The third batch of Indian students who escaped from war-torn Ukraine landed in Mumbai in the wee hours of Thursday.
The US House has overwhelmingly approved a resolution “steadfastly, staunchly, proudly and fervently” in support of Ukraine.
Lawmakers said Wednesday that history was watching the way the world responds as Ukrainians fight to save their Western-style democracy from invasion by Russia.
German authorities have seized a nearly $600 million luxury yacht owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov who has faced European Union sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Forbes reported, citing sources in the yacht industry.
The 512-foot yacht, Dilbar, was taken in the northern port of Hamburg.
A member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's special Ukraine monitoring mission was killed on Tuesday during the shelling of Kharkiv, the OSCE said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the OSCE named the victim as Maryna Fenina, and said she had died "while getting supplies for her family in a city that has become a war zone".
A Russian official says troops have taken the Ukrainian port city of Kherson — a claim that the Ukrainian military denies.
The city is under Russian soldiers' “complete control,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday.
He said that the city's civilian infrastructure, essential facilities and transport are operating as usual and that there are no shortages of food or essential goods.
The World Bank on Wednesday said it had stopped all programs in Russia and Belarus with immediate effect, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and "hostilities against the people of Ukraine."
In a statement, the multilateral development bank said it had not approved any new loans to or investments in Russia since 2014, the year Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night sounded like two speeches grafted together.
First came a stirring paean to the bravery of the Ukrainian resistance and a vow to ravage Russia’s economy in a bid to turn back Vladimir Putin’s tanks. Biden forswore sending troops to fight alongside Ukrainians, but he promised to wage financial war on their behalf, cutting off Russia from its foreign reserves, its oligarchs from their yachts and villas, and its economy from the financial flows and technological trades needed for continued growth.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr K Sudhakar tweeted on Wednesday that more than 3,500 Indian students, including many from Karnataka, walked 10 to 15 km to escape Kharkhiv horror within four hours after the Indian embassy in Kyiv sounded an emergency alert.
According to Kherson Mayor Igor Kolykhaev, the situation in the southern regional capital is tense with Russian troops entering the city and taking administrative buildings: The Kyiv Independent
Senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, The New York Times reported, quoting Biden administration officials and a European official who cited a Western intelligence report.
The Times said the intelligence report indicated senior Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about Russia's plans or intentions to invade Ukraine before Moscow launched the operation last week.
Online payments company PayPal Holdings Inc stopped accepting new users in Russia on Wednesday given current circumstances, a company spokesperson told Reuters.
PayPal, which only allows cross-border transactions by users in Russia, had already blocked some users and some of the country's biggest banks following sanctions by the United States and other countries in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has called the move a "special operation."
Russia fires rockets, debris hits near train station. The Russian rocket, allegedly targeting the Ministry of Defense, was shot down by an air defense system, and its wreckage fell near Kyiv’s main train station: The Kyiv Independent
Spain will supply weapons directly to Ukraine following Russia's invasion, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday, two days after declaring Madrid would only contribute via an EU funding mechanism.
The move came after pressure on Sanchez's left-wing coalition government to take a more proactive approach to the war raging on Europe's eastern flank.
The Indian Air Force's first evacuation flight with 200 Indians from Romanian capital Bucharest landed at the Hindon air base here in the early hours of Thursday, sources said.
The first flight -- which was conducted using C-17 military transport aircraft -- landed in Delhi at 1.30 am.
Three more C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) with approximately 300 evacuees from Ukraine will land at the Hindon airbase by 8 am on Thursday, sources said.
Russia on Wednesday said there will be no impact of the Western sanctions against it on the supply of S-400 missile systems to India.
At a media briefing, Russian Ambassador-designate Denis Alipov also referred to a bilateral mechanism to do business in national currencies.
The UN said Wednesday that it had recorded nearly 230 civilian deaths in Ukraine, including 15 children, since Russia's full-scale invasion began, warning that the true toll was likely far higher.
The UN rights office, OHCHR, said it had registered 752 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 227 people killed and 525 people wounded, between February 24, when Russia invaded, and midnight Tuesday.
Ukraine plans to urge about 50 additional tech companies, including in gaming, esports and internet infrastructure, to take action against Russia following a slew of earlier requests, a top Ukrainian government tech official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Software giant Oracle Corp responded within three hours on Wednesday to a tweet from Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation calling on it to stop doing business in Russia amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
The mayor of Ukraine's key southeastern coastal city Mariupol said Wednesday Russian forces had pummelled the port for hours and were attempting to block civilians from leaving.
