with him the issue of safe evacuation of Indian citizens from war-torn Ukraine’s Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumy at the earliest.

“PM Modi spoke on the phone to Russian President Putin. The phone call lasted for about 50 min. They discussed the evolving situation in Ukraine. President Putin briefed PM Modi on the status of negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian teams,” news agency ANI quoted official sources as saying.

During their conversation, Prime Minister Modi stressed the importance of the safe evacuation of Indian citizens from Sumy at the earliest. In his turn, President Putin assured Prime Minister Modi of all possible cooperation in their safe evacuation.

The Prime Minister also appreciated the announcement of the ceasefire and establishment of humanitarian corridors in parts of Ukraine, including Sumy, the sources said.

In phone talks that lasted for 50 minutes, PM Modi also urged Putin to hold direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in addition to the ongoing negotiations between their teams, the sources said.

They said the two leaders discussed the evolving situation in Ukraine, adding that Putin briefed PM Modi on the status of negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian teams. It was the third telephonic conversation between the two leaders after the military conflict began in Ukraine 11 days back.

PM Modi earlier had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the ongoing war with Rusia and the overall situation there. Zelenskyy informed PM Modi about the need to counter the “Russian aggression” against his country.

“Informed Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi about Ukraine countering Russian aggression,” President Zelenskyy tweeted after his telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Modi that lasted for around 35 minutes.

“India appreciates the assistance to its citizens during the war and Ukraine’s commitment to direct peaceful dialogue at the highest level. Grateful for the support to the Ukrainian people. #StopRussia,” Zelenskyy added. It was the second telephonic conversation between PM Modi and Zelenskyy after the conflict began in Ukraine.

Around 700 Indian students are stranded in Sumy amid intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops. India has brought back nearly 16,000 of its nationals in 76 flights under mission “Operation Ganga” which was launched on February 26 following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, according to officials in New Delhi.

India has been urging both Russian and Ukrainian authorities to create a safe passage for the students to either move to the Russian border or to western Ukraine for their exit to Romania, Hungary or Poland.

Prime Minister Modi has expressed deep concern about the ongoing conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis and reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of violence. Earlier, the Russian authorities said it would begin a ceasefire on Monday and open “humanitarian corridors” in key Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

VIENNA, March 4,2022: Talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal appeared to near a climax with talk of an imminent ministerial meeting as a U.N. report on Thursday showed Iran is most of the way to amassing enough enriched uranium for one bomb if purified further.

“We are close to a possible deal,” Jalina Porter, the U.S. State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, told reporters but cautioned that unsolved issues remained and that time was of the essence given the pace of Iran’s nuclear advances.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report showed Iran’s stock of uranium enriched up to 60% fissile purity had almost doubled to 33.2 kg (110 pounds), which a senior diplomat said was around three-quarters of the amount needed, if enriched further, for a nuclear bomb according to a common yardstick.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog report was seen by Reuters as negotiators seek to resurrect the deal between world powers and Iran under which Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions that slashed its oil exports.

Global oil prices, which had surged to their highest levels in roughly a decade because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, steadied on expectations the deal may be restored, allowing more Iranian oil to flow into a tight market. read more

However, U.S., Iranian and European officials all said an agreement had not yet been struck even as some participants were upbeat.

“There are some issues that need to be finalised … the outstanding issues are relatively small, but not yet settled,” said Russia’s envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov, who in public has been the most optimistic participant in the 11 months of talks.

UNITED NATIONS, March 3,2022: The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Russia for invading Ukraine and demanded that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its military forces, an action that aims to diplomatically isolate Russia at the world body.

The resolution, supported by 141 of the assembly’s 193 members, passed in a rare emergency session called by the U.N. Security Council while Ukrainian forces battled to defend the port of Kherson in the face of air strikes and a devastating bombardment that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
Russia was joined by Belarus, which has served as a launch pad for Russian invasion forces, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria in voting against the resolution. Thirty-five members, including China, abstained.
While General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they carry political weight, with Wednesday’s vote representing a symbolic victory for Ukraine and increasing Moscow’s international isolation. Even Russia’s traditional ally Serbia voted against it.

