Russia Ukraine War Updates: West to announce 'further package of sanctions' against Russia on Thursday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK counterpart Boris Johnson on Tuesday discussed Ukraine situation over a phone call. PM Modi reiterated India’s consistent appeal for cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue, diplomacy. He emphasized India's belief in respect for international law and territorial integrity of all states, PMO informed.

Russia says it has lodged a criminal case against journalist over 'false' info on Russian army, AFP reported.

Ukrainian families sheltering from artillery make new homes in the Kharkiv subway. 

Russia on Tuesday said it wants more 'active and substantial' talks on Ukraine, war still continues.

Ukraine says 300,000 people are running out of food in occupied Kherson

Warsaw: Dozens of Ukrainian orphans and their carers who are headed to refuge in the UK were on Tuesday stuck in Poland due to missing paperwork from Ukraine. The nearly 50 youngsters from orphanages in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro were due to fly to London on Monday before travelling on to Scotland, but instead waiting in a luxury hotel, which stepped in to give them free accommodation, until the bureaucratic holdup could be dealt with. Their journey has been organised by a Scottish charity called Dnipro Kids, which was set up in 2005 by supporters of Hibernian Football Club in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

Kyiv: Ukraine said it retook a strategically important suburb of Kyiv early Tuesday, as Russian forces squeezed other areas near the capital and their attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol raged unabated. Explosions and bursts of gunfire shook Kyiv, and black smoke rose from a spot in the north. Intensified artillery fire could be heard from the northwest, where Russia has sought to encircle and capture several suburban areas of the capital, a crucial target. Residents sheltered at home or underground under a 35-hour curfew imposed by authorities in the capital that runs to Wednesday morning.

French automaker Renault resumes production in Moscow

UN refugee agency says more than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion, reports AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may deliberately impose unrealistic demands on Kiev because he wants to conquer not only Ukraine but also the Baltic states.

When Zelensky was asked to clarify what he meant when he spoke about the risk of a World War III in the event of a failure to negotiate with Putin, Zelensky said: "This means that he (Putin) was not going to end this war. His plan - in which Ukraine is perceived as an intermediate step to the final result - is to occupy the Baltic states, states that were part of the Soviet Union. (He is considering) other states that used to be under control of the Soviet Army and Soviet Union," Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

Russia shells Zhytomyr Oblast, 3 houses destroyed, 10 damaged. Buildings near Malyn were shelled by Russian troops, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on March 22.

Russian troops shell town near Kryvyi Rih. Head of Kryvyi Rih Oleksandr Vilkul said that the town of Zelenodolsk and the village of Mala Kostromka in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast had been shelled using Grad multiple rocket launchers. Residential buildings were damaged as a result.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said that Russian forces have kidnapped three Israeli citizens in the besieged city of Melitopol.

In a Facebook post, Vereshchuk said that Tetyana Kumok and her parents, Vira and Mykhailo Kumok, were kidnapped on Monday, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

Also in the day, Russian military personnel abducted several representatives of a local media holding in Melitopol, which included the Kumkov family.

A committee of South Korea's National Assembly, or Parliamant, has been considering pushing for a virtual speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he is rallying for global support for his nation's fight against the Russian invasion, officials said on Tuesday.

Led by Rep. Lee Kwang-jae of the Democratic Party, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, ruling and opposition members of the committee discussed the idea last weekend, according to the officials.

A committee official told Yonhap News Agency by telephone that Zelensky's side is also considering asking for a chance to deliver a virtual speech at the National Assembly and details could emerge around next week.

Expressing concern over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India and Australia have underlined the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and stressed that the contemporary global order has been built on UN Charter, international law and respect for states' sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison made the assertion during their virtual summit on Monday, according to a joint statement which was put out by the Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday.

At the virtual summit with Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Russia must be held accountable for the loss of lives in Ukraine and care must be taken to ensure that such "terrible events" never occur in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Russian government has announced that its scientists will not take part in international conferences this year, following their strained relationships with the global research community due to Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the media reported.

The announcement was made by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education via its Telegram channel, as well as Minister Valery Falkov during a meeting with universities, the Verge reported.

Falkov said that scientific schools should no longer emphasise when publications are indexed through the two major international scientific databases, namely Web of Science and Scopus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to virtually deliver his address to the Japanese parliament on Wednesday to rally international support for his country's fight against Russian invasion. Japan, unlike in the past, has been acting tough against Russia, in line with other Group of Seven countries, though Tokyo's steps have triggered Moscow's retaliation. A compromise could set a bad precedence in East Asia, where China is increasingly making assertive military actions.

Zelenskyy's speech, expected to be about 10 minutes, will be shown in a meeting room at the lower house - the more powerful of Japan's two-chamber parliament which Prime Minister Fumio Kishida belongs to. Zelenskyy has made virtual addresses to the US Congress, as well as parliaments in Europe, Canada, and Israel.

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) will vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution on Ukraine, the second such resolution since Russia began its invasion of Kiev on February 24, a spokesperson said.

The 11th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly will be held after a letter requesting the resumption was received by UNGA President Abdulla Shahid, Xinhua news agency quoted his spokesperson Paulina Kubiak as saying to reporters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia's ultimatum to end the ongoing war can only be met if entire Ukraine was destroyed.

"(Russians say) we have an ultimatum, here are the conditions, do it, and then we end the war. This is wrong and doesn't lead anywhere. This is not about me. This is about the unity of the people and the government. We, together, are not able to do that. Ukraine cannot meet this ultimatum. We physically cannot do it."

Sirens have been activated in the Sumy, Mykolaiv, Ternopil, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, Volyn, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky, Odesa oblasts.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, since February 24, 651 residential buildings in Ukraine have been completely destroyed, and about 3,780 houses have been partially destroyed.

