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Russia's President Vladimir Putin says his country will continue its yearlong "special military operation" in Ukraine, and he accused the US-led NATO alliance of fanning the flames.
Russia-Ukraine conflict would have cost world economy $1.6 trillion in 2022, according to a study published by the German Economic Institute.
KIEV - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday he has arrived in Ukraine.
"I have arrived in Ukraine after visiting Moscow," Guterres tweeted.
He said the UN will continue the work to expand humanitarian support and secure the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, and he urged the end of hostilities.
"The sooner this war ends, the better -- for the sake of Ukraine, Russia, and the world," the UN chief said.
On April 26, Guterres visited Moscow and held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Perhaps this notion of a wayward devotion borne of inner conflict unresolved within man and nation has never rung so true as in times as these, where once again we have been made witness to the destructive tendency of humanity when the love of power overshadows the power of love.
The Ukraine situation, that leading to it, the attraction for devastation that renders us captive to such cycles — such predictable patterns of behavior — being just the latest. It is not the first nor sadly the last; it's merely the most recent manifestation of the lower will of mankind over the greater will of all kind.
What draws humanity toward such calamity upon the road to modernity? And by modernity I speak of raising consciousness above our seeming tendency to cycle back upon lessons taught, less so learned. For it appears we are entrapped at times within the limitations of a mind that would best serve as a liberator.
That is, if it were aligned with the wisdom of the heart, one earned through trials, tribulations, sacrifices littered throughout human history like ashes upon an earth scorched and scorned, ashes human by actions less than.
We speak of peace, of lasting peace. Yet what should be intuitive to all these days, if not those before, is the seeming absolute, borne-of-choice resolution through outward expression of our aggression: Nations in romance with war will never find peace.
For as with love, peace is derived from within, summoned from an inner knowing of a greater yearning — a yearning for the sound of silence vibrating through the absence of noise that serves as disorder to the order of things, a rhetoric replaced by simply being more than words made empty by actions that speak loudly albeit unwisely.
For what wisdom may mankind find in taking the power of creation granted and using it as a means destructive? There can be no wisdom found in war.
With history our teacher, we see the altering of everything of meaning in this material world by the sheer will of one or a few to force themselves upon another, an unwilling bedfellow for those self-righteous in their pursuits.
We can speak to the many actors and their actions. Rather, I would search for inspiration from countries, peoples with millennia of history, storied more in acts of non-hostility.
I speak of countries such as China, those defined more through an inherent propensity for peace than in the disinheritance of soul through something less than peaceful. Absent much their history is the nature of aggression that constricts.
We are being tested as humanity in this moment, our time together. Ukraine is just the current stage, with actors too common, their roles too familiar. If this reference appears vague, it is by design.
Too many for too long have played the benevolent, professing to be a character of goodness when actions speak both louder and in counter. They spin tales with words that matter but it's actions that matter more. They serve as mere pretender of the very peace claimed as a purveyor.
In the world, we find nations seeded in the forms of aggression, throughout society, violent their tendency, with decorum no longer given due forum. It is dangerous for all when one has grown accustomed to such, appearing at times to revel in it as some wayward show of strength, of bravado.
Juxtapose this with a nation 5,000 years in the making, one that has managed a greater wisdom through experience in choosing more often peace over demonstrations of force. Understanding peace may only be achieved when one comes to terms with what peace really is: the cessation of againstness.
It is elusive until we may allude to matters above those of merely the material mind, into the immaterial truth, directly so and with a level of impeccability, ruthlessness worthy only in such higher pursuit.
Those seeking peace are warriors less so of the battlefield than of a higher playing field, one "out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing", as a revered master of Persian poetic voice once purposed. They hear the echoed voice of collective wisdom espoused by masters prior, those of cultures, peoples, lands familiar and less so. They all are speaking one central truth: When love leads the way, the steps will be made easy. Harder is the journey when we choose otherwise something less than wise.
Nations in romance with war will never find peace. This is true. But those in romance with what may be through that which is loving in all its varied expression, they will know someday of a greater truth, a greater peace still: one awaiting the awakening to a new and better way, in fulfillment of a promise made, a yearning for meaning. It is a knowing … of the one thing we came here to know.
