RUSSIA KEEPS UP ATTACKS IN UKRAINE AS TWO SIDES HOLD TALKS

LVIV: Russia and Ukraine kept a fragile diplomatic path open with a new round of talks even as Moscow's forces pounded away at Kyiv and other cities across the country in a punishing bombardment the Red Cross said has created “nothing short of a nightmare” for civilians.

Meanwhile, a convoy of 160 civilian cars left the encircled port city of Mariupol along a designated humanitarian route, the city council reported on Monday.

The latest negotiations, held via video conference on Monday, were the fourth round involving higher-level officials from the two countries and the first in a week. The talks ended without a breakthrough after several hours, with an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the negotiators took “a technical pause” and planned to meet again Tuesday.

According to a senior US defence official, Russian troops were still about 15 kilometres from the centre of Kyiv.

The official said Russian forces have launched more than 900 missiles but that Ukraine's airspace is still contested.

Ukrainian authorities said two people were killed when the Russians struck an airplane factory in Kyiv, sparking a large fire. The Antonov factory is Ukraine's largest aircraft plant and produces many of the world's biggest cargo planes.

Russian artillery fire also hit a nine-story apartment building in the northern Obolonskyi district of the city, killing two more people, they said.

In an area outside Kyiv, Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall was injured while reporting and was hospitalised, the network said.

Nine people were killed in a rocket attack on a TV tower in the western village of Antopol, according to the region's governor.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, firefighters doused the smoldering remains of a four-story residential building. It was unclear whether there were casualties.

In the southern city of Mariupol, the city council didn't say how many people were in the convoy headed westward for the city of Zaporizhzhia. But it said a cease-fire along the route appeared to be holding.

The UN has recorded at least 596 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine, though it believes the true toll is much higher. Millions more have fled their homes, with more than 2.8 million crossing into Poland and other neighbouring countries.

Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said China had signalled to Moscow that it would be willing to provide both military support in Ukraine and financial backing to help stave off effects of Western sanctions, which include a fourth set of EU sanctions announced late Monday.

The Kremlin has denied asking China for military equipment to use in Ukraine.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS FROM RUSSIA'S INVASION OF UKRAINE:

- Russia continued its offensive in Ukraine for a third straight week despite both the countries holding a fresh round of peace talks.

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says peace talks with Russia - now in their fourth round - will continue on Tuesday in Turkey. Releasing a video address on Facebook, he said he was informed that talks have been going "pretty good". "But let's see. They will continue tomorrow," he said.

- Zelensky has called on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to meet with him directly, a request that has not been met by the Kremlin till now.

- Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were able to help 3,806 people flee from the Luhansk and Kyiv regions on Monday.

- An anti-war protester has disrupted the evening news on one of Russia's main TV channels. She is reported to have been arrested. Meanwhile, Zelensky thanked Russian civilians who have protested and sought to spread the truth about the war - paying his personal thanks to a protester who held up an anti-war sign on Russia's Channel One news earlier on Monday.

- The UK is set to announce new sanctions on more than 100 individuals with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime on Tuesday

- Japan sanctions 17 more Russians over Ukraine - It has sanctioned 11 members of the State Duma, a chamber of Russia's Parliament, five relatives of banker Yuri Kovalchuk and billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. This brings the number of Russians who have been targeted by Japanese sanctions to 61, the ministry said.

- New Zealand to take in 4,000 relatives from Ukraine - New Zealand plans to take in 4,000 relatives of Ukrainian-born New Zealand citizens and residents, Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi has announced.

- Ex-Kremlin official denounces war - Arkady Dvorkovich, the head of the World Chess Organization (FIDE), who served as Russia's Deputy Prime Minister from 2012-18, has condemned the war in an interview with a US publication, Mother Jones. "Wars are the worst thing in life. Any wars. Anywhere. Including this war," he said from an undisclosed location inside Russia.

- Russian foreign ministry said that 20 people were killed and 28 were injured after Ukrainian troops launched a missile in a residential neighbourhood in Donetsk.

