Russia-Ukraine live news: Moscow to open humanitarian corridors

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Corridors will allow for the evacuation of civilians from several cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy.

The Russian military will hold fire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv at 1000 Moscow time (0700 GMT) on Monday, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying.

Several Ukrainian cities have reported deaths and widespread damage as the two sides prepare for a third round of peace talks, expected on Monday.

The US government is considering a ban on oil from Russia in a push to ramp up pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Streaming giant Netflix has suspended its service in Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the West to strengthen sanctions on Russia.

Japan in talks with US, Europe over banning Russian oil imports

Japan, which counts Russia as its fifth-biggest supplier of crude oil, is in discussion with the United States and European countries about possibly banning Russian oil imports, Kyodo News reported.

The report comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the United States and European allies were exploring the possibility.

Asked about a potential embargo on Russian oil imports, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno declined to comment on the country’s communication with the United States. Russia accounted for 3.63 percent of Japan’s imports of crude oil last year.

While sanctions imposed on Russia are not expected to directly affect Japan’s ability to ensure a stable supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), they could indirectly affect energy-related projects, Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda said.

The corridors, which will also be opened from the cities of Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy, are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron and in view of the current situation in those cities, it said.

Australian missiles ‘on the ground’ in Ukraine: Morrison

After Australia last week promised Ukraine $50m in missiles, ammunition and other military hardware to fight Russian invaders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday said: “Our missiles are on the ground now.”

He also described Russia and China’s closer relationship as opportunistic rather than strategic, labelling the alliance as an “arc of autocracy”. He said Russia and China would prefer a new world order to the one that has been in place since World War II.

Morrison criticised Beijing’s failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s expansion of trade in Russian wheat while other countries are imposing sanctions.

S Korea to cut transactions with Russia’s central bank

South Korea has decided to sever transactions with Russia’s central bank, its foreign ministry says, in another move joining Western countries’ efforts to ratchet up sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia calls its actions in the neighbouring country a “special operation”.

Ukraine, Russia prepare for third round of peace talks

After nearly two weeks of war, Ukraine and Russia are expected to meet for the third round of negotiations, which both sides said could take place on Monday. The location and exact time for the talks were unclear.

The two delegations last met in the Brest region in western Belarus for two rounds of peace talks and agreed to have humanitarian corridors in place in the embattled cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha to facilitate the evacuation of civilians.

However, the attempt to evacuate Mariupol failed on Sunday, according to the Kremlin and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for failing to adhere to the agreed ceasefire.

Russia has sought to cut off Ukraine’s access to the Sea of Azov in the south. Capturing Mariupol could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Gold rises above $2,000 on soaring Ukraine fears

Gold has risen to more than $2,000 in Asian trade as investors flee to the safe-haven commodity over fears about the effect of the Ukraine war on the global economy.

The precious metal hit a peak of $2,000.86 an ounce, its highest level since September 2020.

Traders have been sent running to safety as Russia continues with its invasion of Ukraine, which has battered equity markets and sent oil prices to a 14-year high, adding further upward pressure to already high inflation.

US Congress to ‘explore’ Russian oil ban: Pelosi

United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the chamber is “exploring” legislation to ban the import of Russian oil and that Congress intends to enact this week $10bn in aid for Ukraine in response to Russia’s military invasion of its neighbour.

“The House is currently exploring strong legislation that will further isolate Russia from the global economy,” Pelosi said in a letter.

“Our bill would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the United States, repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and take the first step to deny Russia access to the World Trade Organisation.”

Russian invasion displaces Ukrainians who fled Donbas conflict

Sasha and Nastia slowly inhale the smoke from their cigarettes. Their paths have never crossed before, but they exchange knowing glances in wordless understanding when they realise they are both from Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The women, who only gave their first names, are standing in front of the main train station in Przemysl, a Polish border city, where hundreds of refugees arrive daily on trains from the Ukrainian city of Lviv.

Both had fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion of February 24. But there is more that they have in common.

Two big-name accounting firms to leave Russia

Two of the so-called Big Four accounting firms – KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers – are pulling out of Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Both firms said they would end their relationships with their Russia-based member firms. KPMG said it was also pulling out of Belarus.