The author is the founder and managing director of The Transcendent Group Ltd and former managing director of The HEAD Foundation.
Lavrov warns military support for Ukraine carries 'considerable' risk
Russia has claimed Western nations' support of Ukraine because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict amounts to NATO fighting a proxy war against it.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state media the West's provision of military equipment to Ukraine as part of that support is something that carries "considerable" risk.
"NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy," he said. "War means war."
He also said there is now a very real risk that the conflict could escalate into a nuclear war.
"I would not want to elevate those risks artificially," he said. "Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it."
Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Moscow's suggestion that the West's support of Kyiv could trigger a nuclear war was Russia's "last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine".
Sky News reported on Tuesday the United Kingdom's armed forces minister, James Heappey, responded to Lavrov's claims by insisting NATO is not donating arms to Ukraine, but that individual nations are choosing to do so.
The row flared ahead of a gathering of Western defense ministers in Germany on Tuesday, for talks organized by the United States and hosted by its defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. The session was aimed at finding ways in which Western nations can increase their useful support for Kyiv.
The gathering, at the Ramstein airbase southwest of Frankfurt, was believed to have been attended by representatives from 40 nations, as well as NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
The UK's defense minister, Ben Wallace, told lawmakers in London on Monday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has not been going well for Moscow, which he said has lost around 15,000 combatants since its military entered Ukraine on Feb 24.
Wallace said UK intelligence specialists believe Russia has also lost around 2,000 armored vehicles, 530 tanks, and at least 60 helicopters and jets.
Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, traveled to Russia on Tuesday to lobby Moscow to allow the 100,000 civilians trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to leave with their lives.
Guterres said as he arrived that everything possible must be done to end the conflict and that he will work on creating the right conditions for progress.
"We are extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution," he said.
WARSAW/SOFIA - Russia is to halt natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday, according to energy companies and authorities.
Poland's state oil and gas company PGNiG said on Tuesday that Russia's energy corporation Gazprom will suspend its gas supplies to Poland from Wednesday evening.
"PGNiG has received a letter from Gazprom announcing the complete suspension of supplies under the Yamal contract," PGNiG said in a statement.
PGNiG also ensured the customers that gas supplies to Poland are secured as it has pipeline connections with neighboring countries and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northwest of the country, according to the statement.
The reason given by Gazprom is PGNiG's rejection of the payment in rubles, according to the Polish Press Agency.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed the notice from Gazprom to suspend gas supplies, and said Poland is energy safe.
Russia, which currently covers almost all of Bulgaria's gas needs, will also suspend gas supplies to the Balkan country as of Wednesday, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said on Tuesday evening.
Russia had informed Bulgaria about this earlier on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
Bulgarian authorities have taken steps to make alternative arrangements for the supply of natural gas and to deal with the situation. At present, no restrictive measures are required for gas consumption in Bulgaria, it added.
MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday agreed on the need to continue the negotiation process and seek a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis.
"We stand in favor of a negotiated solution," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Guterres after their talks in Moscow, noting that Russia agreed to begin negotiations in early March immediately after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had proposed.
Lavrov expressed "disappointment" with the Ukrainian side's attitude towards the peace talks, saying that "apparently, they are not particularly interested in these negotiations."
He urged Kyiv to quickly respond to Russia's proposals, and warned that the negotiations will yield no results if the West continues to provide weapons to Ukraine.
"I came to Moscow as a messenger of peace. My objective and my agenda are strictly linked to saving lives and reducing suffering," Guterres said, calling his discussions with Lavrov "very frank".
"It is my deep conviction that the sooner we end this war the better for the people of Ukraine, for the people of Russia, and for those far beyond," he added.
India and the United Kingdom have called for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine-Russia conflict with more dialogue, and expect closer business and defense trade cooperation after a visit by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he and Johnson discussed the situation in Ukraine during a meeting in New Delhi and underscored the importance of diplomacy and dialogue.
