200,000 kids among Ukrainians forcefully taken to Russia, says Zelenskyy

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully taken to Russia and dispersed across the vast country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully taken to Russia and dispersed across the vast country. They include children from orphanages, children taken with their parents and those separated from their families. The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation on Wednesday, which was International Children’s Day.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine would punish those responsible but first it would show Russia on the battlefield that Ukraine cannot be conquered, that our people will not surrender and our children will not become the property of the occupiers. Zelenskyy said 243 children have been killed so far in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing, adding that it could be more as his government doesn’t have a full picture of the situation in areas occupied by Russian troops…Read More

Twitter abuzz over Musk’s ‘if I die under mysterious circumstances’ post

 The post came a few days after the Tesla CEO announced acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion.

Twitter storms and Elon Musk seem to be old pals and it was no different on Monday morning. This time the Tesla CEO’s post about dying under “mysterious circumstances” is what made Twitter buzz. “If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya,” he tweeted.

The post came a few days after the Tesla CEO announced his plans to acquire Twitter for $44 billion. Musk was in talks with large investment firms and high net-worth individuals about taking on more financing for his Twitter acquisition and tying up less of his wealth in the deal.

Before tweeting this, Musk shared a conversation in Russian media by Dmitry Rogozin, the former deputy prime minister of Russia, where it is being said that the SpaceX chief being involved in “supplying the fascist forces in Ukraine with military communication equipment.” “And for this, Elon, you will be held accountable like an adult – no matter how much you’ll play the fool,” the post said.

Israel PM Bennett says Putin apologised over FM Lavrov’s Holocaust remarks

 Asked in an interview about Russian claims that it invaded Ukraine to denazify the country, Lavrov said that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements even though its president Zelenskyy is a Jewish

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he accepted an apology from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday for controversial remarks about the Holocaust made by Moscow’s top diplomat. The two leaders talked over the phone, after which an Israeli statement said Putin had apologized. However, the Russian statement about the call made no mention of an apology. Instead, it said they emphasized the importance of marking the Nazi defeat in World War II, which Russia celebrates on Monday.

Bennett emerged as a potential mediator between Russia and Ukraine shortly after Moscow’s invasion. But that role was thrown into doubt this week when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made comments about the Holocaust that were deeply offensive to Jews. Asked in an interview with an Italian news channel about Russian claims that it invaded Ukraine to denazify the country, Lavrov said that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements even though its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.

In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything. For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish, he said, speaking to the station in Russian, dubbed over by an Italian translation. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who has harshly criticized Russia over the invasion, called Lavrov’s statement unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error….Read More

Russia prepares to declare mass mobilisation on May 9: Ukraine Intelligence

 “Russia has already been enacting covert mobilisation and is preparing to announce a mass mobilisation in the near future,” Kyrylo Budanov from Ukraine Chief Intelligence Directorate said

Russia Ukraine Conflict: Russia is preparing to announce a mobilisation on May 9, the Ukrainian intelligence has claimed on Monday. “Russia has already been enacting covert mobilisation and is preparing to announce a mass mobilisation in the near future,” Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, said during an interview. When asked whether Russia plans to announce the mobilisation on May 9, he said: “Yes, they are preparing”, Ukrayinska Pravda reported, citing the Budanov’s interview with NV.

“Now Rosreserv (Russia’s Federal Agency for State Reserves) has started to check what they actually have in stock and to calculate what they can give out on mobilisation orders. This is an absolutely necessary step before the start of real mobilisation,” he explained. When asked whether the Kremlin’s plan is to win in Donbas by May 9, the head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate said: “That is their goal, but it will not happen, they do not have time. They will not manage to do it.”..Read More

It's becoming more difficult for Putin to fund war every single day: WH

 It is becoming more and more difficult for Russian President Vladimir Putin to fund his war in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday adding that more tough sanctions are to be announced on Wednesday.

It is becoming more and more difficult for Russian President Vladimir Putin to fund his war in Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday adding that more tough sanctions are to be announced on Wednesday.

What we are doing and we’re already seeing effectively happen is the financial system in Russia is near the brink of collapse. I mean, they’re projecting 15 per cent inflation, a contraction of 15 percent in their economy. Private sector businesses are pulling out of the country. It is more and more difficult for President Putin to fund this war every single day. That has an impact, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference.

But what we’re also doing is providing a historic amount of military and security assistance, which is what they’ve been using effectively over the last few weeks to fight this war and push back the Russians, she said. At the same time, Psaki reiterated that the United States is not calling for regime change. That has not been our policy and continues not to be our policy. But again, our view is that he is a war criminal and he is somebody who should be looked at by the international system which evaluates war crimes, she said….Russia Ukraine War

Russia launches Eurobond rouble buyback offer on looming $2 bn bond payment

 Russia has offered to buy back dollar bonds maturing next week in roubles in a move seen by analysts as helping local holders of the $2 billion sovereign issue receive payment

Russia has offered to buy back dollar bonds maturing next week in roubles in a move seen by analysts as helping local holders of the $2 billion sovereign issue receive payment, while also easing the country’s hard-currency repayment burden.

