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Rosbalt continues to talk about the events that followed after statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin about the start of a special operation in the Donbass and in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the LPR and DPR. On demand Roskomnadzor media should use data on its course only from official Russian sources. With information about events that took place March 17can be found here.
00:06 Russia is requesting an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on March 18, the topic of which will be the US biological laboratories in Ukraine, which the Russian Ministry of Defense previously reported.
00:30 The Czech Republic will not deploy on its territory part of the German military personnel who will be part of the NATO unit in Slovakia, the CTK news agency reported with reference to the country’s Minister of Defense Yana Chernokhova.
00:34 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared the inadmissibility of insults and attacks on Russians. “It is completely unacceptable when people from Russia are insulted, called names or subjected to physical attacks,” he wrote on his official social media account.
00:48 Washington promptly transfers intelligence to Kiev, which is used against the Russian Armed Forces involved in the special operation in Ukraine, confirmed the US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Ronald Maltry.
00:52 Washington is discussing with Kiev the possibility of providing it with security guarantees, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a regular briefing for journalists, stressing that the decision whether Ukraine will seek NATO membership is up to President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainians.
01.13. The authorities of the Netherlands have frozen Russian assets worth more than 200 million euros (about $220 million) due to sanctions related to the situation in Ukraine, Reuters reports citing the head of the Central Bank of the Netherlands, Klaas Knot.
02:21. The Romanian tax administration has frozen the bank accounts of the Romanian representative office of the Russian company Aeroflot.
02:34. S&P downgraded Russia’s credit rating to CC, citing the fact that investors did not receive a US dollar coupon on March 16 on Russian government Eurobonds. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Finance reported that it had fulfilled the payment order.
03:20. The oldest US bank Bank of New York Mellon has suspended investments in Russian securities due to the situation in Ukraine.
04:02. The consequences of the current crisis in Ukraine will affect the entire global economy, including slower growth and higher inflation, as well as trade disruptions, according to the heads of the IMF, WB, EBRD and other financial institutions.
04:44. Japan and Australia are imposing new sanctions against individuals and companies from the Russian Federation in connection with the situation in Ukraine. Under the restrictive measures of Japan will fall, in particular, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova and Rosoboronexport, Australian restrictions will affect Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg and 11 Russian banks.
05:40. European politicians have asked the Nobel Prize committee to extend the deadline for nominating candidates until March 31 “in light of historic and unprecedented events” to nominate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
06:00. The American electronic payment system PayPal has temporarily expanded the range of services provided in Ukraine, the company said in a statement released on Thursday. The company left Russia, giving the Russians time to withdraw funds from wallets until March 18.
07:09. A telephone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will begin today at 4:00 pm Moscow time. Earlier, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Biden during this conversation will tell the Chinese leadership that Washington will retaliate if Beijing supports Moscow in its actions in Ukraine.
07:19. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in his video message distributed on Telegram, said that he intends to continue speaking to the parliaments of the partner states. In recent days, Zelensky addressed members of the US Congress and the German Bundestag. Moreover, if he thanked the Americans for their support, he “criticized” the Germans, encouraging them to step up support for Ukraine.
07:27. The Russian Embassy in the United States demanded that Washington quickly disclose information about military biological activity in laboratories in Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports. “What kind of peaceful research are we talking about if the Pentagon is behind all the work,” the statement said. It also claims that the Russian Federation knows for certain that Ukrainian radical groups under the control of US intelligence agencies were preparing to use toxic chemicals against civilians.
07:38. As of today, Estonia has eased border crossing rules for Ukrainian refugees related to measures to combat the spread of coronavirus. Now, when entering Estonia, it will not be necessary to present a “covid certificate” for citizens of third countries leaving Ukraine. For Ukrainians, such an exception has been in effect since March 1.
07:48. Over the past day, the Ukrainian military shelled five settlements in the zone of responsibility of the LPR. This was stated by the representative office of the republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime, according to the LIC. It is reported that the ferroalloy plant in Stakhanov, houses and infrastructure in Pervomaisk, Zolote-5 and the urban-type settlement of Kalinovo were damaged.