"We're on the side of peace," Modi was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
At the end of Johnson's two-day visit, the two prime ministers set a target for concluding the "majority of talks on a comprehensive and balanced free trade agreement by the end of October", according to a joint statement issued after their talks on April 22.
India welcomed Britain's commitment to investing about $1 billion in climate-related projects between this year and 2026.
Gulshan Sachdeva, professor of European studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said Britain's commitment will strengthen bilateral relations, which could potentially reduce India's share of Russian imports in the future.
Long-term strategy
However, it has to be the United Kingdom's long-term strategy to get India closer to the West and further away from Russia.
At a news briefing on Friday, Johnson said collaboration between the two countries on energy security, including solar and offshore wind power, will help reduce dependence on imported hydrocarbons.
Johnson arrived in India on Thursday against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and domestic heat on him for breaking pandemic control rules during lockdowns he initiated. India has called for a cease-fire in Ukraine, but has abstained from resolutions condemning Russia despite constant pressure from the United States and its Western allies.
Official estimates project that the upcoming free trade deal will double bilateral trade volume by 2030, which the Indian business community widely welcomes.
India has long-standing defense ties to Russia, and up to 60 percent of India's current military equipment was procured from Russia. India is a large consumer of oil, over which 80 percent is imported. Despite warnings from the US last month, state-run Indian Oil Corporation bought 3 million barrels of discounted Russian crude oil.
Sachdeva said India is keen to send a message to the West that India is not to be forced into changing its stand toward Russia, which explains UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss' frustration when she asked India to reduce its strategic dependence on Russia during a visit last month.
Johnson avoided such embarrassment, describing Modi as his khas dost, or special friend, and acknowledging India's "historic relationship "with Russia going back to the 1990s.
"They're not going to change that," Johnson was quoted by The Economic Times as saying. "What Indians want is peace."
In a recent statement, the British High Commission said the UK will issue an open general export license to India, which will streamline licensing rules for exporting defense equipment to India.
Ahead of the prime ministers' meeting, the UK said it will offer India the best of British know-how on building battle-winning aircraft and support the country's goals of acquiring new technology.
The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.
Kyiv - Russian forces seized the building of Kherson city council in southern Ukraine, Ukrinform news agency reported Monday, citing Kherson mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev.
"Tonight, armed men entered the building of the Kherson City Council, took away the keys, and replaced our guards with their own," Kolykhaiev said.
Last week, Ukrainian Defense Ministry's spokesman Olexandr Motuzyanyk said Russia is preparing to hold a "referendum" in the Kherson region on joining Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv would withdraw from peace negotiations with Moscow if Russian forces hold pseudo-referendums in the areas they captured in Ukraine.
UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres continues to push for a halt in hostilities in Ukraine even though a Russian UN envoy said a cease-fire is not a good option at the moment, said a UN spokesman.
"We continue to call for a cease-fire or some sort of pause. The secretary-general did that, as you know, just last week. Clearly, that didn't happen in time for (Orthodox) Easter," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres.
"I don't want to give too many details at this stage of the sort of proposals he will have. I think we're coming at a fairly delicate moment. It's important that he is able to talk clearly with the leadership on both sides and see what progress we can make," he told a daily press briefing.
"Ultimately, the end goal is to have a halt to fighting and to have ways to improve the situation of the people in Ukraine, lessen the threat that they're under, and provide humanitarian aid (to) them. So, those are the goals we're trying, and there are certain ways that we'll try to move those forward," he said.
Guterres was on his way to Moscow from Turkey. He will have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, and will be received by President Vladimir Putin. Guterres then will travel to Ukraine and have a working meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and will be received by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.
Before his trips to Moscow and Kiev, Guterres made a stop-over in Turkey, where he met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the Ukraine issue.
Haq said the secretary-general is making the trips because he thinks there is an opportunity now.
"A lot of diplomacy is about timing, about finding out when is the right time to speak with a person, to travel to a place, to do certain things. And he is going in the anticipation that there is a real opportunity that is now availing itself, and we'll see what we can make of it," he said.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said Monday that now is not the time for a cease-fire.
