Russia Ukraine News Highlights | Chechen chief Kadyrov says Russia will make no concessions in Ukraine

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Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful head of Russia's republic of Chechnya, said on Wednesday that Moscow would make no concessions in its war in Ukraine and that Kremlin negotiator Vladimir Medinsky had been wrong to suggest otherwise. In a video statement on his Telegram that appeared to deviate starkly from Russia's official position, Kadyrov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not just stop what he had started in Ukraine. (Reuters)

Russia-Ukraine Conflict | Signs of collective resolve and shared grief

A 16-meter-high bronze monument to Taras Shevchenko, a national hero in Ukraine, survived World War II. Ukrainians have shielded it with countless layers of sandbags in hopes it also will survive…

Russian hackers have recently attempted to penetrate the networks of NATO and the militaries of some eastern European countries, Google's Threat Analysis Group said in a report published on Wednesday.

The report did not say which militaries had been targeted in what Google described as "credential phishing campaigns" launched by a Russian-based group called Coldriver, or Callisto.

"These campaigns were sent using newly created Gmail accounts to non-Google accounts, so the success rate of these campaigns is unknown," the report said. (Reuters)

Ukraine sees the billionaire Roman Abramovich as an effective mediator between Kyiv and Moscow who helps prevent misunderstandings from happening between the two sides, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Wednesday.

"It has long been known in the media space that he is an extremely effective mediator between delegations and partially moderates the process so that there is no misunderstanding at the outset," he told a televised briefing.

Podolyak also played down as speculative "conspiracy theories" the reports that Abramovich had been poisoned several weeks ago, saying such reports were meant to put pressure on the delegations. (Reuters)

Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday its forces were regrouping near Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv to focus on other key areas and complete the "liberation" of the breakaway eastern Donbas region.

The ministry's statement, part of a reframing of Moscow's stated objectives in recent days, came a day after Russia said it would scale back operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to support progress in peace talks.

Ukraine and the West have both reacted with suspicion to that announcement, suspecting a ploy by Moscow in response to the heavy losses of men and equipment it has suffered over five weeks of war in which Ukraine has mounted fierce and effective resistance. (Reuters)

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of planting mines in the Black Sea and said some of those munitions had to be defused off Turkey and Romania as risks to vital merchant shipping in the region grow.

The Black Sea is a major shipping route for grain, oil and oil products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey as well as Ukraine and Russia. Russia's military took control of waterways when it invaded Ukraine on February24, in what Moscow calls a "special operation". In recent days Turkish and Romanian military diving teams have been involved in defusing stray mines around their waters.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said Russia was using naval mines as "uncontrolled drifting ammunition". "It was these drifting mines that were found March 26-28, 2022 off the coasts of Turkey and Romania," it said in a statement. The ministry said "the deliberate use by Russia of drifting sea mines turns them into a de facto weapon of indiscriminate action, which threatens, first of all, civil navigation and human life at sea in the whole waters not only of the Black and Azov Seas, but also of the Kerch and Black Sea Straits". (Reuters)

According to Bloomberg, President Joe Biden is poised to invoke as soon as this week Cold War powers to encourage domestic production of critical minerals for electric-vehicle and other types of batteries.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict could come up during President Ram Nath Kovind's talks with the Dutch leadership during his visit to the Netherlands next week and he would reiterate India's "clear position" on the issue, a senior Ministry of External Affairs official said on Wednesday. Sanjay Verma, Secretary West in the MEA, made the remarks at a press briefing on President Kovind's week-long visit to Turkmenistan and the Netherlands starting April 1 during which he would hold talks with the leadership of those countries to strengthen bilateral ties. At the invitation of the President of Turkmenistan, President Kovind will pay a state visit to Turkmenistan from April 1-4, he said. Verma pointed out that this will be the first-ever visit of the President of India to independent Turkmenistan and comes just after the inauguration of the new Turkmen President, Serdar Berdimuhamedov.He said the main elements of the visit will include a tte--tte with Serdar Berdimuhamedov followed by bilateral delegation-level talks, signing of several MoUs, a separate media statement, address to international relations institute in Ashgabat and some cultural programmes by Turkmen artistes. "We will have a joint statement and MoUs on disaster management, financial intelligence, programme of cooperation in culture and youth affairs and release of joint postal stamp to commemorate 30 years of establishment of diplomatic ties," Verma said.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Wednesday he felt optimistic after talks with Russia at which Moscow said it would scale down military operations near Kyiv and a city in northern Ukraine. "I have an optimistic impression of the round of negotiations in Istanbul," Podolyak told an online briefing following Tuesday's talks in Turkey. He said a proposed system of security guarantees for Ukraine, which would be offered in exchange for its neutrality, would be put to a nationwide referendum only after Russian troops withdrew to positions they held before invading Ukraine

Pop stars likeMadona, Miley Cyrus and Elton John will support a global fund-raising event that the EUand Canada areorganisingfor Ukraine on April 9 in Warsaw. The event’s goal will be to raise money for Ukrainian refugees and people displaced within Ukraine by the Russian invasion, The New York Times reports.

Norway and the rest of Europe should close their sea ports to Russian ships, Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyrZelenskiytold the Norwegian parliament on Wednesday. "The European Union, and I do hope so Norway, need to introduce the ban on Russian vessels to use European ports for the time being while they are blocking our ports,"Zelenskiysaid via video link from Ukraine.