- Biden announced that his government will provide Ukraine with weapons along with allowing refugees from the war-torn country to enter the US and send money, food, and other humanitarian aid to Kyiv. On Monday, CNN also reported the Biden administration was considering expediting immigration proceedings for displaced Ukrainians with ties to the US.

US EXPRESSES 'DEEP CONCERNS' ON RUSSIA-CHINA 'ALIGNMENT'

WASHINGTON - The United States expressed concern Monday about "alignment" between Russia and China, after high-ranking US and Chinese officials met for seven hours on the Ukraine war and other security issues.

"We do have deep concerns about China's alignment with Russia," a senior US official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding: "It was a very candid conversation."

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party's chief diplomat, met in a Rome hotel for what a White House readout described as a "substantial" session.

The White House said the two officials also "underscored the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and China."

The officials were also meeting a day after US media reported that Russia has asked China for military and economic assistance as its troops struggle to make ground in Ukraine and its economy faces devastation from Western sanctions.

The New York Times, citing unnamed US officials, said there was no indication whether China had responded, but China has so far sent mixed signals on Russia's bloody invasion and US officials say the jury is still out on how Beijing will act.

PUTIN AIDE SAYS OP HASN’T GONE AS FAST AS KREMLIN WANTED

One of President Putin’s closest allies said Russia’s military operation in Ukraine had not all gone as quickly as the Kremlin had wanted, the strongest public acknowledgement yet from Moscow that things were not going to plan. National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov, speaking at a church service on Sunday, blamed the slower than expected progress on what he said were far-right Ukrainian forces hiding behind civilians, an accusation repeatedly made by officials in Russia. His comments appeared at odds with an assessment on Friday by Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu who told Putin that “everything is going according to plan”. “I would like to say that yes, not everything is going as fast as we would like,” Zolotov, once in charge of Putin’s personal security, said in comments posted on the National Guard’s website. “...But we are going towards our goal step by step and victory will be for us, and this icon will protect the Russian army and accelerate our victory.”Zolotov is a powerful security official who was once Putin’s security chief. He now heads the National Guard, a kind of internal military force that includes the riot police and other forces. It is subordinated directly to Putin and has forces deployed in Ukraine.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY TO ADDRESS US CONGRESS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will deliver a virtual address to the US Congress as the Russian war on his country intensifies.

Zelenskyy will speak to members of the House and Senate on Wednesday, the Democratic leaders announced. The event will be livestreamed for the public.

“The Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement on Monday.

The address comes as Congress recently approved $13.6 billion in emergency military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine. “The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression,” the leaders said.

AMID SANCTIONS, AMERICAN ASTRONAUT MARK VANDE HEI TO RETURN TO EARTH ON RUSSIAN SPACECRAFT

ith Russia, Europe, and the US embroiled in a game of sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, not all hope seems to be lost as the two countries are looking to cooperate on the International Space Station. When US astronaut Mark Vande Hei launched into space a year ago, the relations between the US and Russia, while not the best, were still smooth. A year later, as he plans to return, it's going to be the trickiest assignment riding a Russian capsule amid a major break in ties on the ground.

The astronaut is scheduled to return home on a Russian Soyuz later this month and Nasa has said that the plans remain unchanged as it maneuvers the intricacies of diplomacy between the two nuclear-powered nations going all out against each other over Ukraine. Experts are worried that the break-in ties between the US and Russia in space cooperation could push back decades of development.

Vande Hei broke the US single spaceflight record of 340 days will depart from the flying outpost with two Russians aboard a Soyuz capsule for a touchdown in Kazakhstan on March 30. When he returns, he will have successfully logged 355 days in space, setting a new US record. The world record of 438 continuous days in space belongs to Russia.

NEW RUSSIAN LAW AIMS TO PUT FOREIGN PLANES TO DOMESTIC USE

Russian President Putin has implemented a new law making it harder for foreign aircraft leasing companies to repossess their planes as Western sanctions begin to take effect.

The new law will allow foreign jets to be registered in Russia "to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of activities in the field of civil aviation". Critics say it will allow Russia to seize privately-owned planes and put them to domestic use in the vast country.