"We don't think that cease-fire is a good option right now. The only advantage it will present is that it will give Ukrainian forces a possibility to regroup and stage more provocations like the one in Bucha," he told reporters. "It is not up to me to decide, but I do not see any reason in this right now."
Moscow's ambassador tells of threats, with operations at missions hampered
Russia's ambassador to the United States has accused Washington of "blockading" Russian diplomatic missions amid increasingly strained relations between the two countries as the conflict in Ukraine drags on.
The accusation from Ambassador Anatoly Antonov came as the US secretaries of state and defense visited Kyiv, where they pledged more military assistance for Ukraine.
"In effect, the embassy is under a blockade by US government agencies," Antonov told Russian state television on Monday.
Antonov said the Russian embassy has been receiving threatening phone calls and letters and, at one point, staff had been prevented from exiting the premises in Washington.
He said the Bank of America had blocked the accounts of Russia's consulates general in Houston and New York.
Russia and the US have engaged in tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats in recent years, following accusations of interference in the 2016 US presidential election and the tensions surrounding the conflict in Ukraine.
Around 170 diplomats and staff remain at the Russian embassy in Washington, two dozen of whom are expected to depart by late June.
In their visit on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin showed their support for the government in Kyiv, making the first high-level visit by US officials since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine two months ago.
Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky met with the two US officials. "Maybe they can help," Arestovych said. "They wouldn't come here, if they weren't ready to give[weapons]."
During their visit, the two officials said Washington will allocate $713 million in military aid for Ukraine and 15 other European countries, The Associated Press reported. Of that amount, more than $322 million will go to Ukraine while the rest will be divided among the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.
While the details surrounding the visit had been kept under wraps, Zelensky tweeted later on Sunday that the "Ukraine-US friendship and partnership are stronger than ever!"
In response to the visit, Russia warned the US against sending more arms to Ukraine, Moscow's ambassador to Washington told Russian state television.
Weapons pouring in
"We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine, and we demanded an end to this practice," Antonov said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
In developments on the battlefield, Ukrainian officials said the Russian military has unleashed a series of strikes on the country's railways.
The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyy, said a Russian missile hit a railway facility in Krasne, about 40 kilometers east of Lviv, early on Monday. The airstrike sparked a fire.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said five rail facilities in central and western Ukraine had been hit by the Russian strikes. He said the attacks delayed at least 16 passenger trains.
There was no immediate information on the extent of the damage from the strikes.
Earlier on Monday, a fire erupted at a Russian oil depot near the Ukrainian border.
Social media accounts based in Russia's Bryansk region shared footage of what they described as two explosions and a fire at the Transneft-Druzhba depot.
The state-run oil export company's subsidiary runs one of the world's longest oil pipelines, from Russia to Europe.
The Bryansk region was among several border regions to declare an elevated "terror" threat level earlier this month.
Agencies contributed to this story.
ANKARA - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the capital Ankara, before heading to Moscow and Kyiv for talks on resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to Turkey's Presidency.
Guterres stopped by Ankara since Erdogan has long been engaging with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a bid to support efforts for a peace deal.
The UN official will meet Putin and Zelensky on April 26 and 28 respectively, a UN spokesman said Friday.
Guterres will visit Moscow on April 26 and have "a working meeting and lunch" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres.
During his trip to Ukraine, Guterres will also have a working meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and meet with staff of UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian people, Dujarric said.
Turkey has been playing a mediator role to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as Ankara has close ties with both countries.
Previously, Lavrov and Kuleba met in a resort town of Turkey's southern province of Antalya on March 10, for the first high-level talks between Moscow and Kiev since the former launched a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb 24.
The negotiation teams of Russia and Ukraine also had a face-to-face meeting in Istanbul on March 29.
Turkish authorities earlier expressed that Ankara welcomes the proposal of becoming a guarantor country in terms of the security of Ukraine.
ISTANBUL/KIEV -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Sunday discussed the latest developments of the Ukraine crisis over the phone.
According to a statement by the Turkish presidential office, Erdogan said that the evacuation of the wounded and civilians from Ukraine's Mariupol, "where the situation is getting sad(der) each day," must be urgently ensured.