Mar 04,2022: In a major blow to the Jaganmohan Reddy government’s plan of constituting three capitals, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has ordered the continuation of construction and development works in the Amaravati capital city and capital region.
The three-member division bench headed by chief justice P K Mishra declared that the Andhra Pradesh state legislature “has no legislative competence to enact any law for shifting the three organs of the state.”

Delivering its verdict on a bunch of petitions filed by farmers and others opposing the capital shift, the court directed the government and the AP Capital Region Development Authority to construct and develop Amaravati capital city and capital region within six months time, as agreed in the earlier terms and conditions.

In 2015, during the Chandrababu Naidu government, Amaravati farmers had parted with their farm lands for the mega capital city. They were promised developed plots in return, among other benefits. But after coming to power in 2019, Reddy stopped the work on Amaravati and brought in a law allowing a three capital set up.
“Change of government is not a ground to change the policy. The present government is under statutory legal obligation to complete the projects undertaken by the earlier government, unless they are contrary to any statutory or constitutional provisions,” the court observed in its 307 page order on Thursday.
Stating that the government violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners “as they surrendered their only source of livelihood i.e. agriculture under the Land Pooling Scheme,” the court ordered payment of Rs 50,000 to them.
The government was also asked to file affidavits on the progress made in its directions. Amaravati region villagers, who have been agitating since December 2019 against Reddy’s plans, celebrated the verdict with sweets.

Beijing,Mar 08,2022: China and India have encountered “some setbacks” in the bilateral relations in recent years, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday as he called for managing their differences over the boundary issue through equal footing consultations for a “fair and equitable” settlement. Addressing his annual press conference on the sidelines of the Chinese parliament, Wang also said that some forces have always sought to stoke tensions between China and India, in an apparent reference to the US. “China and India relations have encountered some setbacks in recent years which do not serve the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples,” Wang said in response to a question asked by PTI on the boundary issue and ties between the two neighbours.

“As regards the boundary question, it is left over from history. China has all along advocated managing differences through equal footing consultation and actively seeking a fair and equitable settlement and meanwhile not letting it affect or interfere with bigger picture of bilateral cooperation,” he said. China and India should be “partners rather than rivals”, said Wang, who is also the State Councilor. Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India’s relationship with China is right now going through a “very difficult phase” after Beijing violated agreements not to bring military forces to the border.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2022 in Germany, Jaishankar had said that India was having a problem with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Wang said some forces have always sought to stoke tension between China and India and division between regions.

Noting that China and India have a combined population of over 2.8 billion and account for one-third of humanity, and when the two countries active stability and prosperity and living in peace and harmony, global peace and prosperity will have a solid foundation, he said.

Mar 10,2022: For investors, these are unprecedented times.
The world has been rocked by a deadly pandemic. Europe is at war; Russia in an economic chokehold. The United States is experiencing its highest inflation in 40 years and it’s likely to get worse. Currency and equity markets are gripped by a scale of volatility unseen in years. The status quo of the traditional geopolitical order faces a crisis. And commodities are trading like meme stocks.
Enter cryptocurrency – a $3 trillion market that promises to liberate people from the grip of the global financial system.

Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly mainstream. Five years ago, the market was valued at just $14bn – a fraction of what it is today.
The US government, among others, is trying to get in on the digital asset boom, seeking to regulate and reinvent a sector operating largely out of its reach.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order requiring the government to assess the risks and benefits of creating its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).

While taking inspiration from cryptocurrencies and following some of the same principles, CBDCs are not regarded as crypto as they are regulated by a central authority. The White House will also look into mitigating crypto risks for consumers and leading economic and technological competitiveness and innovation in the sector.

China debuted its version of a CBDC, the digital yuan, during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games last month.