Mariupol, which lies on the Azov Sea that separates southern Ukraine from Russia, has been a strategic target for Moscow's invading army.
City officials said Russian forces hit residential areas, including a maternity ward and a school, injuring 42 people.
The mayor of Ukraine's key southeastern coastal city Mariupol said Wednesday Russian forces had pummelled the port for hours and were attempting to block civilians from leaving.
Mariupol, which lies on the Azov Sea that separates southern Ukraine from Russia, has been a strategic target for Moscow's invading army.
City officials said Russian forces hit residential areas, including a maternity ward and a school, injuring 42 people.
Russian billionaire Mikhaïl Fridman and banker Petr Aven, both the target of EU sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, are withdrawing from the LetterOne investment fund they co-founded, the Luxembourg and London-based company said Wednesday.
Fridman, one of Russia's richest men, had withdrawn on Tuesday from the European groups in which he is a shareholder, though both men deny having any "financial or political relationship" with Russian
As India steps up efforts to evacuate its citizens from war-hit Ukraine, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday that efforts are on to reach cities in the eastern part of that country, though it is not easy.
Belarus claimed on Wednesday that Polish border guards beat up around 100 Indian students and turned them back into Ukraine following which they were placed in a refugee camp in Romania.
Dozens of anti-war demonstrators were detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg Wednesday after jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on Russians to protest President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Police in Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg violently dispersed protesters and detained around 100 people, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
In Moscow, law enforcement closed off Red Square near the Kremlin and detained at least seven people who gathered while loudspeakers warned people from convening.
Around 4,800 Indian students will be evacuated from Bucharest and Suceawa in Romania through 24 flights between Wednesday and Friday amid Russia-Ukraine war, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said.
The minister, who is in Bucharest to facilitate the evacuation of Indian students, said he will be going to Siret, the border check point with Ukraine, on Thursday and remain there for around 48 hours.
"I will be there till the last student leaves from Siret," he stated.
Roman Abramovich said Wednesday that "net proceeds" from his sale of Premier League club Chelsea would go to the victims of the war in Ukraine.
"I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated," the Russian-Israeli billionaire said in his statement on the club's website.
Ukraine Foreign Affairs Ministry "urgently calls on govt of India, Pakistan, China & other counties whose students have become hostages of Russian armed aggression in Kharkiv & Sumy, to demand from Moscow that it allows opening of a humanitarian corridor to other Ukrainian cities."
Moscow on Wednesday accused the Ukrainian Army of forcibly stopping some of the citizens of India stranded in Kharkiv from leaving the war-torn city in the East European nation even after New Delhi issued an urgent advisory asking them to move immediately to three nearby towns, apparently in preparation of evacuation through the territory of Russia.
The CPI(M) on Wednesday criticised the government over its advisories asking Indian nationals to leave cities of Ukraine "on foot" if transportation was not available and said such instructions are "bizarre" and impossible to follow in a war-torn region.
"Advisories asking Indians to immediately leave war-torn Kharkiv, impossible to follow in these circumstances. Bizarre direction to walk if no transport available, amidst heavy crossfire. Trains running, heavily crowded. Is Embassy exploring alternatives?" CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
A Ukrainian official says the advance of Russian troops in Kharkiv has been stopped, but that Russians have responded by shelling the city with heavy rocket launchers and air attacks.
“Kharkiv today is the Stalingrad of the 21st century,” said Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hastened his own downfall with a war in Ukraine that he cannot win, exiled opponent the former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky charged on Tuesday.
Khodorkovsky told France 24 television in an interview from London that Putin's decision to order an invasion of Ukraine was an "emotional" move by a leader who is increasingly "paranoid".
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire welcomed on Wednesday the European Union's latest sanctions against Russia, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and added that these sanctions would also include measures on crypto currencies.
The European Union said earlier it was excluding seven Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, but stopped short of including those handling energy payments, in the latest sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The Delhi government has asked district authorities to reach out to the families of students evacuated from war-hit Ukraine or those who are still stuck there to extend any help they need and assure them that all necessary steps are being taken for their welfare, officials said on Wednesday.
They also said district authorities have engaged teachers and other staff in their respective jurisdiction to effectively execute these orders.
