LIVE: PM Modi puts emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy in Quad meeting

'We have started talking to Russia's representatives,' said Mykhailo Podolyak on Twitter

3:24 PM

Lavrov says he believes some leaders are preparing for war against Russia

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state television on Thursday that he believed some foreign leaders were preparing for war against Russia.

 

He also accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of presiding over "a society where Nazism is flourishing".

3:06 PM

UP Polls: Not a coward, I am fighter, says West Bengal CM on protest over her Varanasi visit

2:53 PM

Ukraine's Zelensky says defence lines holding against Russian attacks

Ukraine's defence lines were holding against the Russian attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his latest video on Thursday, adding there had been no respite in Moscow's shelling of Ukraine since midnight.

"We have nothing to lose but our own freedom," Zelensky said, adding Ukraine was receiving daily arms supplies from its international allies.

 

He said it had been two years since Ukraine recorded its first COVID-19 case: "It's been a week now that another virus attacked," he said of Russia's invasion.

 

Zelensky said Russia's changing tactics and shelling of civilians in cities proved Ukraine was successful in resisting Moscow's initial plan of claiming a quick victory through a land assault.

 

2:16 PM

Suppression of Rs 400-cr income detected at MNC engaged in distribution of telecom products: I-T Dept

2:12 PM

UP Polls: In 6th phase of polling today, voting is in favour of BJP, says PM Modi

2:00 PM

UK shuts out Russian companies from insurance market

Britain will ban Russian companies from the London insurance market, the world's largest commercial and speciality insurance centre, its finance ministry said on Thursday.

 

Russian companies in the aviation or space industry will be blocked from accessing British-based insurance or reinsurance services directly or indirectly, the ministry said.

 

"The UK Government will bring in legislation to prohibit UK-based insurance and reinsurance providers from undertaking financial transactions connected with a Russian entity or for use in Russia," the Treasury department said.

 

"Further details of the legislation will be available in due course."

 

2:00 PM

Germany mulls supplying anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine: Report

Germany is considering supplying 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine as it seeks to defend itself against an invasion by Russia, a government source said on Thursday.

 

German news agency DPA reported earlier that the economy ministry had approved supplying the Soviet-made Strela missiles, part of the inventories of the former German Democratic Republic's army.

 

A source told Reuters that the Federal Security Council had yet to approve the move. "The missiles are ready to be transported," the source said.

 

That would come on top of 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles that Germany said on Saturday it would supply to Ukraine, in a shift of policy after Russia invaded its neighbour.

1:32 PM

Foolish to harm ties because of India's Ukraine vote at UNGA: US Senator

Hours after India had abstained on a UN General Assembly vote on Ukraine, an influential Republican Senator has cautioned that it would be "foolish" to harm bilateral ties because of it.

 

During a Senate panel hearing on relations with India on Wednesday where India's abstention, the fourth on a UN vote relating to Ukraine, was highlighted, Indiana Senator Todd Young said: "It would be foolish and deeply short-sighted for the United States to harm our relationship with India over what is occurring in Ukraine".

 

He and other senators at the hearing stressed India's importance to the US because of its strategic position and the size of its population and economy.

 

Donald Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, who was testifying at the hearing on US relations with India, said that India's position on Ukraine has been "evolving" and that there has been a backlash in India against Russia after an Indian student was killed in Russian shelling. Read on...

1:18 PM

China asked Russia to delay Ukraine invasion until after Beijing Olympics

A Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested senior Russian officials to wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion of Ukraine, CNN reported citing US officials as saying.

 

US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, a source familiar with the intelligence said on Wednesday.

 

Although the request was made around the time that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics where he met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, it is not clear from the report whether former addressed the matter with the latter directly, the source said.

 

The New York Times first reported the existence of the report.

1:16 PM

Push to end Russia's status as permanent UNSC member gains steam

The US State Department may try to find a way to boot Russia from its permanent seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC), shaking up the international bodys balance of power amid outrage over the war in Ukraine, RT reported.

 

Washington is "investigating the prospects" of expelling Russia as one of the five permanent Security Council members, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told American lawmakers on Wednesday.

 

No decision has been made on whether to try to achieve such an outcome, which would likely require changes to the UN's charter.

12:46 PM

P Chidambaram said the official number of deaths due to Covid-19 in the country is suspect

Citing the academic journal Science, Congress leader P Chidambaram said the official number of deaths due to Covid-19 in the country is suspect.

12:30 PM

Russia refuses to launch OneWeb satellites, issues conditional demands

Russian space agency has refused to launch UK's three dozen OneWeb Internet satellites unless its demands are met, in response to international sanctions over its invasion into Ukraine.

 

OneWeb's 36 satellites were scheduled, to take off on top of a Russian Soyuz rocket on March 5, were rolled out to the pad at the Russian-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Space.com reported.

 

After the roll out Roscosmos Director-General Dmitry Rogozin in a tweet on Wednesday said that the agency will not launch the satellites as planned if the company does not guarantee that the craft will not be used for military purposes.

 

Further, the agency demanded that the UK government, a primary shareholder in OneWeb, remove its investment in the company as another condition for launch.

12:25 PM

US accuses Kremlin of 'full assault on media freedom and truth' in Russia

The US Department of State has accused the Kremlin of engaging in a "full assault on media freedom and the truth" in Russia after the restriction of access to the Echo of Moscow radio broadcaster and the Dozhd TV-channel (listed as foreign agents in Russia).

 

"Russia is engaged in an unprovoked war on Ukraine. At home, the Kremlin is engaged in a full assault on media freedom and the truth, and Moscow's efforts to mislead and suppress the truth of the brutal invasion are intensifying," the Department of State said in a statement on late Wednesday. 

12:23 PM

About 22 per cent voting recorded till 11 am in sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls

About 22 per cent voting recorded till 11 am in sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls

11:56 AM

Fitch, Moody's slash Russia's sovereign rating to junk as sanctions mount

Russia's financial markets have been thrown into turmoil by sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.
 

The invasion has triggered a flurry of credit rating moves and dire warnings about the impact on Russia's economy. S&P lowered Russia's rating to junk status last week.
 

It also prompted index providers FTSE Russell and MSCI to announce on Wednesday that they will remove Russian equities from all their indexes, after a top MSCI executive earlier this week called Russia's stock market "uninvestable". Read on...