By The Related Press
VIENNA — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer says his assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow was “very direct, open and hard.”
In an announcement launched by his workplace after the assembly, Nehammer stated Monday his main message to Putin was “that this battle wants to finish, as a result of in battle each side can solely lose.”
Nehammer was the primary European chief to fulfill Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February.
The Austrian chief harassed that the Monday journey was “not a pleasant go to,” however slightly his “responsibility” to exhaust each risk for ending the violence in Ukraine.
Nehammer’s Moscow go to comes after a visit on Saturday to Kyiv, the place he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In his dialog with Putin, Nehammer stated he raised the problem of “severe battle crimes” dedicated by the Russian army within the Ukrainian metropolis of Bucha and others. “All those that are accountable will probably be held to account,” he added.
Austria is a member of the European Union and has backed the 27-nation bloc’s sanctions in opposition to Russia, although it thus far has opposed reducing off deliveries of Russian gasoline. The nation is militarily impartial and isn’t a member of NATO.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Ukrainian defenders dig in as Russia boosts firepower
— Biden, Modi to talk as US presses for arduous line on Russia
— Ukrainian nuns open their monastery doorways to the displaced
— US doubts new Russian battle chief can finish Moscow’s floundering
— Evaluation: Conflict, economic system may weaken Putin’s place as chief
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for extra protection
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. youngsters’s company says practically two-thirds of all Ukrainian youngsters have fled their houses within the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, and the United Nations has verified that 142 youngsters have been killed and 229 injured although these numbers are doubtless a lot greater.
Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s emergency packages director who returned from Ukraine final week, informed the U.N. Safety Council on Monday that of the three.2 million youngsters estimated to have remained of their houses “practically half could also be vulnerable to not having sufficient meals,” and assaults on water system infrastructure and energy outages have left an estimated 1.4 million folks within the nation with out entry to water.
He stated the scenario is worse in cities like Mariupol and Kherson within the south, which have been besieged by Russian forces the place youngsters and their households have spent weeks with out working water, sanitation or a daily provide of meals.
“A whole bunch of colleges and academic amenities have been attacked or used for army functions,” Fontaine stated. “Others are serving as shelters for civilians.”
He stated faculty closings are affecting the schooling of 5.7 million school-age youngsters and 1.5 million college students in greater schooling.
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Kin of the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica are anxious that the historical past is repeating itself within the battle in Ukraine.
A whole bunch of ladies who misplaced their sons, husbands and different family members within the 1995 bloodbath of some 8,000 folks within the jap Bosnian city, on Monday demanded that every one those that dedicated battle crimes be dropped at justice.
An affiliation of the family members of the Srebrenica victims, the Moms of Srebrenica, has been energetic in retaining the reminiscence alive of the Bosnian Serb execution of the Bosniak males and boys — who’re largely Muslim — within the late months of the 1992-95 Conflict in Bosnia.
Sehida Abdurahmanovic says “we spent all these years working to forestall this Srebrenica (killings) from occurring to anybody else.” However, she provides, “we’re actually unhappy to say, however in at this time’s Europe its occurring once more – Srebrenica is going on once more.”
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LONDON — The World Financial institution says Ukraine’s economic system will shrink by 45% this yr due to Russia’s invasion, which has shut down half of the nation’s companies, choked off imports and exports, and broken an unlimited quantity of vital infrastructure.
Unprecedented sanctions imposed by Western allies in response to the battle, in the meantime, are plunging Russia right into a deep recession, lopping off greater than a tenth of its financial development, the Washington-based lender stated in a report Sunday.
The report stated financial exercise is unattainable in “massive swathes of areas” in Ukraine as a result of productive infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports and prepare tracks have been destroyed.
Ukraine performs a significant function as a world provider of agricultural exports like wheat however that’s in query now as a result of planting and harvesting have been disrupted by the battle, the report stated. The battle has lower off entry to the Black Sea, a key route for exports, together with 90% of Ukraine’s grain shipments.
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WARSAW, Poland – The mayor of Warsaw says a disputed compound administered by Russia’s diplomatic mission is being taken over by the town and will probably be made accessible to the Ukrainian group.
Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was on the website Monday and stated {that a} bailiff had entered the 2 apparently empty buildings, dubbed “spyville” by Warsaw residents, to examine their situation and to mark them as seized by the City Corridor.
