A Russian journalist who protested Moscow’s military action in Ukraine during a prime-time news broadcast on state TV was in court yesterday, facing 10 days in jail for the demonstration.

A Turkish businessman has been distributing free food to around 1,000 Kyiv residents every day at a time when Russian invasion is ravaging Ukraine.

Arms shipments to Europe jumped amid deteriorating relations with Russia in the five years through 2021, even as the global arms trade slowed, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think-tank said yesterday.

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who has been criticized for his prior backing for Russian President Vladimir Putin, thinks Ukrainians with familial ties to France should be granted visas rather than those fleeing wars in Arab Muslim countries, reports France 24.

Waves of Russian missiles pounded a military training base near Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland, killing 35 people, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. The strike followed Russian threats to target foreign weapon shipments that are helping Ukrainian fighters defend their country against Russia’s grinding assault.

France, Britain and Germany yesterday warned Russia that its demands to have its trade guaranteed with Iran risked the collapse of an almost-completed nuclear deal.

The EU said yesterday that the talks it is chairing on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear accord must be paused, days after fresh demands from Russia complicated negotiations.

Britain has urged Myanmar’s former ambassador to leave the official London residence where he has continued to live since he was ousted for criticising last year’s military coup, citing pressure from the junta, according to emails seen by Reuters.

During the first week of war, Russia shifted from strategic strikes against military targets using cruise missiles to a stalled ground attack and, currently, a broader siege of major cities, including bombardments using rocket artillery and cluster munitions, sometimes against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday he did not believe the conflict in Ukraine would spiral into a nuclear war but cautioned the United States and Europe that Moscow never again wanted to be dependent on the West.

The flood of refugees escaping war in Ukraine for the European Union has sparked a rare show of unity from the bloc’s 27 nations after years of disputes over the sensitive issue of migration.

Scotland’s government marked International Women’s Day on Tuesday by issuing a formal apology to thousands of women who were executed centuries ago

Western powers on Tuesday warned Russia against wrecking an almost completed deal on bringing the United States and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord, as Iran’s top negotiator returned from consultations in Tehran.

Over six million people have died worldwide from Covid-19 since the pandemic began, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP yesterday.

Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by six percent in 2021 to a record 36.3 billion tonnes, their highest ever level, the International Energy Agency said yesterday. 

The UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet yesterday announced that she will visit China in May, with her team heading soon to Xinjiang, where Beijing stands accused of serious abuses, to prepare.

Russian authorities have blocked several independent media outlets including news site Mediazona as the Kremlin seeks to control coverage of its war in Ukraine, a rights group said.

A British television crew was ambushed outside Kyiv earlier this week, leaving one journalist wounded, their employer Sky News said.

The Kremlin said on Saturday that the West was behaving like a bandit by cutting economic relations over the conflict in Ukraine but that Russia was far too big to be isolated as the world was much larger than just the United States and Europe.

Ukraine and Russia will face off Monday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a hearing on emergency measures sought by Kyiv to order Moscow to suspend military operations, with Russia's legal team weakened by the resignation of a key lawyer.