KPMG International said in a statement it would be “incredibly difficult” to have its Russia and Belarus firms leave the network. KPMG has more than 4,500 employees in the two countries.

PricewaterhouseCoopers said it has 3,700 employees at its PwC Russia firm and is working on an “orderly transition” for the business.

Ukraine official: Russia steps up nighttime shelling of cities

Russian forces have stepped up their shelling of Ukrainian cities in the centre, north and south of the country, Ukraine Presidential Adviser Oleksiy Arestovich says.

“The latest wave of missile strikes came as darkness fell,” he said on Ukrainian television.

He said the areas that came under heavy shelling include the outskirts of Kyiv, Chernihiv in the north, Mykolaiv in the south, and Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city.

Arestovich described a “catastrophic” situation in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, where efforts to evacuate residents failed. Evacuations also failed in Mariupol in the south and Volnovakha in the east because of the shelling.

Zelenskyy says Russia sanctions not sufficient

President Zelenskyy has appealed to the West to strengthen sanctions on Russia.

In a video statement, he criticised Western leaders for not responding to the Russian defence ministry’s earlier announcement that it would attack Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.

“I didn’t hear even a single world leader react to this,” Zelenskyy said. “The audacity of the aggressor is a clear signal to the West that the sanctions imposed on Russia are not sufficient.”

Zelenskyy also called for organising a “tribunal” to bring to justice those who order and carry out such crimes. “Think about the sense of impunity of the occupiers that they can announce such planned atrocities,” he said.

The Russian defence ministry had said its forces intend to attack Ukraine’s military-industrial complex with what it said were “precision” weapons and urged staff to leave, in a statement carried by the Russian state news agency Tass.

US does not believe Russian assault on Odesa is imminent: Official

The US does not believe a Russian amphibious assault in or near the Ukrainian city of Odesa is imminent, a senior US defence official has said, amid growing concern about a potential attack on the city.

The official, who spoke to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, estimated Russia had launched about 600 missiles since the start of its invasion and deployed into Ukraine about 95 percent of combat forces it had pre-staged outside of the country.

Russian forces continued to try to advance and isolate Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv and are meeting “strong Ukrainian resistance,” the official said.

A statement from the company cited “circumstances on the ground” for its decision to suspend its Russian service but did not offer any additional details.

The US-based platform had already halted its acquisitions in Russia, as well as its production of original programmes.

Earlier, social media giant TikTok announced it was suspending the posting of all video content from Russia in order to keep its employees safe and comply with new regulations in the country.

Moscow on Friday signed into law a bill introducing jail terms of up to 15 years for what is deemed “fake news” about the Russian army.

Tugan Sokhiev, the music director and principal conductor at Moscow’s prestigious Bolshoi Theatre, has announced his resignation, saying he came under pressure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian said in a statement that he was resigning “with immediate effect” from his post at the Moscow theatre as well as his equivalent position at France’s Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Russian forces interfering at Ukraine nuclear plant: IAEA

Russian forces have tightened their control on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant since seizing it on Friday, the United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said he was “extremely concerned” after Ukraine’s nuclear regulator informed the agency that staff members at the plant, the largest in Ukraine, are now required to seek approval from Russian forces for any operation, even maintenance.

Read more about this story here.

More than a million refugees have crossed the border from Ukraine into Poland since Russia launched its invasion, Polish border guards have said.

“Today at 8:00 pm [19:00 GMT] the number of people from Ukraine into Poland exceeded a million. This is a million human tragedies,” the border guard service wrote on Twitter.

US mulls possible ban on oil imports from Russia

The US government is consulting with its European allies on a potential import ban of oil from Russia.

“We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN.

The debate also revolved around “making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets,” Blinken said. “That’s a very active discussion as we speak.”

US President Joe Biden has not explicitly ruled out such a move.

There are more details on this development here.

Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

Read all the updates from Sunday, March 6, here.

cocobabar on March 7th, 2022 at 02:07 UTC »

Stop considering, do it already

jules_the_shephard on March 6th, 2022 at 22:45 UTC »

Why are the gas prices so high if we haven't stopped importing oil??

beirnfjwiopn on March 6th, 2022 at 22:12 UTC »

Stop considering. Do it.