“It is vitally symbolic that we’re closing this process of a few years now, on the time of Russia’s aggression” on Ukraine, Trzaskowski stated on Twitter.
Russia’s Embassy, which had the tall condo blocks constructed within the Seventies, has been refusing courtroom orders to pay lease or handy it over. As soon as busy, the buildings turned empty within the Nineties, after Poland shed its communist rule and dependence from Moscow and after the Soviet Union dissolved.
Ever since, Poland has been saying that lease on the plot of land had expired and demanded or not it’s returned.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary plans to switch its pure gasoline contract with Russian vitality firm Gazprom so as to fulfill a requirement by President Vladimir Putin that Russian gasoline be paid for in rubles.
Hungarian Overseas Minister Peter Szijjarto informed a information convention on Monday that the subsidiary of Hungary’s vitality group MVM, CEE Vitality, would pay its gasoline payments in euros to Russia’s Gazprombank, which might convert the funds into rubles and switch them to the gasoline supplier Gazprom Export.
Putin, in retaliation over sanctions in opposition to Russia by the European Union, has demanded that international locations pay for Russian gasoline in rubles or threat having their provide shut off.
Whereas Hungary has voted with the European Union on most sanctions in opposition to Russia, it has lobbied closely in opposition to blocking Russian vitality imports, arguing that might cripple its economic system.
Szijjarto stated that modifying Hungary’s contract with Gazprom ensured the nation’s vitality provide whereas staying according to the EU’s sanctioning coverage.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The Danish Well being Authority stated Monday it is going to purchase 2 million iodine tablets in case of “a nuclear accident in our instant space.”
The COVID-19 pandemic “has proven us that you will need to be ready,” whereas the battle in Ukraine exhibits that “the world is unpredictable,” the well being authority stated, including it had primarily based its advice on recommendation by the Danish Emergency Administration Company in addition to impression calculations for the danger of a nuclear incident in Denmark’s instant space.
The tablets would cowl the danger group which incorporates these as much as age 18, well being and emergency personnel beneath the age of 40, and pregnant and breastfeeding girls.
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BUCHAREST, Romania — The Republic of Moldova obtained on Monday in Luxembourg a questionnaire from the European Fee to evaluate the small nation’s readiness to develop into a European Union member, authorities stated.
“A interval of arduous work is forward beginning at this time,” Overseas Minister Nicu Popescu wrote on-line.
The previous Soviet republic of round 2.6 million folks is one in all Europe’s poorest nations. Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has pushed to speed up becoming a member of the EU since Russia launched its assaults on Ukraine in late February.
Turning into a EU member will take years and be contingent on reforms, together with cleansing up widespread corruption.
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VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Monday turned the most recent Western chief to go to Ukraine to precise assist to the nation beneath Russian assault,
“Immediately, my go to in Ukraine began in Borodyanka. No phrases may probably describe what I noticed and felt right here,” Simonyte wrote on Twitter. She additionally posted images of her trying on the on the blackened gap in a high-rise condo constructing in Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv.
Through the unannounced go to, she is predicted to fulfill with the Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy, who plans to deal with the Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday.
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia has denied its S-300 air protection missile system it transported to Ukraine has been destroyed by the Russian armed forces.
“Our S-300 system has not been destroyed,” Lubica Janikova, spokeswoman for Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger stated in an announcement despatched to The Related Press.
She stated every other declare is just not true.
Earlier on Monday, the Russian army stated it destroyed a cargo of air protection missile system offered by the West on the southern outskirts of the town of Dnipro.
The Russian facet stated Ukraine had obtained the air protection system from a European nation that he didn’t identify. Final week, Slovakia stated it has handed over its Soviet-designed S-300 air protection programs to Ukraine, which has pleaded with the West to offer it extra weapons, together with long-range air protection programs.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Latvia has arrested a citizen of Belarus, who’s suspected of spying for Belarusian particular service by allegedly gathering details about the Baltic nation’s Armed Forces and important infrastructure amenities, information report stated Monday.
The Baltic Information Service, the area’s primary new company, stated Latvia’s State Safety Service (VDD) and the Army Intelligence and Safety Service detained the person in February.
The Belarusian suspect had been secretly filming and taking images, BNS stated, including that the state safety service had seized technical gear and knowledge carriers.
