Russia Ukraine War

Russian forces will observe a ceasefire in Ukraine starting from Saturday to facilitate the evacuation of civilians via humanitarian corridors amid the ongoing war, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said. As was agreed by the Ukrainian side, the humanitarian corridors will allow the exit of civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha in south Ukraine, the Ministry said, without disclosing how long the ceasefire will last.

US and NATO officials monitoring the war in Ukraine noticed a pronounced shift earlier this week in Russias strategy, namely that Moscow now appears poised to "bombard cities into submission" which could inflict significant civilian casualties, CNN reported.

In an alarming censorship, Russia has blocked access to Facebook in the country. In response, its parent company Meta has paused all ads in Russia. Meta said that due to the difficulties of operating in Russia at this time, ads targeting people in Russia will be paused, and "advertisers within Russia will no longer be able to create or run ads anywhere in the world, including within Russia"

In a virtual address to thousands of protesters across major European cities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that if his country fell to Russia in the ongoing war, then the whole continent of Europe will fall. On Friday night, protests against the ongoing Russian military assault on Ukraine took place in Vienna, Tbilisi, Prague, Frankfurt, Vilnius, Lyon and Bratislava.

CBS News became the latest media outlet to pull out of Russia after President Vladimir Putin signed a new law that would impose jail terms for "spreading fake news" about the ongoing Moscow-Kiev war. Putin on Friday signed the law which would impose prison terms of up to 15 years on people charged with spreading "fake news" about the war in Ukraine, the BBC reported.

Without giving a specific timeline, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine can "absolutely" win the ongoing war against Russia and praised the "extraordinary resilience" of the Ukrainian people. Blinken made the remarks during an interview with the BBC on Friday night following a meeting with his European Union (EU)counterparts in Brussels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country wishes to continue a dialogue with Ukraine and wants peace, provided that all of Moscow's security demands are met amid the war on Kiev. Putin made the remarks on Friday during a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as the Russian assault on Ukraine continued for a ninth day, reports Xinhua news agency.

The resolution to establish an independent commission of inquiry as a result of Russia’s invasion and aggression against Ukraine was adopted with 32 votes, with 13 abstentions and two (Russia and Eritrea) voting against it in the 47-member council. This was the sixth time that India had abstained on a crucial UN voting on resolutions censuring Russia for its act of invading its neighbouring country.  

"We are very worried about active hostilities in Voznesensk, near the Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant," he said in an article in Ukrayinska Pravda. He said for the first time in world history, a large-scale war is being waged in a country with more than a dozen nuclear reactors and thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. Ukraine has 15 nuclear power units, including six at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhya.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to put a quick end to the countrys military operations in Ukraine, he should give Chechen troops the go-ahead to seize the East European nations major cities, a Chechen leader has claimed. According to the head of the republic, there are currently 12,000 Chechen troops in the East European country.