Russian airlines have 515 jets leased from abroad worth about $10bn (£7.7bn).

Foreign owners have until 28 March to get them back from Russian companies before sanctions kick in.

But, as BBC Business Correspondent Theo Leggett explains, it's one thing to steal aircraft, it's quite another to keep them operating for any length of time.

If Russia does go ahead and seize foreign owned planes, it will immediately struggle to maintain them.

PUTIN ALLOWS ONLINE VOTING AT ELECTIONS ACROSS RUSSIA

An online voting system that was criticised by some defeated candidates at parliamentary elections last year will be rolled out for use across Russia after President Vladimir Putin signed electronic voting procedures into law on Monday.

A coalition of defeated parliamentary candidates in Moscow claimed they were cheated of victory in a parliamentary election last September by the system and sought to try to overturn the results via lawsuits and public pressure.

Then only used in some regions, the system can now be used at elections and referendums across Russia at a national and regional level, after an online government portal showed Putin had signed the law, which had already passed through parliament.

CHERNOBYL LOSES POWER AGAIN, OPERATOR SAYS LINK DAMAGED BY ‘OCCUPIERS’

A high-voltage power line to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant was damaged by Russian forces not long after electricity supplies were restored to the facility, grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement on Monday.

The grid operator said the line was damaged again "before the power supply was fully restored" and that one of its repair crews will be going into "occupied territory" again for more repairs.

The operator added that Chernobyl "cannot be left without a reliable energy supply" and the residents of the nearby town of Slavutych "depend" on it for electricity.

ELON MUSK CHALLENGES PUTIN TO FIGHT

Put up your dukes, Vlad. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, on Monday challenged Russian President Putin to a fight, with nothing less than the fate of Ukraine, scene of Moscow’s brutal invasion, at stake. The eccentric billionaire and founder of aerospace company SpaceX took to Twitter, where his messages are notoriously erratic, to see whether the Russian leader would test his mettle in person rather than through his country’s forces fighting across the border. “I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine,” said Musk. “Do you accept this fight?” he added in Russian, directly addressing the official English-language Twitter account of the 69-year-old president. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.

IRAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEADS TO MOSCOW FOR NUCLEAR TALKS

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will head to Moscow on Tuesday, his Ministry said, days after negotiations to salvage the Iran nuclear deal stalled amid new Russian demands.

“Russia has made its official demands loud and clear, and this needs to be discussed among all parties to the 2015 agreement, like all the demands that have been presented by other parties,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

More than 10 months of talks in Vienna have brought major powers close to renewing the landmark 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on regulating Iran’s nuclear programme. But the negotiations were halted after Russia on March 5 demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.

The U.S. then put the ball in Iran and Russia’s courts.

“We are confident that we can achieve mutual return to compliance... (if) those decisions are made in places like Tehran and Moscow,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed as “irrelevant” the Russian demands for guarantees, saying that they “just are not in any way linked together”.

But on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman repeated Tehran’s position that the move had to come from the US.

“The remaining issues and points between us and the United States need political decisions in Washington,” Mr. Khatibzadeh said.

“If they (the U.S.) announce that they have made a decision, then all the delegations can return to Vienna” to finalise a deal, he said, adding that for now “we are not at the point of announcing the agreement”.

GERMANY TO BUY DOZENS OF U.S.-MADE FIGHTER JETS

Germany on Monday unveiled plans to buy 35 U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets, as part of a multi-billion-euro push to modernise its armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Berlin also intends to buy an additional 15 Eurofighter jets.

UK TOP COURT REJECTS ASSANGE APPEAL TO STOP EXTRADITION TO US

Britain’s top court on Monday refused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange permission to appeal against a decision to extradite him to the US to face spying charges. The court said it refused because the case “didn’t raise an arguable point of law”. Assange has sought for years to avoid a trial in the US on a series of charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of a huge trove of classified documents more than a decade ago. In December, the high court in London overturned alower court’s ruling that he should not be extradited. Monday’s news narrows Assange’s options, but his defence team may still seek to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.