The finance ministry offer on Eurobonds maturing on April 4, Russia’s biggest debt payment this year, follows Western moves to tighten sanctions against the country over its invasion of Ukraine and to freeze Moscow out of international finance. Moscow, which calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation”, says Western measures amount to “economic war”. In response, it has introduced countermeasures and has demanded foreign firms pay for Russian gas in roubles rather than dollars or euros.

The bonds – issued in 2012 – would be bought at a price equivalent to 100% of their nominal value, the ministry said its statement. Buying back bonds will reduce the overall size of the outstanding bond when it matures on April 4. However, it was not immediately clear if the amount the government would buy back was limited or what would happen to holdings of creditors that would not tender their bonds.

Ukraine war: US deploys 6 Navy aircraft to bolster NATO defences

The US Pentagon says it is deploying six Navy aircraft that specialise in electronic warfare and about 240 Navy personnel to bolster NATO defenses in Eastern Europe.

The US Pentagon says it is deploying six Navy aircraft that specialise in electronic warfare and about 240 Navy personnel to bolster NATO defenses in Eastern Europe. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says the EA-18G Growler aircraft based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state were scheduled to arrive Monday at Spangdahlem air base in Germany, where they will be stationed. They are not intended for use in Ukraine, he said. Meanwhile, a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal U.S. intelligence assessments, said there has been little change in the situation on the ground in Ukraine.

The senior defense official said Russian forces largely remain in defensive positions in the area of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and they are making little forward progress elsewhere in the country. The official said the U.S. believes Ukrainian troops have retaken the town of Trostyanets, south of Sumy, in eastern Ukraine. The official said the U.S. continues to see Russia prioritizing operations in the Donbas region and de-emphasising ground operations in the Kyiv area, but the Pentagon believes it’s too early to know whether this reflects a change in Moscow’s strategic goals.

US 'bluntly' warns China to avoid supporting Russia's invasion in Ukraine

 US adviser Jake Sullivan warned a Chinese official about Beijing’s support for Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, even as Kremlin denied reports stating that it had requested Chinese weapons to use in war

Washington [US], March 15 (ANI): US President Joe Biden‘s National Security Adviser warned a top Chinese official on Monday (local time) about Beijing’s support for Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, even as the Kremlin denied reports stating that it had requested Chinese military equipment to use in the war. US adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi met in Rome earlier today. Sullivan held an “intense” seven-hour meeting with his Chinese counterpart and laid out potential consequences of Beijing assisting Russia in the war in Ukraine.

“The national security adviser and our delegation raised directly and very clear our concerns about the PRC’s support to Russia in the wake of the invasion, and the implications that any such support would have for the PRC’s relationship not only with us but for its relationships around the world,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price, using the initials for the People’s Republic of China…Read More

Acclaimed filmmaker Brent Renaud killed by Russian troops in Ukraine

Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker who travelled to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world for documentaries, died after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Ukraine

Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker who travelled to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world for documentaries that transported audiences to little-known places of suffering, died Sunday after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Ukraine.

The 50-year-old Little Rock, Arkansas, native was gathering material for a report about refugees when his vehicle was hit at a checkpoint in Irpin, just outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said the area has sustained intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days.

Renaud was one of the most respected independent producers of his era, said Christof Putzel, a filmmaker and close friend who had received a text from Renaud just three days before his death. Renaud and Putzel won a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University journalism award for “Arming the Mexican Cartels,” a documentary on how guns trafficked from the United States fueled rampant drug gang violence.

Indian student fighting Russians in Ukraine wants to return, says family

 A 21-year-old Indian aerospace engineering student in Ukraine, reportedly fighting against the Russian troops, has expressed his desire to return home, his family said

A 21-year-old Indian aerospace engineering student in Ukraine, reportedly fighting against the Russian troops, has expressed his desire to return home, his family said. R. Sainikesh’s family who lives in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, has told media that they had found he wanted to return when they talked to him.

In 2018, Sainikesh joined the National Aerospace University in Kharkiv and since then he had been there. Following the fighting, he had joined the Georgian National Legion, a paramilitary group helping Ukrainian soldiers, to fight against the Russians. As his father Ravichandran asked what he was doing in war-torn country and why he was not coming back, Sainikesh said that he wished to be back in his country and stay with him family. Recently, intelligence officials contacted the family of the student after which they came to know that Sainikesh was fighting against Russia….

As Russia attacks Ukraine, China eyes Indo-Pacific: Australian intelligence

 A “troubling new strategic convergence” between Beijing and Moscow has developed and the risk of “major power conflict” had grown since Russia invaded Ukraine, Australia’s intelligence chief said

A “troubling new strategic convergence” between Beijing and Moscow has developed and the risk of “major power conflict” had grown since Russia invaded Ukraine, Australia’s intelligence chief said on Wednesday. Andrew Shearer, director general of the Office of National Intelligence, said China’s President Xi Jinping appears to be planning to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and use it as a base to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power.

