RUSSIA WAGES WAR DESPITE GLOBAL CRITICISM

On the first day of Russia's attack on Ukraine, 137 people were left dead in one of the worst crises in Europe since the World War-2. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sprang an unpleasant surprise as he launched a full-scale invasion in Ukraine where major cities - including the capital city of Kyiv - came under military strikes. Visuals of destruction flooded social media as world leaders expressed horror and made urgent appeals of restraint and calm.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged on Friday to stay in Kyiv as the capital sees one of the biggest battles of Europe since World War -2. "(The) enemy has marked me down as the number one target. My family is the number two target.

“Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom,” Zelensky asserted in a tweet. 137 “heroes,” including 10 military officers, had been killed and 316 people wounded, he said in a video address.

The United States has hit Russia with fresh sanctions even as President Joe Biden admitted that the sanctions may not be enough to stop Putin, saying, "Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences."

In fresh US sanctions, Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen has been targetted. Five major banks - including state-backed Sberbank and VTB - and Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, are on the list.

On Day-1, Russia targeted government and military installations in Ukraine as the attack quickly escalated forcing Kyiv to close airspace - satellite images from Europe showed what seemed like a big hole above Ukraine.

Ukraine lost control of Chernobyl Power Plant, the site of the 1986 disaster. The White House said it has credible reports that hostages were held at the nuclear power plant.

Global markets shuddered on Thursday as Russia launched military offensive. In the US, wholesale prices rose for everything from gasoline to wheat, reports said.

World condemnation has followed and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called Russia's attack “a brutal act of war”, stressing that Moscow had shattered peace on the European continent.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he aimed to cut off Russia from the U.K.’s financial markets. In his list of sanctions, he froze the assets of all large Russian banks.

The European Union has announced extensive new sanctions on Russia, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaking of a watershed moment for Europe.

The sanctions will target areas including the financial sector, energy, transport, and visas for the Russian elite, she said after a meeting that ended in the early hours on Friday in Brussels.

AMID ATTACK ON UKRAINE, IMRAN-PUTIN DISCUSS BILATERAL TIES, JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran, who is on an official visit to Russia, held an over three-hour long meeting with the Russian president, hours after Moscow ordered a full scale assault on Ukraine that drew strong reaction from the West.

The Pakistani delegation woke up in the morning with the news of Russian attack, something that made the prime minister visit even more daunting given some had already advised him not to go ahead with the trip against the backdrop of brewing tensions.

A statement issued by the Kremlin did not explicitly mention that the issue of Ukraine was discussed during the meeting.

However, the Foreign Office statement of the Imran-Putin meeting confirmed that the subject did come up for discussion. “The prime minister regretted the latest situation between Russia and Ukraine and said that Pakistan had hoped diplomacy could avert a military conflict,” read the Foreign Office handout.

It said that Imran stressed that conflict was not in anyone’s interest, and that the developing countries were always hit the hardest, economically, in case of conflict. He underlined Pakistan’s belief that disputes should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, according to the Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, the statement said the two leaders held wide-ranging consultations on bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Imran added that the trust and cordiality, marking the bilateral relationship, would translate into further deepening and broadening of mutual cooperation in diverse fields.

On the situation in South Asia, the prime minister highlighted the serious human rights situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and underscored the imperative of peaceful resolution of the dispute.

The prime minister also highlighted the developments detrimental to regional peace and stability and stressed the need for measures that would help keep the regional balance. Expressing concerns on rising trends of extremism and Islamophobia in the world, the prime minister emphasised the need for interfaith harmony and coexistence.

Later, Prime Minister Imran held a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and an interactive session with notable businessmen of Pakistan and Russia. During the meetings, Imran highlighted the reforms undertaken in different sectors to improve business environment in Pakistan.

UKRAINE ATTACK: 'TURNING POINT IN HISTORY' - WORLD LEADERS REACT

Major Western nations have reacted with outrage at Russia's invasion of Ukraine, accusing it of bringing war back to Europe.

France's Emmanuel Macron said this was a "turning point in the history of Europe", with the G7 group of nations vowing to impose severe sanctions.

In eastern Europe, the fears extended to coping with a wave of refugees.

But China bridled at the word invasion and joined those nations focusing more on their citizens' safety.

Ukraine says Russia is carrying out a full-scale attack from many directions, but the details of the assault and the number of casualties are not yet clear.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken of a "special military operation" aimed at the demilitarisation and "denazification" of Ukraine, but his overall goals also remain unclear.

The uncertainty has not stopped an angry and defiant response from Western allies.

A largely united voice spoke out with condemnation and promises of sanctions.

US President Joe Biden said: "President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering."

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Mr Putin was "responsible for bringing war back to Europe".

UK PM Boris Johnson said Mr Putin had "chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction" with an "unprovoked attack".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also reacted angrily, calling this "Putin's war" and saying the Russian leader would pay a "bitter price" for his "serious error".

