LIVE: Ukranian 'nationalists' derailing evacuations, alleges Putin

Ukrainian officials said that the continuous Russian shelling has derailed efforts to evacuate civilians from areas affected by fighting

8:32 PM

Mariupol says children's hospital destroyed by Russian bombing

A children's hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been destroyed by Russian air strikes, the city council said in an online post on Wednesday.

 

"The Russian occupying forces have dropped several bombs on the children's hospital. The destruction is colossal," it said, adding that it did not yet know any casualty figures.

 

The report could not immediately be verified by Reuters.

 

Russia has denied targeting civilians in its assault on Ukraine.

 

8:25 PM

PM Modi chairs a meeting to review Covid-19 situation and public health response

8:05 PM

McDonald's says Russia store closures to cost $50 mn per month

McDonald's Corp said on Wednesday the temporary closure of its 847 stores in Russia will cost the fast food chain about $50 million a month.

 

The company said on Tuesday it would temporarily close all of its restaurants in Russia including its iconic Pushkin Square location, increasing pressure on other global brands to pause operations in the country following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

 

7:35 PM

NMC removes the fixed upper age limit for appearing in NEET-UG examination

7:29 PM

Germany certainly not sending warplanes to Ukraine, says Scholz

Germany will certainly not send warplanes to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday after the United States rejected an offer by Poland to transfer its Russian-made MiG-29 jets to a U.S. base in Germany.

 

"We have provided all kinds of defence materials and .. have sent weapons that we have told you about but it is also true that we have to consider very carefully what we do concretely, and definitely warplanes are not part of that," said Scholz at a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

 

Asked about whether Germany was categorically opposed to a ban on Russian energy imports, Scholz said he had for several months been working on reducing the country's dependency on fossil fuel imports. "There are many technical questions to be addressed," he said.

 

7:29 PM

PM Modi to visit Gujarat on March 11 and 12, he will address Gujarat Panchayat Mahasammelan: PMO

7:01 PM

IAEA says no critical impact on safety after power loss at Chernobyl

The loss of power at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine does not have any critical impact on safety, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Heat load of spent fuel storage pool and volume of cooling water at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sufficient for effective heat removal without need for electrical supply," the IAEA said in a statement.

 

6:36 PM

MCD election: 'Not postponing, if unification of municipal corporations happens may have to examine situation'

5:54 PM

Putin to meet government on Thursday on ways to minimise sanctions impact

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting with members of his government on Thursday and the main topic will be measures to minimise the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy, the Kremlin said in a statement.

 

5:53 PM

EU imposes sanctions on more Russians, adds Belarus banks to list

The European Union said on Wednesday it was stepping up sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including targeting more Russian individuals and adding banks in Moscow's ally Belarus.

 

The 27-nation bloc was blacklisting 160 more Russian parliamentarians and oligarchs, was banning exports of maritime navigation technology to Russia and was including crypto-assets under its punitive measures, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

 

The EU was also targeting the banking sector in Belarus, where Russia has amassed troops it used to attack Ukraine.

 

5:40 PM

We are further tightening sanctions responding to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine: EU president

5:01 PM

Kremlin says United States has declared economic war on Russia

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the United States had declared economic war on Russia and that Moscow would think seriously about what to do after US.

 

President Joe Biden imposed a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports.

 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had been, is and would be a reliable energy supplier and pointed out that energy flows continued.

 

"But you see the bacchanalia, the hostile bacchanalia, which the West has sown - and that of course makes the situation very difficult and forces us to think seriously," Peskov said.

 

"The United States definitely has declared economic war against Russia and is waging this war," he said.

5:00 PM

Russia says it skipped World Court case because Ukraine suit is 'absurd'

Russia did not attend a World Court hearing in a lawsuit brought by Ukraine seeking to halt hostilities on its territory because of the "absurdity" of the suit, Russia's foreign ministry said on Twitter on Wednesday, its first public statement on the matter.

 

Russia did not attend hearings on Monday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is the U.N.

court for resolving disputes between nations.

 

Ukraine argued that Russia had wrongly tried to justify its invasion on false assertions that it was attacking in self defence to prevent genocide.

 

Russia's tweet said it had not attended "in light of the apparent absurdity of the lawsuit".

 

4:58 PM

AAP will emerge as a major national political force: Raghav Chadha

4:48 PM

Ukraine nuclear firm warns of radiation risk after power cut at occupied Chernobyl plant

Radioactive substances could be released from Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant because it cannot cool spent nuclear fuel after its power connection was severed, Ukraine's state-run nuclear company Energoatom said on Wednesday.

 

Work to repair the connection and restore power to the plant, which has been occupied by Russian troops, has not been possible because fighting is under way, it said.