Meanwhile, Zelensky tweeted that he stressed the need for the immediate evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, including Azovstal plant, and an immediate exchange of blocked troops.
The two presidents also addressed issues related to the negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine.
Erdogan said that Turkey has a positive stance on the guarantor issue in principle, and that his country is ready to provide all possible assistance for the negotiation process, the Turkish presidential office said.
Following a fresh round of face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in March, Ukrainian negotiators named several countries, including Turkey, which could act as guarantors.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has clearly chosen to align his country more closely with the United States, the Group of Seven and its European partners.
In its annual foreign policy report, 2022 Diplomatic Bluebook, released on Friday, Japan switched from its previous conciliatory approach toward its decadeslong territorial dispute with Russia to a hard-line stance.
It said the four northern islands off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido are "illegally occupied" by Russia. It was the first time that wording was used since 2003, said Kyodo News.
The bluebook also said the islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, are an "inherent" part of the territory of Japan, a description that had been absent since the 2011 report.
In line with other G7 nations, Japan has imposed tough sanctions on Russia, with the latest move on Wednesday to strip Russia of "most favored nation" trade status.
The Japanese government modified its rules governing military exports in early March, giving Ukraine bulletproof vests, helmets, masks, protective clothing against chemical weapons and even drones.
The New York Times referred to the military aid as "a decisive moment" in Japan's evolution away from the pacifist identity it has embraced since World War II.
Delivering military equipment in two different kinds of transport aircraft to Ukraine, this enabled Japan's Air Self Defense Force to check its long-range delivery capability. The two planes flew more than 8,000 kilometers in what was a drill for both the pilots and aircraft, Han Dong, a Chinese military expert, told the Shanghai-based media outlet The Paper.
One of the aircraft was a C-2 air-lifter developed and manufactured by Kawasaki Aerospace Co. The C-2 has a maximum payload of 37 tons and formally entered service with the JASDF in 2017. The JASDF has 15 C-2 aircraft, according to Han.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has finalized a proposal requesting the government possess a "counteroffensive capability" in response to armed attacks, which Japan's newspaper Mainichi Shimbun said signals "a great shift" in Japan's exclusively defense-oriented policy in the post-war period defined by the nation's pacifist Constitution.
Prime Minister Kishida has maintained his administration will consider securing an enemy base strike capability. He also said "Japan needs to implement a fundamental upgrade of its defense capabilities" and that it was important to "thoroughly enhance defense with a sense of speed".
The Liberal Democratic Party intends to have its proposal reflected in the government's Japan's National Security Strategy slated for revision at the end of the year, Mainichi Shimbun reported.
The ruling party also proposed that Japan increase its defense budget that currently stands at around 1 percent of GDP to at least 2 percent in around five years to be on par with the 2 percent defense spending goal of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Kyodo News said.
"If Japan wields its counteroffensive capabilities as deterrence, it could fuel a military expansion race in the region," Mainichi Shimbun warned in its editorial on Saturday.
An enemy base strike capability requires extensive defense equipment for surveillance and to neutralize the enemy's air defense network and other capabilities, the editorial said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a news conference on March 17 that some political forces in Japan have been using the Ukraine issue as a pretext to deliberately play up external threats and seek stronger military forces and capability.
He called on Japan to deeply reflect on history, draw lessons from the past, respect the security concerns of its Asian neighbors, stay committed to peaceful development, and do more things that benefit regional peace and stability instead of moving in the opposite direction.
Yang Bojiang, director of the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said for Japan's neighbors, the change in the country's national strategy should be watched closely.
Xiang Haoyu, distinguished research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, said the conflicts in some regions are taken by Japan's rightist, conservative elements as new "opportunities" to push forward the process of making Japan a normal country that can scale back the constitutional restrictions on its use of force.
If Japan got rid of the constraints of its pacifist Constitution, it would have a free hand in developing offensive military power based on its strong industrial, scientific and technological strength, Xiang added.