According to the Pew Research Center, 16 percent of Americans have dabbled in trading, using, and investing in cryptocurrencies. That figure is likely to rise considerably, crypto industry figures told Al Jazeera.

“I think we may refer to 2022 as the year of the big catalyst for crypto because what governments did is actually force adoption,” Ran Neuner, host of CNBC’s Crypto Trader, told Al Jazeera. “They put people in a position where they had no choice but to flee to the other system.”

‘What governments did’
The US and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

The world’s largest credit card networks, Visa and Mastercard, and internet payments giant PayPal announced over the weekend that they are suspending services in Russia. That means that credit and debit cards issued by Russian banks will no longer work outside of Russia. Russian businesses also will not be able to accept cards issued from outside the country.
“It’s the most ridiculous thing,” Neuner said. “Russians that are living in the US but have bank accounts in Russia have had their credit cards cut off. Essentially, people are forced onto the alternative financial system.”

Russians have also been barred from using SWIFT – an international bank messaging system vital for transactions. Russia’s central bank has had its assets seized and hundreds of companies in the tech, oil, media and consumer goods sectors have pulled their operations from the country. Last week, the rouble hit an all-time low.

If your participation in the global financial system is dependent on the appeasement of the US and its allies and if you’re not in good standing with those people, they kick you out of that system, maybe you’re going to look for a different global financial system to participate in.

Why Bitcoin is the most decentralised cryptocurrency
Bitcoin is the world’s most well-known fully decentralised cryptocurrency. The majority of the digital coin’s trading is done on a peer-to-peer basis. There is no middleman, unlike with banks, and transactions are recorded on a blockchain – a digital ledger maintained by a network of computers.
Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous for the anonymous person or entity that basically wrote the code. Nobody funded it, nobody invested in it –it’s open-source software. There was economic incentive for people to join the network to mine Bitcoin and over time, that incentive led to the creation of what Bitcoin enthusiasts consider the strongest computer network in the world.

To change something in the Bitcoin infrastructure, a proposal must first be submitted and then approved by many different players in the Bitcoin universe, including the people who mine the Bitcoin and the nodes – those who run the software.

This infrastructure is what makes Bitcoin resilient to nation-state attack and meddling.

‘The analogy here is Gmail versus email’
In addition to the decentralised Bitcoin network, there are centralised and decentralised trading platforms where one can buy, sell, and trade Bitcoin and thousands of other digital currencies and assets.

Centralised exchanges, which include platforms such as Coinbase, Binance and Kraken that embrace government oversight, have recently come under pressure to ban all Russian users — not just sanctioned individuals — from their platforms.

Coinbase announced earlier this week that it had blocked 25,000 Russian-linked cryptocurrency addresses. The platform said the addresses were linked to Russian individuals or entities it believed to have engaged in illicit activity. Last week, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, reportedly removed Iranian users from its platform.

A truly decentralised network like Bitcoin protects users from this.

“The analogy here is Gmail versus email. Google could block certain addresses at the application level. But the smtp email protocol still works,” Ryan Selkis, founder of crypto research firm Messari, told Al Jazeera.

A Kraken spokesperson told Al Jazeera that freezing digital assets of citizens from an entire country does not necessarily punish those who are responsible for illicit activity.

“We hope a solution can be found that doesn’t cause serious and unnecessary harm to the individuals, families, and businesses who ultimately played no part in the decision to invade Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.

‘A potential future state’
Sanctions only work if people are using your currency. But if Russia and China decide they’re going to use Beijing’s digital central bank digital currency or Moscow decides to create its own, sanctions will no longer pack a punch.

In January, the US Federal Reserve said that its very own CBDC could be critical in maintaining the US dollar’s dominant global role. The central bank warned of “a potential future state” in which countries’ CBDCs could reduce the dollar’s global use and dominance.
China may have an opening in meeting the needs of Russia’s new economic reality.