07:57. In Crimea, they rejected the accusation of the State Ecological Inspectorate of Ukraine of “stealing” water entering the peninsula through the North Crimean Canal unblocked as a result of a special operation, RIA Novosti reports. As Yefim Fiks, Vice Speaker of the Crimean Parliament, noted, the Dnieper originates on the territory of the Russian Federation, so we can say that Ukraine is “stealing water” from Russia.
08:07. The World Bank will allocate almost $100 million to Ukraine to support the higher education system, the bank said in a statement. This will make it possible to pay academic scholarships for 172,000 students and social scholarships for 50,000 students in the 2021-2022 academic year.
08:21. American film director Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress and artist Kate Capshaw donated $1 million as humanitarian aid to the needs of refugees from Ukraine. This was reported by Variety.
08:36. Explosions thundered in Lviv around 6:30 (7:30 Moscow time), a fire can be seen on the outskirts of the city. Information about the causes of explosions, destruction and injuries is not yet available. This was reported by UNIAN in the Telegram channel.
08:44. Four civilians were killed this morning in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk as a result of shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, DAN reported, citing the DPR representative office in the JCCC. According to this information, the shelling took place at 7:30 am, and two 120 mm mines were fired at the city.
08:54. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to meet with Vladimir Putin “even today”. This was stated by the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Kuleba, UNIAN reports. According to him, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia cannot resolve a number of issues on their own. “Therefore, just a different logic would be useful now. That is, we met, agreed on key parameters, the negotiators sat down and polished everything,” Kuleba said.
09:08. The Federal Air Transport Agency has extended restrictions at a number of airports in southern and central Russia until March 26, RIA Novosti reports.
09:17. The flow of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Moldova is declining. At the same time, cases of returning citizens of Ukraine to their homeland are already being recorded. This was announced yesterday at a briefing by the head of the Border Police of Moldova, Rosian Vasiloi. According to him, 12.5 thousand people out of 351 thousand who entered returned to Ukraine, 247 thousand went to Romania, 104 thousand are in the territory of the republic.
09:37. The number of refugees who arrived in Russia from the DPR, LPR and Ukraine has now exceeded 300 thousand, having increased by 15.7 thousand in a day, TASS reports, citing information in law enforcement agencies.
It is noted that almost 40 thousand people arrived from the territory of Ukraine.
09:42. Russia has probably already created a no-fly zone over the Donbass. This was stated by the official representative of the People’s Militia of the DPR, Eduard Basurin, on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel. He also noted that the DPR does not need to transfer air defense systems, it is enough that Russia itself controls the sky over the republics.
10:01. The Estonian authorities will open a meeting center for Ukrainian refugees in Pärnu next Monday, Delfi reports. Previously, it was planned to open such a center on the border with Latvia, however, given the number of arrivals, it was decided to move it to Pärnu, where it is easier to create the necessary conditions for refugees, including premises for work and recreation.
10:15. Over the past day (from 08:00 on March 17 to 08:00 on March 18), the authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic evacuated 425 people, including 95 children, from Mariupol to Bezymennoe, Novoazovsky district. This was reported in the Telegram channel of the Headquarters of the Territorial Defense of the DPR.
10:25 am. The reason for the morning explosions in Lviv was explained on the air of the program “Time Will Show” on Channel 1. According to the host, the aircraft repair plant was hit by missiles. There were no attacks on “peaceful” objects. According to Ukrainian sources, there were no casualties.
10:34. LPR troops, with fire support from the RF Armed Forces, liberated more than 90% of the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, TASS reports. According to him, six Ukrainian UAVs, including one Bayraktar TB-2, were shot down overnight by aviation and air defense systems of the Russian Aerospace Forces, and over the past day, Russian aviation also hit 81 military targets of Ukraine.
10:45. All four killed in the attack on the residential area Tekstilshchik in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk are women, DAN reports. Over the past 24 hours (the death of four people was not included in these statistics), 18 civilians were injured as a result of shelling in 11 settlements of the DPR.
10:57. Ukrainian singer Igor Levchenko was arrested in the Moscow region for inciting violence against Russian military personnel.
11:09 Washington’s attempts to put pressure on China over Ukraine are irresponsible, useless and will not be able to change the position of the country’s leadership, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
11:14 The EU is considering refusing to purchase energy resources from Russia in case the conflict over Ukraine drags on, reports the Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing diplomatic sources – TASS.
Source: Rosbalt
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