The move would pose serious challenges to the Asia-Pacific region's strategic stability and balance of military power, encouraging an arms race in Japan's neighboring countries.
MOSCOW -- Russia's forces have destroyed a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Ukraine's Odessa, where foreign weapons were stored, said the Russian Defense Ministry.
"This afternoon, high-precision, long-range air-based missiles fired by the Russian Aerospace Forces disabled a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Odessa, where a large batch of foreign weapons received from the US and European countries were stored," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Russia is continuing its special military operation in Ukraine.
The Russian military has destroyed 141 aircraft and 110 helicopters, 264 anti-aircraft missile systems, 541 unmanned aerial vehicles, 2,479 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 278 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,081 field artillery and mortars, and 2,321 special military vehicles.
BEIJING -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on April 26 and 28 respectively, a UN spokesman said Friday.
Guterres will visit Moscow on April 26 and have "a working meeting and lunch" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres.
During his trip to Ukraine, Guterres will also have a working meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and meet with staff of UN agencies to discuss the scaling up of humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian people, Dujarric said.
The UN chief sent separate letters Tuesday afternoon to the permanent missions of Russia and Ukraine to the United Nations, asking Putin to receive him in Moscow and Zelensky to receive him in Kyiv, Dujarric said on Wednesday.
KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday he supports a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Russia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
"There is a diplomatic path. There is a military one," Zelensky told a press conference in Kiev, adding he wants to stop the conflict and put an end to it.
At the same time, he stressed that Kiev would withdraw from peace negotiations with Moscow if Russian forces kill Ukrainians trapped in Mariupol or hold pseudo-referendums in the areas they captured in Ukraine.
VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday its expert mission would travel to Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26 to help ensure the facility's safety.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will head the mission to "deliver vital equipment and conduct radiological and other assessments" at the Chernobyl plant, according to the agency's statement.
The IAEA experts will also repair remote safeguards monitoring systems at the plant, which have not been transmitting data to the agency's headquarters in Vienna since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"The IAEA's presence at Chernobyl will be of paramount importance for our activities to support Ukraine as it seeks to restore regulatory control of the plant and ensure its safe and secure operation," Grossi said, adding that the agency will send more missions to Chernobyl and other nuclear facilities in Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Russian forces had been in control of the Chernobyl plant for five weeks before withdrawing on March 31, according to the IAEA statement.
The Chernobyl plant, some 110 km north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, suffered one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986.
ROME - The eastward expansion of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) toward Russia is a major root cause of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which could take a heavy toll on the European economy, an Italian economist has said.
NATO EXPANSION RED LINE FOR RUSSIA
Michele Geraci, former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that the military alliance's moves have created two main problems for Russia.
"From the Russian point of view, NATO's expansion into eastern Europe is a breach of a promise" made in the 1990s, Geraci said.
"Second, Russia considers this expansion a threat to its territorial integrity and national security, so President (Vladimir) Putin for the last ten years has been saying that this is not acceptable, and that NATO has crossed a red line."
"Every country has its own red lines. For Russia, the red line was having NATO at its borders," he said.
NATO has gone through five rounds of enlargement to the east since 1999, increasing the number of its members from 16 to 30 and reaching the Russian border.
EUROPEANS PAYING HIGH PRICE INSTEAD OF US
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is in a way "a proxy war between Russia and the United States ... which is fought in Europe," he said.
"Now the cost for the United States is minimal. The sanctions are hurting the Europeans ... The incentive for the United States to finish (the conflict) quickly is not really there, because they (the Europeans) are paying the highest price," Geraci noted.
Amid the escalating conflict, the United States has been stoking tensions in the region, shipping weapons into Ukraine and pushing its allies to impose sweeping sanctions against Russia.
"The European Union (EU) has not a red line and a foreign policy -- this puts us in a very weak position," he said.
"Our concerns and interests are in conflict, because we are allies of the US, but the economic interests and even the foreign policy of the EU are not always those of the US"
EUROPE TO BE WEAKER CUTTING OFF TRADE WITH RUSSIA
The Russia-Ukraine conflict could lead to "a weaker Europe because the economy there could take a serious hit."