In response to the Visa and Mastercard blockade, Sberbank and other Russian banks are reportedly considering using China’s credit card company UnionPay to issue cards.

China’s digital yuan could also become more mainstream.

“A digital yuan could allow the Chinese Communist Party to maintain control and surveillance over all domestic transactions, but include privacy protections that make the yuan more exportable as a reserve,” Selkis said.

Mar 04,2022: Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Friday that the fire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been put out.

Ukraine said in the early hours of Friday Russian forces had attacked the plant and a five-story training facility building next to it was on fire.

A statement from the emergency services posted on Facebook said there were no victims in the fire.
Ukraine said emergency services were able to access the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant where a training facility on the exterior of the facility caught fire following Russian shelling.

Both the IAEA and the White House said they were actively monitoring the attack on Europe’s largest nuclear plant and that there has not been an increase in radiation levels.

Mar 05,2022: Russia passed a law that threatens prison time for anyone publishing what authorities consider to be false information about the country’s invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin refers to as a special military operation.

The law—a change to the country’s criminal code, which the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament approved on Friday—says anyone found guilty of knowingly disseminating false information and data about the use of Russia’s armed forces would be punished by a prison sentence of up to 15 years or a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles, equivalent to about $14,000. Reporting data on Russia’s military casualties not provided by the Russian Defense Ministry would also be considered a violation.

Mar 10,2022: Speaking at the United Nations Security Council Arria Formula Meeting, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, R Ravindra said: “We will always speak up for the interest of the developing world, including Africa, the Sahel region, and Small Island Developing States. And we will do so at the place it deserves — the UNFCCC.”
He said that India is second to none when it comes to climate action.
“Our Prime Minister made ambitious commitments in Glasgow CoP over and above the commitments made earlier. India is probably the only G20 country on course to meet its 2030 Paris targets. The UN-led UNFCCC, which has near-universal membership, has been the main driver over the years to take all of us collectively forward, guided by principles and provisions agreed to by all,” the Deputy Permanent Representative said.
“It represents a balanced global democratic effort where there are a concrete commitment from developed countries as well as genuine requirement on developing countries,” he said.
“We will resist any attempt to take climate change out of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and discuss it separately without these principles and provisions,” he said.
India further said that developed countries have fallen short of their promises not just on mitigation but also on providing access to climate finance and technologies.
Affordable access to climate finance and technologies is critical to move forward on climate action. “Developed countries must provide climate finance of 1 trillion dollars at the earliest,” he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate Report released last week states that the “climate finance for adaptation is sufficient and constrains the implementations of adaptation; and that globally tracked climate finance is targeted at mitigation and only a small proportion towards adaptation.”
“We recognized that fact that climate change may have exacerbated conflicts in a certain part of Africa and Sahel. But viewing conflicts only through the prism of climate change is misleading. Oversimplification of causes of conflict will not help in resolving them,” Ravindra said.

JERUSALEM ,Mar 06,2022: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday, their third conversation in two days, a Bennett spokesperson said, without giving further details.
Israel will continue trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine even if success seems unlikely, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday after returning from surprise talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine has requested that Israel serve as intermediary, citing the government’s good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow. Bennett’s office said he had spoken three times over the weekend with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In televised remarks to his cabinet, Bennett gave no details on his three-hour Kremlin meeting with Putin on Saturday, saying only that it had “the blessing and encouragement of all parties” – an allusion to the United States, among other powers.

“We will continue to assist wherever this is requested, even if the chances are not great,” Bennett said. “The moment there is even a small opening, and we have the access to all sides and the capability, I see it as a moral duty to make every attempt.”

The Russian embassy in Israel declined to comment. The Ukrainian ambassador to Israel also declined immediate comment, saying he would hold a news conference on Monday.

Israel has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, expressed solidarity with Kyiv and sent humanitarian aid. But Bennett has not met Ukrainian requests for military assistance and has kept channels open to Russia, with which Israel coordinates its operations against Iranian deployments in Syria.