Latvian public broadcaster LSM stated legal proceedings have been initiated on Feb. 15.
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ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia is expelling 24 Russian diplomats and different embassy employees, becoming a member of different European nations which have finished so.
The Croatian Overseas Ministry on Monday stated they’ve summoned Russia’s ambassador in Zagreb and conveyed the “strongest condemnation of the brutal aggression on Ukraine and quite a few crimes which have been dedicated.”
The Russian facet has been urged to halt army actions, withdraw its troops and guarantee evacuation of civilians and supply of humanitarian help, the Croatian ministry stated. Croatia expects that these accountable of crimes be dropped at justice, stated the assertion.
A number of EU international locations have expelled Russian diplomats following the killings in Bucha and different Ukrainian cities.
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VATICAN CITY — The Vatican says a Ukrainian and a Russian household will probably be amongst these taking turns carrying a cross as a part of the normal Good Friday procession presided over by Pope Francis on the Colosseum.
The Vatican launched some particulars on Monday in regards to the torchlit Means of the Cross ceremony on the historical enviornment that attracts tens of 1000’s of pilgrims and vacationers in Rome throughout Holy Week.
The meditations composed for this yr’s nighttime procession “have been impressed by the life of every household,’ the Vatican stated. The households embrace a Ukrainian nurse and a Russian nurse who work on the similar hospital in Rome, Italian state TV stated.
Repeatedly decrying the lack of civilian life, the pope has sounded more and more anguished requires an finish to what he calls “the folly of battle” in Ukraine and for a return to negotiations.
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BRUSSELS — Eire’s international minister says the European Union ought to contemplate imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil business however cautions that it’s most necessary for the 27-nation bloc to stay unified.
A number of EU international locations are depending on Russian oil and gasoline imports. After a lot debate, the bloc agreed final week to a part in of restrictions on imports of coal over Moscow’s battle on Ukraine.
Irish Overseas Minister Simon Coveney says that “we have to take a maximalist method to sanctions to supply the strongest potential deterrents to the continuation of this battle and brutality.”
Talking as EU international ministers gathered Monday in Luxembourg, Coveney stated “that ought to embrace, in our view, oil. We all know that that’s very troublesome for some member states and we’ve got to maintain a united place throughout the EU.”
The EU’s govt arm, the European Fee, is assessing what extra will be finished with a contemporary package deal of sanctions.
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MOSCOW — The Russian army says it has destroyed a cargo of air protection missile programs offered by the West.
Russian Protection Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated the army used sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles to destroy 4 S-300 air protection missile launchers on the southern outskirts of the town of Dnipro. He stated about 25 Ukrainian troops have been additionally hit by the strike on Sunday.
Konashenkov stated in an announcement Monday that Ukraine had obtained the air protection programs from a European nation that he didn’t identify. Konashenkov’s declare couldn’t be independently verified.
Final week, Slovakia stated it had handed over its Soviet-designed S-300 air protection programs to Ukraine, which has pleaded with the West to offer it extra weapons, together with long-range air protection programs.
Slovakia’s prime minister workplace issued an announcement late Sunday calling the information that the S-300 system given to Ukraine was destroyed “disinformation.” It was unclear, nevertheless, whether or not each side are referring to the identical airstrike. The Russians have focused missile protection programs in three totally different areas in current days.
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SEOUL, South Korea — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday referred to as for South Korea to supply army arms to assist his nation struggle again in opposition to invading Russian forces.
Zelenskyy’s video deal with to South Korean lawmakers got here hours after Seoul’s Protection Ministry confirmed it rejected a Ukrainian request for anti-aircraft weapons. The ministry cited the federal government’s precept on limiting army assist to non-lethal provides.
“The Republic of Korea has tanks, ships and varied gear that may block Russian missiles and we might be grateful if the Republic of Korea may assist us struggle again in opposition to Russia,” Zelenskyy stated, referring to South Korea’s formal identify.
Zelenskyy thanked South Korea for taking part in U.S.-led financial sanctions in opposition to Moscow however stated sanctions alone aren’t sufficient.
“Russia is aiming to remove Ukraine independence and separate the nation. It’s making an attempt to remove the tradition and language of the Ukrainian nation,” Zelenskyy stated.
