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WAR IN UKRAINE

Developments
AGENCIES
NEGOTIATIONS ON
After days of cautious optimism about peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Zelensky reiterates his demands: an end to the war, security guarantees and a return to sovereignty and territorial integrity. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would announce progress when there was progress to report.
BIDEN TO SPEAK WITH XI
US President Joe Biden will speak today with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about issues including Russia’s war in Ukraine, the White House said. China is under intense diplomatic pressure from the United States and its European allies to pull its lifeline from an isolated Russia. But three weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has shown few signs of abandoning its friends in the Kremlin.
RUSSIA THREATENS US, TRAITORS
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev yesterday warned the United States that Moscow had the might to put the world’s pre-eminent superpower in its place and accused the West of stoking a wild Russophobic plot to tear Russia apart. The Kremlin said that many people in Russia were showing themselves to be “traitors” and pointed to those who were resigning from their jobs and leaving the country.
PUTIN ‘WAR CRIMINAL’
President Joe Biden brands Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time. The Kremlin quickly punches back, calling the comment “unacceptable and unforgivable”.
MARIUPOL SHELTER BOMBED
Authorities in the besieged port city of Mariupol say Russian forces bombed a theatre where “hundreds” of civilians were taking shelter and share a photo showing the middle part of the building completely destroyed. The pavement outside the building was clearly marked “children” according to aerial photos. No death toll has yet been given.
NEW ‘WALL’ IN EUROPE
A day after pleading with the US Congress to send more help to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses Germany’s parliament by video link. He warns that Russia is building a new “wall” in Europe and calls on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to tear it down, echoing US President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War appeal to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
GLOBAL GROWTH HIT
The fallout from the war in Ukraine could cut global growth by over one percentage point over the coming year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says.
NO DEBT DEFAULT
Russia’s finance ministry says it has carried out interest payments on two foreign bonds, quashing fears of a debt default as the country reels from unprecedented Western sanctions. Putin says the West’s “economic blitzkrieg” against Moscow has failed, but admits the situation is “not easy” for Russians and announces an increase in all social payments.
PUTIN DOUBLES DOWN
Putin repeats claims that the “pro-Nazi Kyiv regime” is carrying out “genocide” and trying to obtain “weapons of mass destruction”, including developing “military biological programmes” with the “financial support of the Pentagon.”
RUSSIA BLOCKS BBC
Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor on Wednesday blocked access to the BBC’s main news website, with Moscow’s foreign ministry warning of more retaliatory measures against the media. The website of the BBC’s Russian service was also blocked. The service posted a video instructing Russians how to keep accessing the media via a VPN and on apps.