RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: TOP UPDATES

One month into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, shelling rocked the capital city again on Wednesday with rockets slamming into a shopping mall and high-rise buildings as the outnumbered Ukrainian military waged intense battles to defend the capital and other key cities from falling under Russian control.

- Russian forces have bombed the ancient city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, destroying a bridge that had been critical for evacuations and aid deliveries, the governor said Wednesday. Russian forces have wreaked destruction on cities throughout Ukraine over the past four weeks. Russian forces also bombed Chernihiv in northern Ukraine destroying a bridge that had been critical for evacuations and aid deliveries, governor said.

- Almost 100,000 people are trapped by Russian bombardment and facing starvation in the ruins of Mariupol, Ukraine’s leader said, as Moscow accused Washington of undermining peace talks.

- NATO estimated Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war started on Feb 24.

- US President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for a series of summit meetings on the war while NATO's chief said the alliance was bolstering battle groups in Eastern Europe.

- “On March 23, Russia's ministry of foreign affairs gave the embassy a list of diplomats declared ‘persona non grata’ from Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs on March 23,” a State Department spokesperson said, confirming the development.

- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges global protests against Russia - "From March 24, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom & life, come to your squares, to your streets, make yourselves visible & heard," Zelenskyy said in a video address.

- UK to send 6,000 missiles to Ukraine to fight against Russian invasion

Britain will provide Ukraine with about 6,000 new defensive missiles and almost 30 million pounds ($40 million) to support the fight against Russian aggression.

- Biden arrives in Europe for war summits, NATO bolsters troop presence near Ukraine

US President Joe Biden arrived in Brussels for a series of summit meetings on the war while NATO's chief said the alliance was bolstering battle groups in Eastern Europe.

- Oil extended gains as investors weighed threats to supplies from the war in Ukraine, with President Joe Biden set to address the crisis on a trip to Brussels that may see more sanctions on Russia, Bloomberg reported. Global benchmark Brent advanced above $123 a barrel, after rallying more than 5% on Wednesday as U.S. stockpiles dropped and a Black Sea export terminal halted loadings following bad weather.

 - Pay for gas in roubles, Putin tells Europe: President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Russia will accept payments only in roubles for gas deliveries to “unfriendly countries”, which include all EU members, after Moscow was hit by unprecedented sanctions over Ukraine.

Immediately after his announcement, the rouble — which has plummeted since the start of the Ukraine conflict — strengthened against the dollar and euro, while gas prices rose.

 - India abstained in the UN Security Council on a vote on a draft resolution by Russia on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine on Wednesday. Russia had called for a vote on its draft resolution that “demands a negotiated ceasefire for enabling safe, rapid evacuation of civilians, and underscores the need for the parties concerned to agree on humanitarian pauses to this end." Russia and China voted in favour of the resolution while India was among 13 countries who abstained.

- Poland on Wednesday said it had expelled 45 Russian diplomats for espionage, an allegation immediately dismissed as baseless by Russia’s Ambassador to Poland. Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski made the announcement on Twitter.

- Putin adviser quits over Ukraine war: Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais has stepped down and left the country, citing his opposition to President Putin’s war in Ukraine, as per two people familiar with the matter, becoming the highest-level official to break with the Kremlin over the invasion. Chubaisis one of the few 1990s-era economic reformers who’d remained in Putin’s government and had maintained close ties with Western officials.

CHINA: RUSSIA CAN’T BE OUSTED FROM G20

Russian President Vladimir Putin received valuable backing from Beijing on Wednesday in a pushback to suggestions by some members that Russia could be barred from the G20 group.

The U.S. and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources told Reuters.

But any move to exclude Russia would probably be vetoed by others in the group, raising the prospect of some countries instead skipping G20 meetings, the sources said.

China, which has not condemned Russia’s invasion, defended Moscow, calling Russia an “important member” of the G20.

The G20 is a group that needs to find answers to critical issues, such as economic recovery from the pandemic, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. “No member has the right to remove another country as a member.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, “It’s clear that the Americans will continue to apply pressure on different (G20) countries but as we see, a number of States prefer to adhere to their independent, sovereign points of view.” “We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had said.

