Day 36 of the war in Ukraine

Peace talks will be resumed on April 1st via online meeting. Nevertheless, the President of Ukraine said that plans about him meeting Putin for direct negotiations “are just words, nothing concrete”.

AFP announced that the Russian military will cease fire today in order to allow civilians to be evacuated from Mariupol by using a humanitarian corridor from to Zaporizhzhia, via Berdiansk.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that Kremlin plans a massive offensive in Donbas, but Ukrainian soldiers are prepared for the attack.

Despite announcements of withdrawal from Kyiv and Chernihiv, Russian attacks continued in the areas. However, the Pentagon reported Russian military “walking away” from Chernobyl.

Zelenskiy had a conversation with the US President Joe Biden in “very active diplomatic day”. The US has sent Ukraine another $1bn in humanitarian aid package and $500m for budget support. “The support of the United States is vital for us. And now it is especially important to lend a hand to Ukraine, to show all the power of the democratic world”, commented Zelenskiy.

Car and tank production in Russia were severely affected by global war related restrictions.

According to UK, US and EU officials, Vladimir Putin might have been misinformed about his army progress, as well as on the western sanctions’ consequences, due to the fact that his staff is afraid of telling him the truth about how the war is going. Moreover, according to the general opinion, the Russian soldiers are currently depressed and poorly equipped for this invasion.

Britain’s foreign secretary Liz Truss will ask the Indian government led by Narendra Modi to find ways of reducing its dependency on Russia in expected meeting in New Delhi.

The Foreign Office has announced that the UK has imposed new restrictions on the Russian oligarchs’ access to “UK aviation and maritime technical services”. On the other hand, eight Russian oligarchs were offered “golden visas” to live in Britain with the condition of at least £2m investments.

Google’s threat analysis group warned that NATO networks as well as other military networks in Europe have been unsuccessfully attacked by Russian hackers via “credential phishing campaigns” led by Coldriver or Callisto groups.

Slovakia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the Czech Republic plan to expel Russian diplomats that have been suspected of spying.

More updates to follow.

Source: theguardian.com