The comments reinforce warnings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has met near-universal condemnation by the West, may spread into a regional or global conflict. This week Australian Prime Minister called on liberal democracies to stop an “arc of autocracy” reshaping the world.

“We’re going to have to work much harder to maintain the liberal quality of the rules-based order in Europe and here in the Indo-Pacific region,” Shearer said at a conference hosted by the Australian Financial Review. “We see a leader who’s really battening down and hardening his country for this struggle to overtake the United States as the world’s leading power,” he added, referring to Xi. “The base camp … is to establish primacy in the Indo-Pacific region.”…Russia Ukraine Conflict

Western ban on oil imports will double price to $300 a barrel: Russia

 A Western ban on Russian oil imports may more than double the price to $300 a barrel and prompt the closure of the main gas pipeline to Germany, Moscow warned on Monday

A Western ban on Russian oil imports may more than double the price to $300 a barrel and prompt the closure of the main gas pipeline to Germany, Moscow warned on Monday, as talks on Ukraine hardly advanced amid efforts to agree on civilian safe passage. Russia’s invasion, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two, has created 1.7 million refugees, a raft of sanctions on Moscow, and fears of wider conflict in the West unthought-of for decades.

Sieges and the bombing continued as Kyiv rejected possible humanitarian corridors to Russia and Belarus, but said some limited progress had been made on agreeing logistics for the evacuation of civilians. Moscow would give the residents of the Ukrainian cities of Sumy and Mariupol the choice of moving elsewhere in Ukraine on Tuesday, setting a deadline in the early hours for Kyiv to agree, Russian news agencies reported.

Seeking to ratchet up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the United States said Washington and its European allies were considering banning Russian oil imports. Oil prices spiked to their highest levels since 2008. “A rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market,” said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, saying the price could more than double to over $300 per barrel.

'Walk, but leave Kharkiv': 17,000 Indians have left Ukraine borders

 Student from Punjab suffers stroke, second death of Indian in Ukraine in two days

In terse capital letters, an advisory from the Indian Embassy in Kyiv ordered Indians to leave Kharkiv immediately, on foot if necessary, as a student from Punjab died of a stroke, possibly brought on by anxiety, for which he was already under treatment.

“There has been a sharp increase in the number of Indians who have left Ukraine. We now estimate that nearly 17,000 Indian nationals have left Ukraine borders since our advisories were issued,” Spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi said, even as Russia promised “humanitarian corridors” for the safe passage of Indians caught in the war. Around 2,500 Indian students are thought to be still stuck in the city.

In the midst of all this, a throwaway remark by a Union minister about the qualifications of those who go abroad to study medicine because they lack the intellectual bandwidth for medical education in India, sparked off widespread outrage. Even Russia regretted the killing of Naveen Gyanagoudar in the shelling in Kharkiv with Russian ambassador-designate Denis Alipov promising there will be an investigation into the death of the Indian student….Russia Ukraine Conflicts

Ukraine crisis: Exodus of firms from Russia reversing 30 years' investment

 Foreign energy majors have been pouring in money since the 1990s

Russia Ukraine Conflict: The invasion of Ukraine is causing a mass exodus of companies from Russia, reversing three decades of investment by Western and other foreign businesses there following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The list of those cutting ties or reviewing their operations is growing by the hour as foreign governments ratchet up sanctions against Russia, close airspace to its aircraft and lock some banks out of the SWIFT money messaging system. With the ruble plunging and the U.S. banning transactions with the Russian central bank, operating in Russia has become deeply problematic. Some companies have concluded that the risks, both reputational and financial, are too great to continue.

For some companies, the decision to exit Russia is the conclusion of decades of lucrative, if sometimes fraught, investments. Foreign energy majors have been pouring money in since the 1990s. Russia’s largest foreign investor, BP Plc, led the way with its surprising announcement on Sunday that it would exit its 20 per cent stake in state-controlled Rosneft, a move that could result in a $25 billion write-off and cut its global oil and gas production by a third…Read More

Germany's move to help Ukraine with weapons signals a historic shift

 Germany’s decision to send anti-tank weapons and Stinger missiles to Ukraine leaving its long-held refusal to export weapons to war zones is a historic break with its post-World War II foreign policy

Germany’s stunning decision to send anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine abandoning its long-held refusal to export weapons to conflict zones is nothing less than a historic break with its post-World War II foreign policy. “A new reality,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it in an uncharacteristically rousing speech on Sunday to a special session of parliament. The typically low-key Chancellor Scholz said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine required a dramatically different response from Germany than in the past.

“With his invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, President Putin created a new reality,” Scholz told the Bundestag, his speech repeatedly greeted by applause, particularly his condemnations of the Russian leader. “This reality demands a clear answer. We’ve given one.” Scholz said Germany is sending anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. He also said the country is committing 100 billion euros (USD 113 billion) to a special fund for its armed forces and will raise its defence spending above 2 per cent of GDP, a measure on which it had long lagged…Read More