According to the orders issued by district authorities, the teams concerned will meet the families of stranded students and assure them that adequate steps are being taken to ensure the welfare of their wards.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that "demands" Russia "immediately" withdraw fromUkraine, in a powerful rebuke of Moscow's invasion by the global body charged with peace and security.
After more than two days of extraordinary debate, 141 out of 193 member states voted for the non-binding resolution. China and India wereamong the 35 countries which abstained, while just five voted against it.
Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that 498 Russian soldiers had died inUkraineand another 1,597 had been wounded since the beginning of Moscow's military operation there, Russia's RIA news agency reported.
It was the first time that Moscow had put a figure on its casualties.
Ukraine on Wednesday invited the worried mothers of Russian troops captured on the battlefield to come and collect their sons, in an apparent attempt to embarrass Moscow.
"A decision has been taken to hand over captured Russian troops to their mothers if they come to collect them in Ukraine, in Kyiv," the defence ministry said in a statement.
The air force is flying home 200 Indians from Bucharest.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi mentioned that Chandan Jindal's family was also in Ukraine.
Prime MinisterBorisJohnson on Wednesday said that Britain was pushing UN members meeting in New York to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
First IAF’s C-17 aircraft to return from Romania tonight with around 200 Indian citizens returning from Ukraine at 11 pm tonight. Two more planes will return from Poland & Hungary by early morning tomorrow: IAF officials(ANI)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that if a third World War were to take place, it would involvenuclearweapons and be destructive, the RIA news agency reported.
Lavrov has said that Russia, which launched what it calls a special military operation against Ukraine last week, would face a "real danger" if Kyiv acquirednuclearweapons.
Russia will not allowUkraineto obtain nuclear weapons, TASS news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday.
Russia launched an invasion ofUkrainelast week in what it called a special operation to demilitarise and "denazify" the country, a justification dismissed by Kyiv and the West as propaganda.
Russia is gathering troops closer and closer to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital's mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote in an online post on Wednesday.
"We are preparing and will defend Kyiv!," he added.
The Russian army claimed on Wednesday it had taken control of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson as Moscow's invasion of the pro-Western country entered its seventh day. "The Russian divisions of the armed forces have taken the regional centre of Kherson under full control," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in televised remarks.
Mariupol city council said on Wednesday their southern city was under Ukrainian control but locked in battles with Russian troops.
The council said on social media that Russian attackers were shelling civilian sites, including residential blocks, hospitals and dormitories for people displaced by fighting. - Reuters.
US President Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin that the Russian leader "has no idea what's coming", as Western nations tightened an economic noose around Russia, whose invading forces bombarded Ukrainian cities and appeared poised for an advance on Kyiv.
Tokyo lodged a diplomatic protest with Moscow after scrambling fighter jets on Wednesday as a suspected Russian helicopter entered Japan's northern airspace at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine.
Japan, which has volatile ties and border disputes with key neighbours China, Russia and South Korea, routinely sends jets to defend its territorial airspace. - AFP.
Credit: AFP Photo
Credit: AFP Photo
"Don't you see what is happening? That's why it is very important now that you, millions of Jews around the world, do not stay silent. Because Nazism is born in silence. Scream about murdering of civilians, scream about murdering of Ukrainians," Zelenskyy says in video
We do everything possible to keep India up-to-date on what is happening: Russian Ambassador-designate on Ukraine crisis
We are working intensely on creating corridor & safe passage for Indians stuck in conflict zones in Ukraine: Russian Ambassador-designate .
It will happen as soon as possible, he said, on when corridor for evacuation of Indians will be operational in Ukraine.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia, which has launched an invasion of his country, of seeking to "erase" Ukrainians, their country and their history. In a video address, the Ukrainian leader said a missile strike on a target at the site of a Holocaust massacre shows that "for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign".
We are trying to bring back the remaining Indians via Romania, Poland Hungary, Slovakia & Moldova: MoS MEA V Muraleedharan
"My son's death in Ukraine is painful. There are many Indian students in a war torn country who are literally struggling to return their mother land. The government must leave no stone unturned to bring them back home safely" said Shekharppa Gynagoudar, father of Naveen Shekhana Gyanagoudar who was killed in Ukraine.
Corn eased after rising to its highest since May and soybeans fell for the first time in three sessions.
"There are no buyers or sellers in the Asian market as no one is sure for how long this war will last," said one Singapore-based grains trader. "International prices are shooting through the roof."