WASHINGTON, March,03,202: The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday said former President Donald Trump may have engaged in criminal conduct in his bid to overturn his election defeat.

“Evidence and information available to the Committee establishes a good-faith belief that Mr. Trump and others may have engaged in criminal and/or fraudulent acts,” the committee said in a court filing.

Mar 9,2022: The last batch of the Indian students who were stranded in Ukraine’s Sumy was successfully evacuated with the help of the Indian government on Tuesday. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian nationals are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine. Notably, this come after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to both Ukrainian and Russian Presidents about the safe evacuations of the students from the war zone. During the telephonic conversation with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Indian PM had appealed to announce a ceasefire to evacuate all the students.
“Prime Minister Modi conveyed his deep concern for the safety and security of the Indian students still remaining in Sumy. President Putin briefed Prime Minister about the ongoing measures related to humanitarian corridors for facilitating the evacuation of civilians including Indian students,” read the statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday.
According to a report by Republic Media Network, about 700 students who were stranded in Sumy amid heavy shelling from Russian forces, were evacuated by the special transportation facility arranged by the Indian government. In order to provide a safe passage to the buses, the vehicles were marked with the Red Cross symbol and the Indian flag. Apart from this, the buses were escorted especially by the convoy of the Red cross. The mutually coordinated ceasefire was provided especially for Indian students, and no other country was provided with such preference.
“Happy to inform that we have been able to move out all Indian students from Sumy. They are currently en route to Poltava, from where they will board trains to western Ukraine. Flights under #OperationGanga are being prepared to bring them home,” tweeted MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. It is worth mentioning that the Government of India started rescuing stranded people from Ukraine on February 22 under ‘Operation Ganga’– two days before the Russian government officially announced a full-fledged attack on its neighbouring country. As per the Ministery of Civil Aviation press release, about 18 thousand Indians have been brought back by special flights so far. As many as 410 Indians were brought back on Tuesday by special Civilian flights from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries by two special civilian flights from Suceava.

Seoul,Mar 10,2022: The opposition conservative Yoon Suk-yeol won South Korea’s presidential election early Thursday, propelling a political novice and avowed anti-feminist to the helm of Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
After a bitter, hard-fought election campaign Yoon, formerly a top prosecutor who has never held elected office, was declared winner as rival Lee Jae-myung from the incumbent Democratic Party conceded defeat.
“This is a victory of the great South Korean people,” Yoon told cheering supporters, who were chanting his name at the country’s National Assembly.
His victory margin was razor-thin: Yoon had 48.56 percent of the vote against Lee’s 47.83 percent, according to South Korea’s National Election Commission.
Despite a campaign dominated by mud-slinging between Yoon and Lee, voter turnout was 77.1 percent, including record early voting, with interest strong and the policy stakes high in the country of some 52 million.
The two parties are ideologically poles apart, and Yoon’s victory looks set to usher in a more hawkish, fiscally conservative regime after five years under outgoing President Moon Jae-in’s dovish liberals.
It is also a dramatic victory for the opposition People Power party, who were left in disarray in 2017 after their president Park Geun-hye was impeached.
It could restart the “cycle of revenge” in South Korea’s famously adversarial politics, analysts say, where presidents serve just a single term of five years and every living former leader has been jailed for corruption after leaving office.
On the campaign trail, Yoon had threatened to investigate outgoing President Moon Jae-in, citing unspecified “irregularities”.
But in his victory speech, he struck a more conciliatory tone, telling the country after a divisive race: “The competition is over now, and everyone must make joint efforts to become one.”
The frontrunners, who were both so unpopular that local media branded it the “election of the unfavourables”, have been neck and neck for months.
Yoon has many “unknowns” which are difficult to account for, Karl Friedhoff of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs told AFP.
“His lack of experience on any real policymaking is a serious concern,” he said.
However, “he appears to be aggressive and ambitious, and he has consolidated the support of a huge chunk of the country’s elite,” Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.
North Korea
Yoon will have to confront an increasingly assertive North Korea, which has embarked on a record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year including a launch just days before the election.
He is more hawkish on Pyongyang and has threatened a pre-emptive strike if necessary.
Yoon’s “advisers and legal lens on politics suggest he will support the US-backed rules-based order in Asia,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul told AFP.
Young swing voters were a decisive factor in the race, analysts said, with the demographic’s top concerns skyrocketing house prices in the capital Seoul, social inequality and stubborn youth unemployment.
Yoon has promised to build millions of new homes.
But he had also specifically courted disgruntled young male voters, with a promise to abolish the gender equality ministry, on the basis that South Korean women do not suffer from “systemic gender discrimination”, despite evidence to the contrary.
“My heart is very heavy and desperate,” said Kim Ju-hee, a women’s rights activist.
Yoon’s win has “set a precedent where a president-elect can openly ridicule women,” she added.
Exit polls showed Yoon getting 58.7 percent support from men in their 20s, compared to Lee at 36.3 percent — but for women in their 20s, Lee received 58 percent to Yoon’s 33.8.
“The widespread support Yoon enjoys from young men is, frankly, absolutely terrifying from a woman’s point of view,” academic and female voter Keung Yoon Bae told AFP.

