Manufacturing

"Chinese mining companies have been scouting opportunities to access Afghanistan's lithium & copper deposits. Chinese mining industry representatives met with Taliban officials to discuss mining rights and research access to such minerals," says Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in its latest report.

Moscow has chosen to lay siege to multiple cities there, viewing the region as strategically vital to the success of the invasion as a whole. Not only would controlling the coast sever the rest of Ukraine from the sea, it would also create a direct connection between Russian-annexed Crimea and the Russian-speaking Donbas region, BBC reported.

"We did not prepare this, this operation spontaneously," State Duma member Rifat Shaykhutdinov said on state-controlled Channel One TV on Wednesday. "It had been in preparation for a year, maybe more. We understood what [was happening] and had been warning them in advance," he said in remarks on Channel One's daily talk show Time Will Tell.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, earlier on Thursday, accused Western leaders of fixating on nuclear war. He also compared the US to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and German dictator Adolf Hitler. The world leaders have started talking about usage of nuclear weapons but if used, the world would witness disaster which no one could ever imagine.

Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that the Ukrainian delegation is traveling to the meeting point after Russian officials said the talks would take place on Thursday. "Enroute talks with Russian Federation. Already in helicopters. We will start in couple of hours," tweeted Podolyak along with a photo of himself with David Arahamiya, a senior official of the governing party.

In a new video address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said that his country's defence lines were holding, but Russia has continued shelling major cities since midnight. "We have nothing to lose but our own freedom," Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine is getting daily arms supplies from its international allies.

Igor Kolykhaiev, the city's Mayor, said in an update that "armed visitors" had stormed a council meeting and imposed new rules including a strict curfew and urged citizens to follow them. But it was far from clear whether Ukrainian forces had totally withdrawn, with the UK MoD saying Thursday the situation is "unclear".

A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested senior Russian officials to wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion of Ukraine, CNN reported citing US officials as saying. US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, a source familiar with the intelligence said on Wednesday.

Russian forces were on Thursday trying to encircle Kiev amid intense fighting currently underway within 20-40 km of the Ukrainian capital, a non-profit think tank said. Russian forces were on Thursday trying to encircle Kiev amid intense fighting currently underway within 20-40 km of the Ukrainian capital, a non-profit think tank said.

The US delivers anti-aircraft gun -- stinger missiles -- as military aid to Ukraine to take down Russian aircraft and helicopters what it did in Afghanistan 42 years ago to end USSR's presence over there. The stinger surface to air missiles will be a boost for Ukraine's air defence if Russian fighter aircraft bombs the cities. So far Russians have not involved its Air Force into the war. The war between Russia and Ukraine has entered into the eight day after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a military operation.