‘IMRAN KHAN DELIBERATELY DELAYED EXTENSION OF ARMY CHIEF’S TENURE’

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had deliberately delayed the extension of Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure in 2019 — to make the process ‘controversial’, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif claimed on Wednesday.

He also said that while his party the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) always respected the military, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) led by Prime Minister Khan was behind a social media campaign targeting the armed forces, Dawn News reported.

Mr. Sharif’s comments came at a time when Mr. Khan is facing his toughest political test since assuming office in 2018 as a no-confidence motion has been introduced by the Opposition parties against his government. The National Assembly will convene on Friday to take up the no-trust motion against Mr. Khan.

Mr. Sharif, who is the president of PML-N and younger brother of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, recalled that when Prime Minister Khan tried to extend the Army chief’s tenure in 2019, the notification had to be re-drafted thrice.

While Mr. Sharif admitted he had no solid proof to back up his claims, it was his considered opinion that Mr. Khan had intentionally tried to make the process of extension ‘controversial’, it said.

WON’T RESIGN, SAYS IMRAN, CLAIMS HE HAS ‘SURPRISE’ IN STORE FOR OPPN

Islamabad : Pakistan PM Imran Khan on Wednesday said he will not resign at any cost and claimed to have a “surprise” up his sleeve for the opposition, even as at least three allies of the ruling coalitio n have indicated to vote against his government during a notrust motion which would come up for discussion in parliament later this month.

“I will not resign. . . I will play till the last ball and I will surprise them (opposition) a day before as they are still under pressure,” PM Khan said. “No one should be under the false impression that I’ll sit at home. I will not resign Should I resign due to the pressure from thieves?” he said while referring to the opposition’s notrust vote against him. Meanwhile, at least three allies, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim s League-Quaid and Balochistan Awami Party ) with their 17 members have indicated to join the opposition, Geo News reported.

BLACK BOX OF CRASHED CHINESE PLANE FOUND

One of the two black boxes of the crashed China Eastern Airlines plane was found on Wednesday in a “severely damaged” condition by rescuers combing the site in vast forest mountainous area in southern China, amid fears that none of the 132 persons on board survived.

Two days on, distressing videos have emerged showing the Boeing 737-800 on a domestic flight nose-dived into the mountains on Monday crashing with an explosion leaving its debris in a vast forested area, making rescue efforts difficult.

A black box, which officials said is believed to be the cockpit recorder of the crashed passenger plane, was recovered by rescuers on Wednesday. Mao Yanfeng, head of the aviation accident investigation centre of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told the media that the black box was “severely damaged”.

TALIBAN SHUT AFGHAN GIRLS SCHOOLS AFTER REOPENING

The Taliban ordered girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut on Wednesday just hours after they reopened, sparking heartbreak and confusion over the sudden policy reversal.

The U-turn was announced after thousands of girls resumed lessons for the first time since August, when the Taliban seized control of the country and imposed harsh restrictions on women.

The Education Ministry offered no coherent explanation even as officials held a ceremony in the capital to mark the start of the academic year. “In Afghanistan, especially in the villages, the mindsets are not ready,” spokesman Aziz Ahmad Rayan told reporters.

“We have some cultural restrictions... but the main spokesmen of the Islamic Emirate will offer better clarifications.”

A Taliban source said the decision came after a meeting late Tuesday by senior officials in Kandahar, the movement’s conservative spiritual heartland.

AMERICAN MATHEMATICIAN SULLIVAN WINS ABEL PRIZE

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel prize for the year 2022 to American Mathematician Dennis Parnell Sullivan, who is with the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The citation mentions that the award has been given, “For his groundbreaking contributions to topology in its broadest sense, and in particular its algebraic, geometric and dynamical aspects”.

“Dennis P. Sullivan has repeatedly changed the landscape of topology by introducing new concepts, proving landmark theorems, answering old conjectures and formulating new problems that have driven the field forwards,” says Hans Munthe-Kaas, chair of the Abel Committee, in a press release given by the Academy.

The release further says that Prof. Sullivan has found deep connections between a variety of areas of mathematics. One of his key breakthroughs is in developing a new way of understanding rational homotopy theory.