Russia completes 300 aircraft sorties over Ukraine in 24 hours. 

A senior US official said that while the frequency of military aircraft sorties by Russia has increased, it has still not achieved aerial supremacy.

The Ukrainian army said it forced Russian troops out of Makariv, a strategically important Kyiv suburb, after a fierce battle. That prevents Russian forces from encircling the capital from the northwest, the Defence Ministry said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev's compromises at peace talks with Russia would be put to a nationwide referendum in Ukraine, the government-run Ukrinform news agency has reported.

"I explained to all negotiating groups: when you talk about all these changes, and they can be historic, there is nowhere to go - we will have a referendum," Zelensky was quoted as saying in an interview with the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.

Zelensky emphasised that he stands ready for any compromises if they are supported by the Ukrainian people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was too early to discuss about a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, as there was no breakthrough yet in the peace talks over the ongoing Moscow-Kiev war.

"To be able to discuss a possible meeting between the two presidents, you must first do your homework. That is, you need to conduct and agree on the results of the negotiations," Xinhua news agency quoted Peskov as saying at a briefing here on Monday.

"So far, no significant progress has been made (in the negotiation process)... The Presidents simply have no agreements to approve yet," he said.

A Moscow court has ruled to ban Facebook and Instagram in Russia, labelling the parent company of the two social networks Meta Platforms Inc. as "extremist".

In its ruling on Monday, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia said that the lawsuit was aimed at protecting Russians from "a violation of their rights", reports Xinhua news agency.

"Meta has violated its own rules by allowing posts with violent speeches towards the Russian military and has ignored more than 4,500 requests to remove fake information on Russia's special military operation and calls for unauthorised rallies," the prosecutors said.

The court ruling will come into effect immediately but will not affect WhatsApp.

Under the ruling, Russian media must now declare Meta an "extremist" organisation whenever it is mentioned, said a BBC report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists on meeting with Russia President Vladimir Putin

Russia has warned that relations with the US are “on the verge of a breach” and summoned the US ambassador for an official protest against President Joe Biden's criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement Monday referred to “recent unacceptable statements” by Biden about Putin. Biden referred to Putin last week as a “war criminal” in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry says that at the meeting with US ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan “it was emphasized that remarks such as these by the American President, which are unworthy of a state figure of such a high rank, put Russian-American relations on the verge of a breach.” 

A senior US defence official says the Russians have increased the number of military aircraft sorties over Ukraine over the past two days, doing as many as 300 in the last 24 hours. The official said Monday that Ukraine has also increased the pace of its military flights, but declined to provide numbers.

Officials have made it clear that Russia has vastly more aircraft, and flies a great deal more than Ukraine does, but that Russia still does not have air superiority over the country yet.

The official said that most of the military flights involve air-to-ground strikes, mainly on stationary targets, and that the Russian aircraft are not spending a lot of time in Ukrainian airspace. The Ukraine military has continued to use its short and long-range air defense systems and drones to target Russian aircraft.

European Union countries on Monday accused Russia's military of committing war crimes in Ukraine, but appeared unlikely to target the country's energy sector with sanctions soon despite a clamor across Europe for those responsible for attacks on civilians to be held to account.

With civilian deaths mounting in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock highlighted the increase in Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and theaters.

The “courts will have to decide, but for me these are clearly war crimes," Baerbock said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who chaired a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels, said that “what's happening in Mariupol is a massive war crime. Destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody in an indiscriminate manner. This is something awful.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hailed protesters in an occupied city for their courage in confronting the Russian troops who fired shots to disperse the demonstration. Russian troops on Monday used stun grenades and fired in the air to break up demonstrators in the southern city of Kherson.

Speaking in a video address, Zelenskyy said that “we saw slaves shooting at free people, slaves of propaganda that replaced their conscience.”

He added that the war has turned ordinary Ukrainians into heroes and “the enemy doesn't believe it's all real.”

“There is no need to organise resistance," Zelenskyy added. “Resistance for Ukrainians is part of their soul.”

President Joe Biden is urging US companies to make sure their digital doors are locked tight because of “evolving intelligence” that Russia is considering launching cyberattacks against critical infrastructure targets as the war in Ukraine continues. Biden's top cybersecurity aide, Anne Neuberger, expressed frustration at a White House press briefing Monday that some critical infrastructure entities have ignored alerts from federal agencies to fix known problems in software that could be exploited by Russian hackers.

“Notwithstanding these repeated warnings, we continue to see adversaries compromising systems that use known vulnerabilities for which there are patches,” said Neuberger, who is the president's deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies. “That makes it far easier for attackers than it needs to be.”

Russian forces shelled along a humanitarian corridor on Monday, wounding four children who were among the civilians being evacuated, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation. He said the shelling took place in the Zaporizhzhia region, the initial destination of those fleeing Mariupol.

The Ukrainian government said that about 3,000 people from Mariupol were evacuated on Monday.

France and Mexico are pressing UN members to mention Russia's invasion in a resolution on the worsening hmanitarian situation in Ukraine. But South Africa is arguing against that approach, saying that inserting political issues may block consensus on helping civilians.

A French-Mexican draft resolution expected to be voted on later this week in the 193-nation UN General Assembly reiterates the world body's March 2 demand for Russia to stop its military offensive in Ukraine and withdraw all its troops. It also demands the protection of all civilians and infrastructure indispensable to their survival.

NATO should either say now that they are accepting us, or openly say they are not accepting us because they are afraid of Russia – which is true, Ukraine President Vladimir Zelenskyy says

US President Joe Biden says India, an exception among US major allies, "has been somewhat shaky” on the Western sanctions punishing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.