LIVE: JEE-Mains rescheduled to June and July, NEET to be held on July 17

JEE (Main) dates rescheduled to enable students across the country to prepare well for the exams, says National Testing Agency

7:47 PM

Putin discussed Russia-Ukraine talks with Hungary's Orban: Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed holding talks between Russia and Ukraine during a phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.

 

Orban said earlier that he had spoken with Putin and asked him to announce an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

7:47 PM

Moscow says Bucha accusations meant to derail peace talks, justify more sanctions

Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that images of dead bodies strewn across the Ukrainian town of Bucha, which Russia says were staged, were designed to justify more sanctions against Moscow and derail peace talks with Kyiv.

 

Ukraine has accused the Russian military of massacring residents of Bucha, a town outside the capital Kyiv that Russian troops had occupied for several weeks before withdrawing.

 

Western countries have called for those responsible for the murder of civilians to be punished.

 

"These terrible, criminal fake (images) were published in order to justify another pre-arranged sanctions package, including a large-scale expulsion of diplomats from different countries," Maria Zakharova said at her weekly briefing.

6:03 PM

Russian shelling sets fire to 10 high-rise buildings in Ukraine's Sievierodonetsk, says governor

Ten high-rise buildings are on fire in the eastern Ukrainian town of Sievierodonetsk after Russian forces shelled the town on Wednesday, the governor of the eastern Luhansk region said in an online post. He said that there was no information yet on any casualties.

 

Sievierodonetsk is the temporary headquarters of the regional authorities as Luhansk city has been controlled by Russia-backed separatists since 2014.

5:44 PM

Special CBI Court remands Anil Deshmukh to CBI custody till April 11

5:39 PM

India's first case of Covid variant XE reported from Mumbai

5:17 PM

Sri Lankan govt changed the entire constitution for their own benefit: Arjuna Ranatunga

5:13 PM

Ukraine needs weapons, maximum sanctions on Russia to prevent war spreading: Foreign minister

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday said foreign allies must impose maximum sanctions on Russia and provide Ukraine with all the weapons it needs in order to prevent the war spreading to other countries.

 

"The only way to avert Russian war expanding beyond Ukraine is to provide us with the fullest support. Maximum sanctions.

 

All the weapons. The policy of 'not provoking (Russian President Vladimir) Putin' has failed badly in past years," Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

4:48 PM

Ukraine's Zelensky says some in West fear economic loss more than war crimes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused some Western leaders of considering financial losses to be worse than war crimes, saying he could not tolerate indecisiveness on rigid new Russian sanctions.

 

"When we are hearing new rhetoric about sanctions... I can't tolerate any indecisiveness after everything that Russian troops have done," he said in an address to Ireland's parliament on Wednesday.

 

"The only thing that we are lacking is the principled approach of some leaders - political leaders, business leaders - who still think that war and war crimes are not something as horrific as financial losses," he added, speaking through an interpreter.

4:47 PM

Kremlin says peace talks with Ukraine not progressing rapidly enough

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv were not progressing as rapidly or energetically as it would like.

 

Russia has accused the West trying to derail peace talks with Ukraine by fuelling "hysteria" over allegations of war crimes by Moscow's forces following their retreat from the Kyiv region.

 

Kyiv and the West say there is evidence, including images and witness testimony gathered by Reuters and other media organisations, that Russia committed war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Moscow denies the charge and has called the allegations a "monstrous forgery."

 

"The only thing I can say is that work (on the talks) is continuing," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call when asked about the prospect of another round of negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

4:47 PM

Bucha scenes do not 'look far short of genocide': UK's Johnson

The sight of tied bodies shot at close range in the Ukrainian streets of Bucha do not "look far short of genocide," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

 

The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, have triggered a global outcry and pledges of further sanctions against Russia from the West.

 

"I'm afraid when you look at what's happening in Bucha, the revelations that we are seeing from what (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has done in Ukraine, which doesn't look far short of genocide to me, it is no wonder that people are responding in the way that they are," he told reporters.

4:24 PM

Russian border guards came under fire on Ukraine border, schools evacuated: Officials

A Russian regional official said on Wednesday that frontier guards in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine had come under fire, while schools in nearby Belgorod were evacuated after a bomb threat, according to the city's mayor.

 

Moscow, which sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb 24 in what it called a "special military operation", has accused Ukraine of attacking Russian targets across the border.

 

"Yesterday ... they tried to fire mortars at the position of our border guards in the Sudzhansky district," said Roman Starovoit, the governor of the Kursk region.

 

"Russian border guards returned fire ... There were no casualties or damage on our side."

3:59 PM

HAL ties up with Israel Aerospace Industries to convert civil aircraft to multi mission tanker aircraft

3:38 PM

India says trying to stabilise economic transactions with Russia

India's foreign minister said on Wednesday the government is working to stabilise economic transactions with Russia, a day after India condemned killings of civilians in Ukraine and called for an independent probe.

 

S.Jaishankar told lawmakers in the Parliament that Russia continues to be a critical economic partner and efforts were underway to "stabilise economic transactions between India and Russia."

 

Russia is India's main supplier of defence hardware but overall annual trade is small, averaging about $9 billion in the past few years, mainly fertiliser and some oil.

 

Official sources have earlier stated that Indian government has been looking to establish a rupee-rouble trade system.

2:54 PM

Russia says it wants to keep diplomatic ties with West

Russia wants to maintain diplomatic relations with Western countries despite a series of expulsions of its diplomats, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Wednesday. Several European countries including France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy have expelled large numbers of Russian diplomats in recent days. The moves coincide with outrage across Europe over reports of the discovery of mass graves and of civilian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha following the retreat of Russian forces conducting what Moscow calls its "special operation" in Ukraine.

2:03 PM

Russia says border guards fire upon on Ukraine border, schools evacuated

A Russian regional official said on Wednesday that frontier guards in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine had come under fire, while schools in nearby Belgorod were evacuated after a bomb threat, according to the city's mayor. Moscow, which sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24, in what it called a "special military operation", has accused Ukraine of targeting Russian assets across the border, Reuters reported.