Kyiv, March 9,2022 : Contact between the UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was lost, leading to concern for staff working under Russian guards at the Ukrainian facility, Khaljee Times reported on Wednesday. The defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of a 1986 disaster that killed hundreds and spread radioactive contamination west across Europe was captured by Russian forces on February 24. The agency said that more than 200 technical staff and guards have been working for 13 days straight at the plant since the Russian takeover, claiming that the situation for the staff “getting worse” at the site. The IAEA called upon Russia to allow workers to rotate and rest as they were crucial for the site’s safety. The defunct plant is inside an exclusion zone that houses decommissioned reactors as well as radioactive waste facilities. However, it requires constant management to prevent another nuclear disaster, hence more that 2,000 staff still work at the plant. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi “indicated that remote data transmission from safeguards monitoring systems installed at the Chornobyl NPP had been lost” prompting Grossi to offer to travel to the site or elsewhere to secure “the commitment to the safety and security” of Ukraine’s power plants from all parties. The term “safeguard” is used by the IAEA to describe technical measures it applies to nuclear material and activities, with the objective of deterring the spread of nuclear weapons through early detection of the misuse of such material. Russia also attacked and seized Europe’s largest atomic power plant, Zaporizhzhia, last week, leading to accusations of “nuclear terror” from Kyiv. Zaporizhzhia alone has six reactors of a more ‘modern’ and ‘safer’ than the one that melted down at Chernobyl in 1986. The IAEA said two of those were still operating, the plant’s personnel were working in shifts and radiation levels remained stable.

United Nations/New Delhi,Mar 08,2022: India at the UN Security Council voiced deep concern that despite its repeated urgings to both Russia and Ukraine, the safe corridor for Indian students stranded in Sumy did not materialise.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN TS Tirumurti, in his address at the UNSC briefing on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine on Monday, said India has been consistent in calling for an immediate end to all hostilities.
PM Modi had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We have also reiterated our urgent demand for safe and uninterrupted passage for all innocent civilians, including Indian nationals remaining in Ukraine. We are deeply concerned that despite our repeated urgings to both sides, the safe corridor for our students stranded in Sumy did not materialise,” he said.
“And we will remain open to doing so in the coming days,” he said.

He expressed thanks for the assistance rendered by the authorities of Ukraine and its neighbouring countries in facilitating the return of the Indian nationals.
These include medicines, medical equipment, tents, tarpaulin, protective eye gear, water storage tanks, solar lamps, sleeping mats and blankets amongst other relief material.

“We are in the process of identifying other such requirements and sending more supplies,” he added.
Earlier in his address, he said the worsening situation in Ukraine and the ensuing humanitarian crisis deserves our immediate and urgent attention.