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 2.5% to $10.08-1/2 by 0324 GMT, having earlier hit its highest since March 2008 at $10.23 a bushel.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index declined 1.02% to 16,621.80 and the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 1.17% to 55,586.67 as markets resumed trading after a holiday.
Russian airborne troops landed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday, the Ukrainian army said, adding that there were immediate clashes.
"Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv... and attacked a local hospital," the army said in a statement on messaging app Telegram. "There is an ongoing fight between the invaders and the Ukrainians."
Kharkiv, a largely Russian-speaking city near the Russian border, has a population of around 1.4 million.
It has been a target for Russian forces since President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.
Brent crude broke above $110 a barrel on Wednesday and WTI was up more than five percent as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continued to fan fears over supplies of the crucial commodity from the resource-rich region. Brent climbed 4.88 percent to $110.09, while WTI was up 5.06 percent at 108.64. Both are at more than seven-year highs.
As global sanctions against Moscow tighten, the United States is poised to ban Russian flights using American airspace, following similar moves by the European Union and Canada.
The orders suspend operations of all aircraft owned, certified, operated, registered, chartered, leased, or controlled by, for, or for the benefit of, any Russia citizen. This includes passenger and cargo flights, and scheduled as well as charter flights that will "effectively closing US air space to all Russian commercial air carriers and other Russian civil aircraft," the department said.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday vowed that Russia's Vladimir Putin will pay over the long run even if he makes gains on the battlefield in Ukraine.
"While he may make gains on the battlefield – he will pay a continuing high price over the long run," Biden said in his State of the Union address.
The decision includes operations at a large oil and gas production project on Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East. British BP PLC, Shell and Norway's Equinor ASA have previously disclosed plans to abandon Russia operations.
"Given the current situation, Exxon Mobil will not invest in new developments in Russia," the company said in a statement.
Russian authorities have threatened to block Wikipedia's Russian-language site over an article that mentions deaths among Ukrainian civilians as well as the Russian forces that have entered Ukraine, Russian Wikipedia said on Tuesday.
In a tweet, it posted a picture of a notification from the Russian communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, informing it of a threat from state prosecutors to block the site over a Russian-language article titled "Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022)".
Russia bombed a TV tower in Ukraine's capital on Tuesday and rained rockets on the city of Kharkiv as Moscow intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian urban areas in a shift of tactics after its six-day invasion stalled.
The US government is set to announce a ban on Russian flights from American airspace following similar moves by the European Union and Canada, government and industry officials told Reuters.
The precise timing is unclear but is expected within the next 24 hours, the sources said.
Late on Tuesday, United Airlines said it has temporarily suspended flying over Russian airspace, joining other major US carriers who have taken the step after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden will say on Tuesday that the West was ready for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and his administration is prepared with a plan to fight inflation, according to excerpts of his State of the Union address.
"Throughout our history we've learned this lesson - when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos. They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising," Biden will say, according to excerpts of his address released by the White House.
Biden will say that Putin eschewed efforts to prevent war.
"Putin's war was premeditated and unprovoked. He rejected efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and NATO wouldn't respond. And, he thought he could divide us here at home," Biden will say. "Putin was wrong. We were ready."
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin had underestimated the powerful response his invasion of Ukraine would illicit from Western nations as sanctions upended Russia's economy.
"Putin's war was premeditated and unprovoked," Biden said in prepared remarks released ahead of his annual State of the Union address.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday he had ordered more troops to the south of the country, by the border with Ukraine, the Belta news agency reported.
But forces of Belarus, a close ally of Russia, would not be taking part in the attack on Ukraine, he added.
On the sixth day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lukashenko told a meeting of his security council that he would be sending five tactical battle groups to protect the south.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the Group of Seven nations would convene a task force to focus on freezing and seizing assets of Russian elites.
"We stand ready to impose further financial pressure, as necessary," Yellen said in a statement after a G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors on the situation in Ukraine.
Four people were killed when homes in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr were hit on Tuesday by a Russian cruise missile apparently aimed at a nearby air base, Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said on his Telegram channel.
He said the residential buildings near the base of the 95th Airborne Brigade in Zhytomyr, 120 km (75 miles) west of the capital Kyiv, had been set on fire,
"So far, four people have died. Including a child," he said.
India on Tuesday "strongly and emphatically" asked Ukraine and Russia to create "urgent safe passages" for the Indian nationals stuck in various conflict zones in Ukraine, after a medical student from Karnataka was killed in intense shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.