In the medium and long term, if Europe loses Russia as a trading partner, and they reconcile after the conflict ends, Europe will suffer, he said.
"We are imposing sanctions on energy products thinking that these would hurt the Russian economy. However, they would hurt the EU's economy more," he said, noting that Italy, Germany and a number of smaller countries in eastern Europe will be stranded.
By way of example, he cited EU's ban on the export of luxury goods to Russia, which would "hurt brands like Gucci and Prada."
"We are doing everything wrong," he warned. "We are imposing export bans, which would only hurt us."
In 2021, Russia was the EU's fifth-largest export and third largest import destination, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.
Trade in goods between the EU and Russia totaled 257.5 billion euros ($279.4 billion) in 2021.
"Sanctions never work," Geraci said. "To solve this issue, we have to use diplomacy with Russia. We don't just need to go to Kyiv. We need to go to Moscow."
KYIV -- Ukraine will continue the evacuation of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol on Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Women, children and the elderly will be evacuated from Mariupol to the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine and Russia have reached a preliminary agreement on establishing a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from Mariupol earlier this week.
People are evacuated from Mariupol via buses and private transport.
Ukrainians will be allowed to seek temporary refuge in the United States under a program that the administration of President Joe Biden announced on Thursday.
The "Unite for Ukraine" program will allow individuals and nonprofits in the US to financially support Ukrainian refugees from this coming week. They can apply through an online portal that will be available on the Department of Homeland Security website starting on Monday.
Individual sponsors or nonprofits can offer to temporarily open their homes to newcomers or donate money to help cover temporary housing costs. People can also donate airline miles or purchase needed items for refugees.
Ukrainians who are selected to travel to the US under the initiative will be granted a status called humanitarian parole, allowing them to bypass the visa and refugee programs that typically take years to complete.
Those eligible for the humanitarian parole must have been a resident of Ukraine as of Feb 11. Ukrainians will need to be first identified by their prospective US sponsors, as they will not be able to apply for the program directly, administration officials said.
Background screenings
Sponsors in the US also must undergo background screenings to make sure they are able to support the refugees.
The program does not offer permanent status for Ukrainian refugees. Parole would allow Ukrainians to live and work in the US for two years.
The program is the first US policy aimed at fulfilling Biden's pledge of welcoming up to 100,000 Ukrainians. More than 5 million people are estimated to have fled Ukraine since the conflict began, according to the United Nations.
US Customs and Border Protection reported that it detained more than 5,000 migrants from Ukraine in March, more than four times the 1,150 Ukrainians detained the previous month.
US immigration officials have processed nearly 15,000 undocumented Ukrainians in the past three months, most of them along the Mexican border, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said during a call with reporters on Thursday.
In early March, US officials at border crossings were directed to consider admitting Ukrainians under humanitarian exemptions to the Title 42 pandemic restrictions, which were brought in during the presidency of Donald Trump to expel migrants on the basis of curbing COVID-19 infections.
But the Biden administration said on Thursday that when the new parole program goes live, Ukrainians who present themselves at a border port of entry will be denied entry into the US like other nationalities.
Ukrainians entering the US through the parole program could face legal limbo if they decide to stay permanently in the country because they have no clear path to US residency, just like tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees who were paroled last year after the Taliban took power.
The Biden administration set out to resettle up to 125,000 refugees from across the globe in the 2022 fiscal year.
KYIV -- Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Friday that Kyiv will complete the talks on security guarantees with partner countries within a week, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
"Weapons supplies, closure of the sky, military consultations and means for the rapid purchase of additional weapons are important for us. I think that these issues can be completed within a week," Podolyak said.
On April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy and Turkey showed their willingness to join the creation of a system of security guarantees for Ukraine.
The advisors to the leaders of Poland, Germany, France and Israel reportedly have expressed readiness to discuss a list of security guarantees for Ukraine, the report said.
At the peace talks with Russia in Istanbul, Turkey last month, Kyiv proposed to sign a new international treaty on security guarantees, which enshrines obligations for the guarantor countries to provide Ukraine with military assistance in the event of an attack.