The G7 - the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - vowed in a joint statement to bring forward "severe and co-ordinated" sanctions.

The EU bloc will have more of them, which Ms Von der Leyen said would "weaken Russia's economic base and its capacity to modernise".

But there remains huge concern at what could happen next.

G-10 CURRENCIES PLUMMET AS DOLLAR POSTS LARGEST RALLY SINCE 2020

A gauge of the dollar’s strength had its largest intraday gain in nearly two years on Thursday as markets grappled with the biggest security threat in Europe in decades.

The Bloomberg Dollar Index rose as much as 1.4%, approaching its highest levels of the past year, before paring gains as U.S. technology shares rebounded. Traders flocked to the safety of the greenback after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending the U.S. currency higher against all of its Group-of-10 peers.

On the continent, the euro dropped to a nearly seven-year low against the Swiss franc as investors flocked to haven assets. The pair dropped as much as 1%, the largest slide in more than three years, before rebounding slightly. The common currency posted an even bigger decline against the greenback, falling as much as 1.8% to 1.1106, its lowest level since June 2020.

Demand for the dollar crushed other European currencies, with those of Sweden, Norway and Denmark declining at least 1%. Even the Swiss franc, a traditional haven, lost ground against the dollar as Russian tanks moved into Ukraine.

The euro, for its part, erased what remained of gains accrued after the European Central Bank struck a more hawkish tone earlier this month. The invasion sent oil prices soaring, complicating the outlook for officials planning to tighten policy to deal with inflation that’s already at the highest in decades.

Traders are expecting more volatility and further losses.

CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES PREPARE TO RECEIVE UKRAINIAN REFUGEES

Central European countries braced on Thursday for the arrival of refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Poland setting up reception points on its border and Hungary and Slovakia planning to send troops to manage the likely influx.

The countries on the European Union's eastern flank were all once part of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact and are now members of NATO. Among them, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania all share land borders with Ukraine.

Ukrainians started trickling into Poland, with dozens arriving at the normally quiet Medyka crossing on Thursday, some carrying luggage and accompanied by children.

Polish hospitals were preparing beds for wounded Ukrainians, the health ministry said, and the Polish army raised the level of preparedness of some units.

Poland said it would set up reception points for refugees on its borders, PAP news agency quoted Polish Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Pawel Szefernaker as saying.

Small groups of people also fled into Hungary on Thursday through the Beregsurany crossing, some coming from as far as Kyiv, a Reuters eyewitness said. Some arrived by car, but many pedestrians were also hauling their suitcases across.

Slovakia said it was ready to help refugees.

GLOBAL WARMING SPEEDING UP WORLD'S WATER CYCLE: REPORT

Rising temperature levels are speeding up the globe’s water cycle and also activating all-natural calamities such as dry spells and also floodings, according to a brand-new record led by Australian scientists.

The record, released in Nature journal, launched to the general public on Thursday, claimed that the hotter temperature levels are quickening the continuous cycle of freshwater in between the clouds, the land and also the sea, causing even more severe weather with the globe’s wetter locations coming to be a lot more drenched and also the completely dry areas coming to be a lot more dry.

Taimoor Sohail, the lead writer and also a mathematician from the College of New South Wales (UNSW), claimed the searchings for “suggest of the bigger adjustments taking place in the international water cycle,” Xinhua information company reported.

Formerly, adjustments to the cycle had actually been hard to straight observe, as regarding 80 percent of international rains and also dissipation takes place over the sea.

Sohail claimed his group had actually rather evaluated historic information from 1970 to 2014 to keep track of the altering patterns of salt in the sea, to approximate just how much sea freshwater had actually relocated from the equator to the posts throughout that time.

Their brand-new searchings for revealed that in between 2 and also 4 times extra freshwater had actually relocated than environment versions had actually expected. The scientists think the quantity of freshwater that was carried from the equator to the posts throughout those years had actually gone beyond forecasts by approximately 77,000 cubic kilometres.

On the other hand, Zika claimed the “water cycle takes that freshwater to chillier areas where it drops as rainfall, weakening the sea and also making it much less salted.” “Modifications to the water cycle can have an important influence on facilities, farming, and also biodiversity,” Sohail claimed. “It’s consequently crucial to comprehend the method environment adjustment is affecting the water cycle currently and also right into the future.

” Developing the adjustment in warm-to-cold freshwater transportation implies we can move on and also remain to make these crucial forecasts regarding just how environment adjustment is most likely to influence our international water cycle,” Sohail claimed.

6.2-MAGNITUDE HITS INDONESIA'S SUMATRA ISLAND

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck near the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Friday, the country's geophysics agency BMKG said. The earthquake's epicentre was on land and had no tsunami potential, the agency said on Twitter.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the seismic event occurred at 7.09am (local time) at a depth of 12.3 km.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or structural damage.