“As per the UN’s own estimate, 1.5 million refugees have sought shelter in neighbouring countries of Ukraine over the last eleven days. This has led to a pressing humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed expeditiously,” he said.

He said that numerous civilians have lost their lives in the Ukraine crisis, including Indian medical student Naveen Gyanagoudar.

Naveen was shot dead in Kharkiv on March 1 while standing in a queue to buy groceries.

LONDON ,Mar 08,2022: Russia has told Ukraine it is ready to halt military operations “in a moment” if Kyiv meets a list of conditions, the Kremlin spokesman said on Monday.

Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was demanding that Ukraine cease military action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.

It was the most explicit Russian statement so far of the terms it wants to impose on Ukraine to halt what it calls its “special military operation”, now in its 12th day.

Peskov told Reuters in a telephone interview that Ukraine was aware of the conditions. “And they were told that all this can be stopped in a moment.”

There was no immediate reaction from the Ukrainian side.

Russia has attacked Ukraine from the north, east and south, pounding cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv and the port of Mariupol. The invasion launched on Feb. 24, has caused the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two, provoked outrage across the world, and led to heavy sanctions on Moscow.

But the Kremlin spokesman insisted Russia was not seeking to make any further territorial claims on Ukraine and said it was “not true” that it was demanding Kyiv be handed over.

“We really are finishing the demilitarisation of Ukraine. We will finish it. But the main thing is that Ukraine ceases its military action. They should stop their military action and then no one will shoot,” he said.

On the issue of neutrality, Peskov said: “They should make amendments to the constitution according to which Ukraine would reject any aims to enter any bloc.”

He added: “We have also spoken about how they should recognise that Crimea is Russian territory and that they need to recognise that Donetsk and Lugansk are independent states. And that’s it. It will stop in a moment.”

March 9,2022: Ukrainian’s president accused Russia of carrying out genocide after officials said Russian aircraft bombed a children’s hospital on Wednesday, burying patients in rubble despite a ceasefire deal for people to flee the besieged city of Mariupol.

The attack, which authorities said injured women in labour and left children in the wreckage, is the latest grim incident of the 14-day invasion, the biggest assault on a European state since 1945.

The Mariupol city council said the hospital had been hit several times in what the White House called a “barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians”.

The destruction took place despite a Russian pledge to halt firing so at least some trapped civilians could escape the city, where hundreds of thousands have been sheltering without water or power for more than a week.

“What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, is afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a televised address late on Wednesday.

Zelensky repeated his call for the West to tighten sanctions on Russia “so that they sit down at the negotiating table and end this brutal war”. The bombing of the children’s hospital, he said, was “proof that a genocide of Ukrainians is taking place”.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry posted video footage of what it said was the hospital showing holes where windows should have been in a three-storey building. Huge piles of smouldering rubble littered the scene.

The UN Human Rights body said it was verifying the number of casualties at Mariupol.

The Donetsk region’s governor said 17 people were wounded in the attack.

Ukraine accused Russia of breaking the ceasefire around the southern port, which aid workers and officials say is running out of food and water after days of Russian bombardment.

“Indiscriminate shelling continues,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

WASHINGTON/Ukraine,Mar 9,2022: Russia said it is ready to provide humanitarian corridors on Wednesday for people fleeing Kyiv and four other Ukrainian cities, as the number of refugees created by the biggest assault on a European country since World War Two surpassed 2 million.

Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defence Control Centre, was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency that Russian forces would “observe a regime of silence” from 10 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) to ensure safe passage for civilians wishing to leave Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol.
It was unclear if the proposed routes would pass through Russia or Belarus, conditions previously opposed by the Ukrainian government.

Civilians fled the besieged city of Sumy on Tuesday in the first successful “humanitarian corridor” opened since Russia’s invasion. Ukraine accused Russian forces of shelling another evacuation route, from Mariupol in the south of the country.