On Tuesday, Ukraine President Zelenskyy announced Viktor Medvedchuk's arrest, showing him downcast and in cuffs, sparking widespread celebrations.
Days after Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi and China's President Xi Jinping expressed their concerns about the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the SCO summit in Samarkhand, the tyrant of the Kremlin has raised the military stakes in the conflict.
That does not mean it cannot and will not happen, General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday.
Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels gave conflicting accounts of shelling across the front in the Donbass separatist region.
The 19-kilometre (11.8 miles) bridge, which runs across the Kerch Strait and connects Crimea with mainland Russia, consists of a railway and vehicle sections.
Russia suffered a serious military setback when its forces had to withdraw from the Kharkiv region.
On Friday, Putin formally announced the annexation of four regions -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia -- and claimed that "this is the will of millions of people".
The move points to a potential escalation of fighting in Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal said citing experts.
Russia and Ukraine agreed last week to allow critical food supplies to flow to millions of impoverished people facing hunger worldwide.
The BSE benchmark Sensex plummeted about 383 points to close at 57,300-level on Tuesday, tracking massive selloffs in global markets. After sinking about 1,300 points in early deals, the Sensex staged a sharp recovery but still ended 382.91 points or 0.66 per cent lower at 57,300.68. The NSE Nifty too reclaimed part of its early losses before closing 114.45 points or 0.67 per cent lower at 17,092.20. On the Sensex chart, Tata Steel, TCS and SBI fell the most, losing as much as 3.64 per cent. Of the 30 Sensex constituents, 20 closed in the red. "Escalations in Ukraine tensions with Russia recognising two pro-Russian rebel regions have aggravated the crisis. "The economic consequences are already visible in higher crude and gold prices," VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
Following Russia's retreat from areas around the Ukrainian capital, signs of normal life have returned to Kyiv, with residents taking advantage of shortened curfew hours, businesses reopening, and foreign countries promising to return their diplomats.
'I want to be with the Ukrainian people and serve those I know here.'
For the past four months, 92-year-old Maria Nikolaevna has lived underground with her daughter, son-in-law and the family cat.
They are now publicly trying to redefine the goals of their invasion to be different than they were at the outset, she noted when asked about some declassified American intelligence information that Putin had bad information from his military.
According to one newspaper report, Tu-95 strategic bombers fired the missiles from the Caspian Sea, located more than 1,000 miles from the Ukrainian capital.
The Modi government finds itself in a contradiction of its own making. It has encouraged pro-Russian, Westophobic public sentiment while setting strategic policy that's exactly the opposite, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'The wise men learn lessons in war.' 'The smart men learn lessons from others, it's only the foolish who learn the wrong lesson.'
Pro-Russia rebels on Friday said they have recovered the black boxes from the wreckage of the Malaysian plane blown by a missile over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, including 100 world-renowned AIDS researchers and activists.
'As long as we have such partners, Russia cannot be isolated.'
'The big power struggle in faraway Europe erupted at a most critical juncture when India has been increasingly sceptical about American policies and statesmanship,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The apparel and engineering sectors have already witnessed the trend in the past one week. If this continues, it can have an impact on the overall export demand in the coming months, considering that Europe is the largest national export market for India.
Expressing grave concern over Russia's support for separatists groups in Ukraine, US President Barack Obama has told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that all irregular forces in Ukraine need to lay down their arms.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that if 'negotiations' with Russian President Vladimir Putin fail then 'that would mean that this is a third World War'.
'Those who say that conventional war is a thing of the past or that war is not an option, or that diplomacy alone can prevent war -- are wrong and we see that in Ukraine.'
As Russia was accused of a mass cover-up, grieving families pleaded for their loved ones' remains to be returned home.
Rescue workers have so far recovered 181 bodies scattered over a vast area in eastern Ukraine even as pro-Russia rebels on Friday said they have recovered the black boxes from the wreckage of the Malaysian plane blown up by a missile, killing all 298 people on board.
Even as pro-Russian rebels handed over the black boxes that they found at the MH17 crash site, hundreds of thousands of Dutch social media users have changed their social media profile picture to a black square and are using the hashtag #BringThemHome, demanding Malaysia Airlines MH17 bodies' return.
The spiralling crisis in Ukraine has resulted in Russia and the United States stepping up the rhetoric as defiant pro-Russian militant took control of key buildings in the country's chaotic east.
The fault line between the West and Russia has widened into a deep chasm and this is likely to endure in the foreseeable future. Far from forcing its way into the European tent, Russia may be reduced to the status of an even more sullen and weakened bystander on its periphery. The US appears to have won this hand with little cost to itself, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
India has made arrangements to evacuate all its nationals, mainly students, from violence-hit Ukrainian city of Lugansk to Kyiv, top officials said.
Would Ukraine be such a pushover if it had that nuclear stockpile?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Russia's main gain will be that in geopolitical terms, Ukraine regains its sovereignty and ceases to be a de facto American colony, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'What would we feel if we found the world behaving the way it has?' 'Forced to fight our own prolonged battle; nobody from outside really demanding that the war end or actively working to make it end, and above all, a completely toothless United Nations reduced to pleading for a halt to the violence,' notes Shyam G Menon, exactly a month after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Women in war-torn countries battle on the front lines
The black boxes from the downed Malaysia Airlines in eastern Ukraine arrived in the UK on Wednesday for expert analysis by air accident investigators.
Pro-Russia candidate Viktor Yanukovych has emerged the clear winner in Ukraine's keenly fought Presidential elections after the counting of over 99 percent votes polled in the polls.
'Sholay wallah kahani hai: 'Gabbar Singh aayega, Gabbar Singh aayega.' 'But what is inside Gabbar Singh nobody knows.'
Croatia defender Domagoj Vida apologised after his team's World Cup semi-final victory over England on Wednesday after speaking out in support of Russia's neighbour and adversary Ukraine.
Croatia's Football Federation (HNS) sacked Ognjen Vukojevic, a member of the national team's coaching staff, over a "glory to Ukraine" video posted after Croatia beat Russia in the World Cup quarter-finals, HNS said in a statement on Monday.
In an election condemned by the United States, Europe and the Ukrainian government, voters in Crimea reportedly backed a referendum to split from Ukraine and become a part of Russia.
