Finance
A Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile hit Russia’s lead warship on Thursday, and hours later it sank in the Blank Sea, Kyiv has said, in the latest flare-up between the two countries as the war enters the 51st day. The Moskva, which was leading the Russian naval assault, had 500 crew members aboard and all of them were evacuated as it caught fire. “In the stormy sea conditions, the ship sank,” the Russian defence ministry was quoted as saying by the AP news agency. The United States has called the update a “big blow” to Russia, adding that it was not yet sure if the warship was indeed hit by a missile.
Here are ten latest updates on the Ukriane war:
1. Joe Biden has said he “is ready to go” to the war-hit country, Ukrainian media outlet, the Kyiv Independent, reported, citing a US reporter. Reports on Wednesday said that Washington was preparing to send its “top officials” to the country where Moscow launched an offensive on February 24 and has continued its attacks six weeks later.
2. Loud explosions and air raid sirens kept the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, awake, according to news agency Reuters. Explosions were also heard in the southern city of Kherson, the eastern city of Kharkiv and in western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
3. Envoys of the United States and Russia clashed at the UN over the rising foods prices. Yemen was the worst-hit by wheat price rise and lack of imports from Ukraine, US’s Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a U.N. Security Council meeting. To this, Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky shot back saying, according to AP, “If you really want to help the world avoid a food crisis you should lift the sanctions that you yourselves imposed, your sanctions of choice indeed, and poor countries will immediately feel the difference.”
4. About 5 million people have so far fled the Ukraine war, the UN said on Thursday, according to reports, sparking fresh concerns over the refugee crisis in the country.
5. The latest setbacks could lead Russian president Vladimir Putin to resort to a nuclear weapon, according to US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons,” CIA director William Burns was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
6. A Russian ally has warned, as per multiple reports, the NATO that if Sweden and Finland joined the U.S.-led military alliance then Russia would deploy nuclear weapons
7. The Ukriane has been unfolding new horrors of war crimes every day it seems. “We are finding terrible things: buried and hidden bodies of people who were tortured and shot, and who died as a result of mortar and artillery fire,” said Andriy Nyebytov, head of Kyiv region police, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
8. About 19,800 security personnel from Russia have died in the seven weeks of war, according to Kyiv.
9. In the latest intel updates, the UK’s ministry of defence tweeted: “The combination of widespread missile and artillery strikes and efforts to concentrate forces for an offensive represents a reversion to traditional Russian military doctrine.”
10. After the Kremlin’s failed attempt to get Kyiv, the war is now focused in the eastern region.
