UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has termed Russian President Vladimir Putin announcement of a special military operation in Ukraine as the "saddest moment in my tenure", while Security Council members blasted the Russian leader for the "unprovoked and unjustified' action and for delivering a "message of war".
India on Thursday abstained in the UN General Assembly on a vote moved by the US to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
"Have just got the good news that due to the hard work of our teams and your cooperation, a consensus has been reached on New Delhi G20 Leaders Summit Declaration," Modi said while addressing the second session of the Summit at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
Earlier this week, Guterres had written to Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to receive him in Moscow and Kyiv 'to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine'.
Abstaining in the UN General Assembly on a vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, India on Thursday asserted that if it has 'chosen' any side, it is the side of 'peace and it is for an immediate end to violence.'
India abstained in the United Nations General Assembly on a draft resolution calling for Russia to be held accountable for violations of international law by its invasion of Ukraine and requiring Moscow to pay reparations to Kyiv for damages, loss and injury resulting from the war.
With the adoption of the UNSC resolution on Sunday, it was for the first time in 40 years that the council decided to call for an emergency special session in the General Assembly.
Unlike US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and US Secretary of Defense General Lloyd J Austin III, who traveled to Kyiv earlier this week, but did not tour war-torn areas in Ukraine, Guterres visited several towns around Kyiv heavily damaged by Russian forces in their failed bid to take the Ukrainian capital.
US officials have said that the initial findings have suggested that the missile that hit Poland was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile.
In response to a question about whether US citizens should be concerned about a nuclear war breaking out, Biden said "no."
Khrenin spoke while wrapping-up the preliminary results of the Russia-Belarus military drills 'Union Courage 2022' scheduled to conclude on Sunday.
'The escalation of tension along the border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation is a matter of deep concern'
The residential building in the town of Chasiv Yar was hit on Saturday evening as Russia ramped up its assault on cities and towns in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take control over the entire Donbas area.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its approval to two Russian banks for opening special vostro account for rupee trade. Sberbank, JSC VTB - the largest and second largest bank of Russia - are the first foreign lenders to receive this approval after the central bank announced the norms on INR trade in July. Both lenders have branch presence in India. Earlier this month, state-run UCO Bank received the RBI's approval to open a special Vostro account with Gazprombank of Russia. While the Kolkata-based lender is in the process of opening the account, the bank has received requests from various foreign lenders for opening such an account.
The development comes following the third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus on Monday, which apparently ended up in failure.
Ukraine's envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya told members states that he had already lost family members to Russian aggression.
In a television appearance Monday, Putin said Russia had struck military and infrastructure targets across Ukraine following the Crimea bridge blast.
India's unabated tryst with Russian crude oil is slowly coming to an end. The time has come for Indian refiners to navigate, creatively, the choppy waters of the post-honeymoon period, and for Indian policymakers to take cognisance of the broader impact on India from the spillover of the Russian crisis - after Washington's warning to transgressors last week. Shipments from Russia to India have averaged over 1.8 million barrels a day since February, according to data from Paris-based market analytics firm Kpler. But much of the crude shipped to India was non-sanctioned because it traded below a price cap set by the US led G-7 nations in December.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees the prospect of making the Security Council more democratic, exclusively, through broadening the representation of countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
During the two-week intense and exacting military training, the two countries' contingents conducted focused training to understand the functioning of each other.
The 193-member UN General Assembly adopted the draft resolution 'Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine' by Ukraine and its western allies, with 140 nations voting in favour, five against and 38 abstentions. India abstained on the resolution.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier on Tuesday that talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations should continue saying that it is difficult, but important as the positions of the sides sound more realistic now.
Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, the former First Lady of the Russian Federation, is on the list of sanctions for benefiting from preferential business relationships with state-owned entities since her divorce from Putin in 2014.
Russia's Defence Ministry on Saturday said that they are pulling back forces from two areas in Ukraine's Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be on a two-day official visit to India from Thursday, his first trip to the country since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine last month.
Guterres, who opened an emergency meeting of the 15-nation Security Council on Ukraine late Wednesday, in his brief off-the-cuff remarks said 'if indeed an operation is being prepared, I have only one thing to say from the bottom of my heart: President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine. Give peace a chance. Too many people have already died'.
India has abstained on yet another resolution involving Ukraine, this time a motion sponsored by Russia at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that sought to establish a commission to investigate claims by Moscow that the United States and Ukraine are carrying out 'military biological activities' in laboratories in Ukraine in violation of the biological weapons convention.
Ofcom ruled that it did not consider RT's licensee, ANO TV Novosti, 'fit and proper' to hold a UK broadcast licence.
Chinese and Russian warplanes on Tuesday conducted joint air patrols over the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the West Pacific Ocean as the leaders of Quad held their in-person summit in Tokyo, in an apparent attempt to send a message of unity between Beijing and Moscow.
Moody's and Fitch on Thursday downgraded Russia's sovereign rating to 'junk' grade following severe sanctions by western countries. While Moody's Investors Service downgraded Russia's long-term issuer and senior unsecured (local-and foreign-currency) debt ratings to 'B3' from 'Baa3', Fitch pulled down the rating on the country to 'B' from 'BBB', putting it on 'Rating Watch Negative'. The downgraded rating is in speculative or junk category reflecting default risk. It signifies that even through financial commitments are currently being met, the sovereign is vulnerable to high credit risk.
The countries voting in favour included France, Germany, Japan, Nepal, The United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The International Olympic Committee said on Monday its executive board had recommended that international sports federations ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from competing in events.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe claimed that more people took to running to stay fit during the coronavirus-forced lockdown, something his sport can capitalise on once the world is back to being normal.
Two Russian flights with oxygen concentrators, lung ventilation equipment, bedside monitors, medicines, including Coronavir and other essential pharmaceutical items landed in India to help the country in its fight against the COVID-19 surge.
Russia took an unassailable 2-0 lead over Croatia in the Davis Cup final in Madrid on Sunday to secure their third title and first in 15 years, as Daniil Medvedev outlasted Croatian Marin Cilic 7-6(7), 6-2.
"We share important interests with India. We share important values with India. And we know India has a relationship with Russia that is distinct from the relationship that we have with Russia. Of course, that is okay," Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Friday.
The United Kingdom government on Tuesday imposed tough sanctions against five Russian banks and three super-rich oligarchs from the country over President Vladimir Putin's aggressive action on the Ukraine border.
'We know that our Indian partners are committed to that rules-based international order. There are any number of tenets in that order. One of them is that borders cannot be redrawn by force'
At her daily news conference on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked how the world's largest and oldest democracies are working together to bring peace in the region amidst the war in Ukraine.
India closed their campaign on the fourth day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup winning a team bronze medal in the 25m pistol women's event in Suhl, Germany, on Wednesday.
